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.
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, @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.
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:
@knightfdn and @franklomonte
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
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, Guardian, Press Gazette, Globe and Mail, BBC, New York Times, RTÉ, Bloomberg Business, Sky News, International Business Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, City A.M., International Business Times, Hollywood Reporter, Agence France-Presse, Independent.ie, Associated Press, Reuters, Telegraph and Variety
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.
Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:
Rdio to add 460 AM/FM stations owned and operated by Cumulus Media to its service Wednesday amid increasing competition — Rdio cues up traditional radio stations, hoping to get an edge on competition — The increasingly crowded streaming music industry is starting to look a little more like old-fashioned radio.
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:
The Daily Caller, The Rural Blog and The Newspaper Guild
Bryan Logan / Business Insider:
Tinder just lost its mind on Twitter over a Vanity Fair story — Tinder is not happy with Vanity Fair. — The tech company's PR just went on a 30+ tweet tweetstorm lambasting the magazine for a recent feature story in the September issue of Vanity Fair. — The article, titled …
Discussion:
Adweek, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post, Vox, New York Times, Telegraph, PRNewser, Wired, Digiday, Inc.com, The Verge, FishbowlNY, Sky News, The Independent, Sky News, NBC News, The Inquisitr News, VentureBeat, Guardian and Re/code