Mediagazer: Digital media startup Odyssey lays off 55 people, over a third of its employees, less than a year after raising $25M (Nathan McAlone/Business Insider)

3:07 AM ET, February 5, 2017

Top News:

Digital media startup Odyssey lays off 55 people, over a third of its employees, less than a year after raising $25M — Digital media startup Odyssey has laid off 55 people, slashing over a third of its full-time, paid staff less than a year after raising $25 million, CEO Evan Burns confirmed to Business Insider.

Discussion: @trengriffin, @rafat and @jbenton

Jose Pagliery / CNNMoney:

CEO of Russia's XBT, which owns Webzilla and invested in Prisma app, sues BuzzFeed and Ben Smith for posting Trump dossier; BuzzFeed has now redacted CEO's name — A Russian technology executive has sued BuzzFeed and its editor Ben Smith for publishing the unverified Trump dossier, calling it …

Discussion: McClatchy Washington Bureau, New York Times, The Daily Caller, Recode, @raju, @liamstack, Politico, @pkafka, @pkafka and iMediaEthics

Colin Lecher / The Verge:

FCC closes the investigations into sponsored-data offerings by T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast, new agency Chairman Ajit Pai confirms — Under recently departed chief Tom Wheeler, the FCC opened inquiries into how companies might be using free data programs, which allow customers …

Discussion: Washington Post, Multichannel News, Fast Company, @spacekatgal, @mattyglesias, @jessamyn, @dangillmor, @onejarednewman, @chillmage, Variety, Fast Company, @ajitpaifcc, The Wrap, Fortune and @tomgara

New York Times:

New Yorker and Vanity Fair pull out of WHCD parties on April 29, underscoring the awkward nature of throwing a splashy dinner for a media-hostile president — The White House Correspondents' Dinner has gone from a hoary ritual to the apex of Washington's social calendar, replete with Hollywood A-listers …

Shelley Hepworth / Columbia Journalism Review:

Q&A with Olivia Nuzzi on her new role at New York magazine and the antagonism between the Trump administration and the White House press corps — Politico named Olivia Nuzzi one of the breakout media stars of the 2016 election thanks to her political reporting for The Daily Beast.

Rachael Revesz / The Independent:

After 818 advertisers pledge to pull ads from Breitbart, one consumer group says it will target ad agencies and Amazon and Google next — Hundreds of advertisers are pulling away from ultra-conservative news website Breitbart, and campaigners are confident the backlash is snowballing.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, @adellewaldman, @rjonesx and CNET

James Rainey / Variety:

Steven Mnuchin, nominee for US treasury secretary, faces a fraud claim in lawsuit related to Relativity Media financing — Steve Mnuchin may be headed for U.S. Senate approval as America's next treasury secretary, but he's getting a big thumbs down from a film lending company that alleges …

Discussion: The Wrap, @coco_wms, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline

Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:

Tensions over immigration complicate the planning of Super Bowl ads, which now cost an average of $5M for 30 seconds — The Super Bowl is a popular destination for commercials showcasing premium water, candy and beer — but politics can make it a difficult forum.

Discussion: Forbes, Variety, Los Angeles Times, NPR, HBR.org, Polygon, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Adweek, Vanity Fair and VideoNuze Analysis

Bryan Curtis / The Ringer:

The era of “stick to sports” has ended as Trump's election emboldens sportswriters to enter the realm of political advocacy — Sportswriters have been awakened by Donald Trump's presidency. Is that what their readers want? — Did you read sports Twitter over the weekend?

Discussion: @ringer and Vanity Fair

Knight Foundation / Informed and Engaged:

Knight Foundation podcasting report: not a traditional public radio audience, diversity remains a challenge, more — INTRODUCTION — Podcasting and other forms of on-demand digital audio are growing. Edison Research reports that, based on a survey conducted in January and February 2016 …

Discussion: @brett_antenna, @mkramer and RAIN News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Ev Williams: our goal is to launch Medium consumer subscription product this quarter — Medium CEO Ev Williams announced today at Upfront Summit that his company will launch a consumer subscription product, with the first version coming this quarter. This could help develop an additional revenue stream apart from advertisements.

Discussion: @jason, Mashable, @ryanvailbrown, @danielpunkass, Engadget, @joshuatopolsky, @davidegreenwald, @jbenton, @bristei, @rafat, @techcrunch, @techportalntw and The Tech Portal

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press finds that Gorsuch's decisions in libel and invasion of privacy cases reflect solid First Amendment principles — On January 31, President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to fill …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, @rcfp, @csmcdaniel, @wordsmithwyle, @lwalsh, @digiphile, @courtneyr, @carolrosenberg and @rcfp

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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
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Rich Bockmann / The Real Deal New York:
The New York Times will temporarily relocate roughly 400 staffers to the Time-Life Building as it overhauls its headquarters on Eighth Avenue

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Daniel Marans / The Huffington Post:
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Jack Shafer / Politico:
Study: 88.5% of the total time UK readers devote to 11 national newspaper brands is spent on the print edition, while 7.49% goes to mobile and 4% to PCs

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Lucia Moses / Digiday:
The Wall Street Journal is exploring an ad-free digital offering, charging on a per-article basis, and more, according to an online reader survey

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David Bauder / AP News:
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Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:
Over a dozen low-power FM radio stations were hacked through a known transmitter vulnerability to broadcast anti-Trump song by rappers YG and Nipsey Hussle

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Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:
Snap Inc. files for IPO, aiming to raise $3B; firm had $404M in revenue in 2016, up 500% YoY, on a $514M net loss

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From Techmeme:

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Cisco details a hacking campaign that penetrated multiple governments' networks using two zero-day flaws in its VPN and firewall Adaptive Security Appliances

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David Pierce / The Verge:
Hands-on with the Rabbit R1: a fun and funky AI device that feels pretty nice and does a solid job with basic AI questions, but the Rabbithole app is unfinished

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