Mediagazer: BuzzFeed Germany is struggling to attract readers and advertisers, with just 3.5M monthly unique visitors in June and less than 500K likes on Facebook (Lucinda Southern/Digiday)

7:20 PM ET, August 9, 2017

Top News:

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Fox News host Eric Bolling is suing Yashar Ali for defamation and $50M in damages over HuffPost story claiming Bolling sent lewd photos to female colleagues — Fox News host Eric Bolling has initiated a lawsuit against the reporter behind the report that led to his suspension.

Discussion: @yashar, @tomkludt, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Hill, The Wrap, @yashar, @lpolgreen, Variety and @bradthor

Joseph Otterson / Variety:

NBCUniversal's comedy streaming service Seeso, launched in January 2016 with a price of $3.99/month, is shutting down later this year — Comedy streaming service Seeso is shutting down, the streamer announced Wednesday. — “We're writing to let you know that later this year …

Discussion: Deadline, IndieWire, Forbes, Ad Age, Multichannel News, Adweek, TechCrunch, Seeso, VideoInk - Medium, Engadget, New York Times, Paste, Hollywood Reporter, Splitsider, The Verge and Decider

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook introduces Watch, its redesigned video section for original content, with producers earning 55% of ad revenue, rolling out Thursday — Facebook has a new home for original video content produced exclusively for it by partners, who will earn 55% of ad break revenue while Facebook keeps 45%.

Discussion: Facebook, Business Insider, Mashable, @cordnever and @kantrowitz, more at Techmeme »

Pew Research Center:

NPR programming across all stations rose to about 30M average weekly listeners in 2016, up 14% YoY; revenue up 9% YoY to $213M — MORE FACT SHEETS: STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA — Hundreds of local and regional radio and television stations comprise the U.S. public media system.

Discussion: Pew Research Center

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

GateHouse owner New Media Investment Group buys Morris Publishing Group for $120M; deal includes 11 daily newspapers, 30 weeklies, and various online assets — New Media Investment Group has acquired Morris Publishing Group, whose portfolio includes the Augusta Chronicle …

Discussion: Savannah Morning News, Adweek, Topeka Capital-Journal, KTUU-TV, Florida Times Union, Talking New Media, @katschaeffer, @jmshumway, @davidhulen, @mattderienzo and Gatehouse Media

Alexios Mantzarlis / Poynter:

Mozilla launches the Mozilla Information Trust Initiative, with the aim of combatting online misinformation through new products, research, more — Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox browser, announced today a new program to combat online misinformation.

Discussion: The Mozilla Blog

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

BuzzFeed Germany is struggling to attract readers and advertisers, with just 3.5M monthly unique visitors in June and less than 500K likes on Facebook — With Germany's federal election coming up Sept. 24, BuzzFeed Germany is pushing further into news and politics coverage …

Angelica LaVito / CNBC:

21st Century Fox reports mixed Q4 results with $6.75B in revenue, up 2% YoY, supported by higher cable affiliate and ad revenue — - During the quarter, 21st Century Fox's cable news network, Fox News, dropped its biggest star, Bill O'Reilly, amid sexual harassment allegations.

Discussion: The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, @claireatki, @jbflint, @jbflint, 21st Century Fox and Reuters

David Faber / CNBC:

Sources: French telecom giant Altice and its US subsidiary, Altice USA, are working on a bid for Charter Communications — - The French telecom giant and its U.S. cable subsidiary, Altice USA, are working on an offer to buy Charter, according to people close to the situation.

