Top News:
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
NBCU invests $200M in Vox Media, pre-money valuation of $850M; will invest $200M in BuzzFeed — NBCUniversal Buys Big Chunks of Vox Media and BuzzFeed — Last week Re/code reported that NBCUniversal was investing in BuzzFeed and Vox Media. — Now those deals are done, and NBCU and Vox Media are announcing their deal today.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable, Media & Entertainment, Deadline, TechCrunch, NetNewsCheck Latest, @mmasnick, Hollywood Reporter, StreamDaily, Variety, @reckless, @rafat, @bankoff, The Next Web, Fortune, @brianstelter, @alexweprin, @rosslevinsohn, @film_girl, @dangillmor, @dylan20, @fulldradio, @mlcalderone, @mlcalderone, @lock, Business Insider and Vox Media Marketing
J.K. Trotter / Gawker:
Internal documents: BuzzFeed had $46M revenue, $2.7M net profit, and spent $5.8M to boost traffic in the first half of 2014 — Internal Documents Show BuzzFeed's Skyrocketing Investment in Editorial — Late last month, Recode reported that NBCUniversal is preparing to invest $250 million in BuzzFeed …
Discussion:
FishbowlNY, The Wrap, @michaelroston, @mathewi, @gawker, Business Insider, @fmanjoo, @mims, @adamweinstein, @fmanjoo, @thestalwart, @pkafka, @jyarow, @jledbetter, @edmundlee, @abeaujon, @gaberivera, @fmanjoo, @benjilanyado and @chrismsutcliffe
New York Times:
The Defense Department labels combat journalists “unprivileged belligerents” makes their work more dangerous and subject to censorship — The Pentagon's Dangerous Views on the Wartime Press — The Defense Department earlier this summer released a comprehensive manual outlining its interpretation of the law of war.
Zack Guzman / CNBC:
News Corp beats Q4 expectations with earnings of $0.07/share, misses on revenue with $2.14B — News Corp earnings: 7 cents per share, vs expected EPS of 5 cents — This is breaking news. Please check back for updates. — News Corp. delivered quarterly earnings that topped analysts' expectations …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Bloomberg Business, @amir, News Corp and Talking Biz News
Knight Foundation:
CALmatters, a nonprofit covering California state government, gets $250K in matching funds from Knight Foundation — New journalism venture CALmatters will expand California political coverage with Knight Foundation support — CALmatters, a new public-interest journalism venture …
Discussion:
@franklomonte and @knightfdn
Peter Sterne / Politico:
Invite-only link-sharing service This. raises $610K after spinning off from Atlantic Media — Now spun off from Atlantic Media, ‘This.’ raises $610,000 — Link-sharing service “This.” announced Tuesday that it has raised $610,000 in seed funding from a handful of angel investors …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Nieman Lab, @petersterne, Fortune and Medium
Joe Pompeo / Politico:
Tribune Publishing doing ‘top to bottom’ digital review — Tribune Publishing has initiated a “top to bottom” review of its digital business as it continues to struggle with revenue declines one year after it was spun off into its own publicly traded company.
Discussion:
Chicago Tribune, bizjournals, Business Wire, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Hollywood Reporter
Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:
Cory Bergman of NBC's Breaking News talks about how the app uses news alerts — Push it: How Breaking News notifies users of news stories before they become big — Editor's note: This is the second in a series of stories on how news organizations manage their mobile news alerts.
Rob Price / Business Insider:
UK police report 73% decrease in top ad spending on piracy sites — Most big piracy sites don't charge their users a fee, but are still able to profit off of copyright infringement. Why? Because the operators plaster their pages in advertising. — But British police now say they are …
Discussion:
Music Business Worldwide, Guardian, Ad Age, Music Week and Plagiarism Today
Henry Mance / Financial Times:
Pearson sells 50% stake in Economist Group for £469M; Exor becomes largest single shareholder with 43% stake — Pearson sells 50% stake in Economist Group for £469m — Pearson has agreed to sell its 50 per cent stake in the publisher of the Economist magazine for £469m in cash …
Discussion:
Economist, Economist Group, New York Times, Guardian, Press Gazette, Globe and Mail, BBC, RTÉ, Bloomberg Business, Sky News, International Business Times, City A.M., International Business Times, Agence France-Presse, Independent.ie, Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, Telegraph and Variety
Derrik J. Lang / Associated Press:
Activist news organization Ryot releases virtual reality short film from within Aleppo town center in Syria — With virtual reality, a 360-degree view inside Syria — 3 photos — LOS ANGELES (AP) — The latest frontier in virtual reality could be closer to reality than fantasy.
Discussion:
@apentertainment, @ryotnews and RYOT News
Society of Professional Journalists:
More than 50 journalism groups again urge President Obama to stop excessive controls on public information — INDIANAPOLIS - Fifty-three journalism and open government groups today called on President Barack Obama - yet again - to stop practices in federal agencies that prevent important information from getting to the public.
Discussion:
Bloomberg Business, The Daily Caller, The Rural Blog and The Newspaper Guild