Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Document lists deals with media firms and celebrities for Facebook Live, totaling $50M+ on nearly 140 contracts; BuzzFeed is highest paid at $3.05M for one year — Nearly 140 contracts with video creators total more than $50 million — Facebook Inc. is paying an array of media companies …
Discussion:
Digiday, @raju, @elanazak, The Information, The Wrap, TVNewser, Fortune, Mashable, @pkafka, Vanity Fair, SocialTimes, Engadget, USA Today, Variety, @dseetharaman, The Next Web, @zielina, The Awl — Medium and TechCrunch
Matt Waite / Nieman Lab:
New FAA rules will allow any newsroom to legally use drones for journalism in 60 days, with restrictions — In 60 days, drone journalism will be legally possible in any newsroom in the United States. That's not to say it will be easy, but it will be legally possible in ways that it has never been before.
Discussion:
TVSpy, faa.gov, USA Today, @palewire, @mattwaite, @mattwaite, @tomguilmette, @bethesdabeat, Fortune and @niemanlab
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Twitter and Vine to support 140 second videos, will share revenue with influential Vine creators — Vine is expanding its video limit to 140-seconds. — There are a lot of places you can go on your phone to watch videos — Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat are a few popular options.
Discussion:
Slate, Vine, The Twitter Blog, Daily Mail, @dannygonzalez, TechCrunch, @vine, @richdemuro, SocialTimes, @dannygonzalez, INSIDER, New York Magazine, BetaNews, @marklittlenews, Mashable, Fortune, PCMag UK, MacRumors, Variety, @msuster, Consumerist, @chrisyandle, @kevindeshazo, Engadget, Reuters and VentureBeat
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Booksellers begin paying out to consumers the $400M settlement from Apple ebook price-fixing case — Three years after a court first ruled that Apple was liable for conspiring to fix ebook prices, consumers are finally getting their money back for buying overpriced books.
Discussion:
9to5Mac, Business Wire, Publishers Weekly, Fast Company, CNET, Digital Trends, Macworld and TIME
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Politico's Playbook could be delivered more than once a day, with new authors Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer considering introducing 90-second audio briefings — When Mike Allen launched Playbook in 2007, he promised to deliver his agenda-setting newsletter to a D.C. crowd obsessed with Treos (remember those?) and Blackberries.
Discussion:
@poynter and @whatthebit
Peg Brickley / Wall Street Journal:
Hogan challenges Gawker plan to sell itself, says sale unfairly trades away valuable rights — Hulk Hogan claims Gawker sale to Ziff Davis or higher bidder unfairly trades away potentially valuable rights — Lawyers for Hulk Hogan say creditors of Gawker Media Group …
Discussion:
@karangoel and Gawker
Josh Saul / Newsweek:
How an ownership deal between the founder of a digital news startup, the Alaska Dispatch, and a wealthy publisher, Alice Rogoff, unraveled — The relationship that reshaped Alaska journalism in the 21st century began and ended with deals inked on napkins. Tony Hopfinger, the reporter …
Liana B. Baker / Reuters:
Eldridge Industries, owner of The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, hires bankers to review media holdings — Eldridge Industries, the U.S. owner of TV production company Dick Clark Productions and magazines Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, told Reuters on Friday that it had hired investment banks …
Discussion:
FishbowlNY, Media Wire Daily, @kimberlynfoster and @rafat
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Tumblr launches live video support in partnership with YouTube, YouNow and others; 15 media partners committed to publishing videos, including MTV — Tumblr this morning announced support for live video on its service, confirming our report from yesterday that such a move was in the works.
Discussion:
Tumblr Staff, Nieman Lab, Fast Company, Simply Measured, Engadget, Mashable, Adweek, VentureBeat, Variety, Digiday, @msuster, SocialTimes, 9to5Mac and Digital TV Europe
Paola Nalvarte / Journalism in the Americas:
Family suspects homicide of journalist in Texas was related to his reporting; Committee to Protect Journalists calls for thorough investigation — Jacinto (Jay) Torres Hernández, a journalist, photographer and real estate agent living in Texas, was found with a gunshot wound …
Discussion:
Committee to Protect … and Fox News
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
How Fusion, Techcrunch, Poncho, and Complex use Facebook's Messenger bots — It's been two months since Facebook Messenger opened up a bot platform to outside companies, and several publishers have thrown bots up, eager for the chance to interact with Messenger's 900 million users.
Liana B. Baker / Reuters:
Europe's Altice completes $17.7B deal to buy Cablevision, making it fourth-largest cable provider in the US with 4.6M customers — Altice (ATCA.AS) could target more U.S. growth through acquisitions, a top executive said, after the European telecoms group completed a $17.7 billion deal …