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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.
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News Corp in advanced talks to sell off its education division, Amplify, will cease production of tablet, continue to develop software during talks — News Corp Posts Loss on Education Write-Down — Media company in advanced talks to sell off Amplify digital-ed unit
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News Corp beats Q4 expectations with earnings of $0.07/share, misses on revenue with $2.14B
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New York Times, mUmBRELLA, Politico, News Corp, Financial Times, Yahoo! Finance, NEWS.com.au, New York Post, Reuters, @joepompeo, The Wrap, Reuters, Bloomberg Business, @amir and Talking Biz News


Facebook plans to open Mentions, which houses Periscope competitor Live, to all verified profiles, many of which belong to journalists — Facebook Confirms Live Broadcasting Will Soon Open To Journalists And Verified Profiles — Facebook plans to open up its Periscope livestreaming competitor to more than just celebrities.
Discussion:
SocialTimes, The Irish Times, NDTV Gadgets, dna, Engadget, The Drum and The Next Web


Vertical video gains acceptance as viewers spend more time on phones and tablets — Vertical Video on the Small Screen? Not a Crime — In 2012, Vincent Bova and Damien Eckhardt-Jacobi, two puppeteers who host a YouTube series called Glove and Boots, created a public service announcement …
Discussion:
Adweek, @brianstelter, @pargery, @jackshafer and @shanebarnhill

FCC's proposal could help cable companies in disputes with broadcasters by freeing them to carry out-of-town TV stations — Cable May Gain Edge in Fee Disputes With Local Broadcasters — A regulator's proposal could help cable companies during fee disputes with local broadcasters by freeing …
Discussion:
FCC.gov, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline, Broadcasting & Cable, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and Multichannel News


New episodes of Sesame Street to air on HBO, nine months before airing on PBS, starting this fall — HBO Strikes Deal for ‘Sesame Street’ — Partnership means new episodes will air on HBO first, PBS nine months later; deal will double the number of episodes produced yearly — Big Bird is flying over to HBO.
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New York Times, CNNMoney, Sesame Workshop, Multichannel News, Current.org, Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, Adweek, Business Insider, Politico, Deadline, Washington Post, New York Daily News, EW.com, Vanity Fair, TIME, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Agence France-Presse, E! Online, Associated Press, New York Post, Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo TV, NBC News, PBS NewsHour, Newsweek, @brianstelter, @ronmwangaguhung, @brianstelter, Fortune, ABC News, Variety, @robertmackey, Mashable, The Week, @poniewozik, @nickconfessore, Current.org, Jezebel and The Inquisitr News


While newsrooms shrink, journalists continue to parrot each others' coverage when they should focus on unique value to communities — Amid Constant Layoffs, Journalists Should Stop Parroting Each Other — Ever dwindling numbers of journalism professionals must provide unique value, not the 101st take
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@tomgara, @geninnovate, @gregscoblete, @nbj914, @alexburnsnyt, @davezatz, @abrams, @picardonhealth, @jesuisraphk, @lukenozicka and @steveouting


Tribune Media Q2: revenue up 6% to $501.5M, net income fell $3.3M — Tribune Media reports loss despite revenue growth in second quarter — Ready for some preseason football? Try sportsPlus today for unlimited sports coverage.
Discussion:
Broadcasting & Cable, Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal and Variety


GQ cut its webpage load time by 80% by reducing its server calls by 400%, using a single CMS, and decluttering articles — How GQ cut its webpage load time by 80 percent — It used to be that publishers measured their success in audience size. Now, with the rise of reading on mobile devices …
Discussion:
@lmoses and AdExchanger


Inside the New York Times effort to rethink its recommendation system for articles, using topics and collaborative modeling — Building the Next New York Times Recommendation Engine — The New York Times publishes over 300 articles, blog posts and interactive stories a day.
Discussion:
@margarita, Thanks:@steverubel


How CNN prepares push notifications for breaking news to promote its various platform — Push it: CNN's mobile notifications unify its various platforms, from television to telephones — Editor's note: This is the third in a series of stories on how news organizations manage their mobile news alerts.
Discussion:
@ylichterman


U.S. allocates $500,000 for Baltic journalism programs to combat Russian propaganda — The United States Embassy in Vilnius announced a grant of $500,000 to set up training programs for early to mid-career journalists and other media professionals from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to combat Russian propaganda.
Discussion:
Russia Beyond The Headlines and English pravda.ru