Mediagazer: Time Out to pay up to $2.94M for Yplan, the London-based event ticketing startup that had raised $37.5M (Paul Sawers/VentureBeat)

11:25 AM ET, October 21, 2016

Top News:

Facebook announces that Instant Articles can now include immersive 360 videos and photos; USA Today and Bild are first to showcase the feature — Oct 20, 2016, 2:09 pmOct 20, 2016, 3:51 pm — Facebook's Instant Articles — the format that displays publishers' content in a faster-loading …

Discussion: Digiday, Facebook Media, Editor & Publisher, Recode, USA Today, VentureBeat, SocialTimes and The Next Web

Bloomberg:

Sources: senior executives at AT&T and Time Warner have discussed various business strategies in recent weeks, including a possible merger — Senior executives at AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc. have met in recent weeks to discuss various business strategies including a possible merger, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Forbes, Fortune, Light Reading, Consumerist, Business Insider, Broadcasting & Cable, CNBC, Vanity Fair, @ballmatthew, Variety, Tech Trader Daily, 9to5Mac, The Wrap, USA Today and Deadline

Telegraph:

Former News of the World reporter Mazher Mahmood sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for tampering with evidence in collapsed Tulisa Contostavlos drugs trial — Mazher Mahmood, the undercover reporter known as the Fake Sheikh, has been jailed for 15 months for tampering with evidence …

Jake Kanter / Business Insider:

News UK terminates the employment of Mazher Mahmood after his arrest, will defend any civil claims in relation to his previous work — Just two weeks ago, News UK was refusing to comment on the employment status of investigative journalist Mazher Mahmood. — But now the so-called …

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Sources: Comcast's NBCUniversal finalizing deal for a second $200M investment in BuzzFeed, at a valuation of $1.7B — More money for Jonah Peretti and his video ambitions. — A year after making a major investment in BuzzFeed, NBCUniversal is doing it again.

Discussion: Adweek, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, @ekp, Tubefilter, FishbowlNY, Business Insider, VatorNews, Fast Company, Variety, The Wrap, @mikeisaac, Hollywood Reporter, @eringriffith, @sarahcuda and @pkafka

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

UNC study finds 33%+ of US papers have changed ownership since 2004, local news is beholden to investors, and a trend toward corporate consolidation — Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst and E. W. Scripps are out. Digital First Media, GateHouse and Civitas are in.

Discussion: @poynter and @apradhan1968

John Murawski / Raleigh News & Observer:

After awarding $1.5M in libel verdict against Raleigh News & Observer, jury adds $7.5M in punitive damages for forensic firearms story; paper will appeal — A day after awarding a $1.5 million libel verdict against The News & Observer and reporter Mandy Locke, a Wake County jury came …

Discussion: @katherineblunt, @coreyhutchins and @melroselaw

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Time Out to pay up to $2.94M for Yplan, the London-based event ticketing startup that had raised $37.5M — Event ticketing startup YPlan has been acquired by travel publication Time Out in a deal worth £1.6 million ($1.96 million), a figure that will rise to £2.4 million …

Discussion: Telegraph, TechCrunch and Business Insider

BuzzFeed:

Analysis of 1K+ posts from 6 partisan Facebook Pages shows that least-accurate are shared widely; 38% of right-wing, 19% of left-wing posts are false/misleading — A BuzzFeed News analysis found that three big right-wing Facebook pages published false or misleading information 38% …

Discussion: @buzzfeedben, @bluechoochoo, Daring Fireball, @craigsilverman, @jwherrman, New York Times, @brendannyhan, @mathewi, @sophiabush, @mims, @jayrosen_nyu, @craigsilverman, @craigsilverman, @mantzarlis and @cfiesler

David Uberti / Columbia Journalism Review:

CNN's pro-Trump contributors introduce false information into the network's programs, clouding the outlet's own reporting — The consensus headline from the third and final presidential debate was Republican candidate Donald Trump's refusal to commit to accepting the 2016 election results.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Media Matters for America, @bmaz, @dylanbyers, @daviduberti, @mattlurrie, @coopnytimes, @ericgeller, @carlbialik and @jayrosen_nyu

Sonya Sorich / Sacramento Business Journal:

McClatchy Q2 revenue falls to $242.2M, down from $262.4M in same quarter of 2015; ad revenue down 11% year over year, print ad revenue down 16.6% — The McClatchy Co., publisher of the Sacramento Bee, reported a $1.5 million loss for the second quarter, excluding some expenses, as newspaper advertising revenue continued to decline.

Discussion: Sacramento Business Journal and McClatchy

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:

NYT releases Facebook Messenger bot to cover the rest of the election, combining automatic updates with dispatches from political reporter Nicholas Confessore — The New York Times on Wednesday released a Facebook Messenger bot to cover the last 19 days of the U.S. presidential election.