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, Guardian, Variety, UPI, bizjournals, Bloomberg Business, Hurriyet Daily News, Ars Technica, NetNewsCheck Latest, Poynter, Fortune, USA Today, CNNMoney, TechCrunch, @bankoff, @mmasnick, Business Insider, @film_girl, @mlcalderone, @reckless, @dylan20, @rosslevinsohn, The Hill, Broadcasting & Cable, @alexweprin, Vox Media Marketing, FishbowlNY, The Awl, @abrams, The Wrap, @rafat, Hollywood Reporter, The Next Web, @brianstelter, @dangillmor, @fulldradio, @lock, @mlcalderone and Deadline
Jeff Jarvis / The New York Observer:
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
Discussion:
@gregscoblete, @abrams, @nbj914, @picardonhealth, @alexburnsnyt, @jesuisraphk, @lukenozicka, @davezatz and @steveouting
Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
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
Discussion:
Sydney Morning Herald, NPR.org, Bloomberg Business, EdSurge, USA Today, ZDNet, Financial Times and The New York Observer
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Zack Guzman / CNBC:
News Corp beats Q4 expectations with earnings of $0.07/share, misses on revenue with $2.14B
Discussion:
New York Times, mUmBRELLA, Financial Times, Yahoo! Finance, New York Post, Reuters, NEWS.com.au, News Corp, @joepompeo, The Wrap, Reuters, Politico, @amir, Bloomberg Business and Talking Biz News
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
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:
The Irish Times, dna, NDTV Gadgets, Engadget, The Next Web and The Drum
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:
Digiday, The Wrap, BREITBART.COM, @michaelroston, @mathewi, @benjilanyado, @edmundlee, @jledbetter, @fmanjoo, @fmanjoo, @fmanjoo, @pkafka, @thestalwart, Business Insider, @gawker, FishbowlNY, AdExchanger, @adamweinstein, @freddiedeboer, @jyarow, @mims, @gaberivera, @mikeisaac, @abeaujon and @chrismsutcliffe
Jared M. Feldschreiber / UPI:
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:
English pravda.ru and Russia Beyond The Headlines
Alexander Spangher / New York Times:
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
Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:
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
Todd Shields / Bloomberg Business:
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
Australian Associated Press:
Fairfax Media posts full-year net profit of $83.2M, 62.9% decline YoY; revenue from digital real estate advertising up 45% in same period — Fairfax profit down, digital income soars — Related Content — Fairfax's full year profit has slumped by more than 60 per cent …
Discussion:
Stuff.co.nz, NEWS.com.au, Stuff.co.nz, Agence France-Presse, New Zealand Herald, mUmBRELLA, ABC and Sydney Morning Herald
Celena Chong / Business Insider:
Russia bans Reddit because a thread gave advice on how to grow psilocybe mushrooms — Russia bans Reddit over shrooms — The Russian government has officially banned Reddit, one of the most popular sites on the internet. — Unless Russian users take advantage of VPN to bypass the website blocks …
Discussion:
@savagenation, Engadget, TechCrunch, The Tech Portal, International Business Times and Techdirt
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