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Business Insider, FierceCable and Deadline

David McCabe / Axios:

Techdirt gets $250K+ via Craig Newmark, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Charles Koch Foundation, more to cover free speech while battling Hulk Hogan's lawyer — An eclectic group is financially backing TechDirt, a tech news site being sued for libel by the same lawyer who who helped take down Gawker.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @jackshafer, @harrymccracken, @trevortimm, @bro_pair, @jason_kint, @jessekblum, @niemanlab, @dmccabe and Talking Biz News, more at Techmeme »

Melody Kramer / Poynter:

Interview with Jacob Hoffman-Andrews, EFF's senior staff technologist, on increasing user trust by decreasing the use of third-party trackers — Last year, Steven Englehardt and Arvind Narayanan at Princeton University looked at the top 1 million sites on the internet and found …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Disney CEO Bob Iger says Marvel and Star Wars standalone streaming services are still being considered — If you're wondering why Marvel movies and Star Wars weren't mentioned as being among the titles included in Disney's upcoming streaming service, announced yesterday …

Discussion: Forbes, Washington Post, CNBC, AppleInsider, VideoNuze Analysis and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Tribune Media reports a Q2 loss of $30.4M, compared with a year-ago loss of $161.6M, and quarterly revenue dropping 2% to $469.5M — Programming costs at the firm, which Sinclair has agreed to buy, rose, including $20 million of “additional expense related to the strategic shift toward …

Sydney Ember / New York Times:
Sinclair's bid to buy Tribune Media draws opposition from advocacy groups, Dish Network, and conservative outlets including Newsmax, OANN, and The Blaze

Discussion: @brucebartlett, @melbournecoal, HuffPost, Variety and Media Matters for America

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 7:20 PM ET, August 9, 2017.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Commissioning Editor - Practical Law — Reuters

Energy Markets Reporter, London — WSJ

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Editor, MA — Nieman Reports

Team Editor - Breaking News, ON — Toronto Star

Senior Reporter & Event Host, NY/CA — Newcomer

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

News Reporter, MA — Berkshire Eagle

Multimedia Journalist, PA — Observer-Reporter

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

Senior Media Editor — Digiday

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

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Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

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More News:

Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:
Interview with John Stankey, the current head of AT&T's entertainment group who will run Time Warner post-acquisition

Chris Ariens / Adweek:
Bloomberg to launch management consultancy unit using data from terminals, research arms, and analysts, will charge businesses $150K-$200K/month

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
President Trump continues tweeting against The Washington Post and The New York Times in apparent effort to delegitimize outside sources of information

Discussion: CNNMoney, @realdonaldtrump, New York Magazine, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, Axios, Fox News Insider, Politico, @theplumlinegs, @wdlindsy, CNN, New York Daily News, The New York Observer, Mediaite, Fox 59, Vanity Fair, The Week and Associated Press

Dallas Morning News:
Belo, parent of Dallas Morning News, says it will outsource much ad creation and production work to Gannett, resulting in 45 layoffs

Discussion: @nbj914 and News & Tech

Earlier Picks:

Etan Vlessing / Hollywood Reporter:
Lionsgate beats estimates with Q1 net income of $174M, up from $1.3M last year, including $201M gain from Epix equity sale, on revenue of $1.01B

Discussion: Variety and Deadline

David Uberti / Splinter:
Breitbart names a NYT reporter working on story about government secrecy, lists those who received email from her, and says the reporting demonstrates collusion

Discussion: Breitbart, Mediaite, Washington Post and Media Matters for America

Franklin Foer / The Atlantic:
Franklin Foer, former editor of the New Republic, on Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes' failed attempt to turn around the magazine's fortunes

Discussion: Recode, @rafat, @thetomasrios and @vanessaw

Samuel Gibbs / The Guardian:
HBO hackers demand a multimillion-dollar ransom and release emails, scripts, and personal phone numbers of GoT stars in latest dump of stolen data

Discussion: Wired, Polygon, The Verge and Vanity Fair

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
Sources: the US FTC plans to investigate allegations that Microsoft is abusing its market power in productivity software to prevent customers from leaving Azure

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI says the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS can now read code from some developer-focused apps, including VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google releases a free Gemini app for iOS, letting users ask questions, chat via text, voice, or their camera, and use the conversational mode Gemini Live

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