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Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
CNN cuts ties with commentator Jeffrey Lord after he replies “Sieg Heil!” in a Twitter discussion with the president of Media Matters for America — CNN severed ties with Jeffrey Lord on Thursday, hours after he ignited controversy by tweeting the words “Sieg Heil!” at a prominent liberal activist.
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Mediaite, The New York Observer, Columbia Journalism Review, The American Spectator, Splinter, @realjeffreylord, Talking New Media, The American Spectator, @grynbaum, @brianstelter, Vox, Washington Post, The Wrap, Business Insider, Media Matters for America, The Times of Israel, Newser, @brianstelter, @goldietaylor, TVNewser, Politico, Variety, @brianstelter, New York Times, @brianstelter, Radio and TV Talk, @annefrankcenter, Mashable, USA Today, Vanity Fair, TVLine, The Daily Caller, The Hill, @jfagone, Fortune, @existentialfish, @sarahcuda, @yashar, The Week, @pkafka, Washington Post, @blakehounshell, New York Magazine, @davidfolkenflik, @mlcalderone, @mlcalderone and @yashar
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
SoundCloud closes new funding round led by Raine Group and Temasek; Vimeo's Kerry Trainor replaces Alex Ljung as CEO — SoundCloud has just closed the necessary funding round to keep the struggling music service afloat. CEO Alex Ljung will step aside though remain chairman as former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor replaces him.
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SoundCloud
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Dan Primack / Axios:
Memo: SoundCloud asks investors to approve reorganization proposal; if accepted, new $170M round will close Friday at pre-money valuation of $150M
Memo: SoundCloud asks investors to approve reorganization proposal; if accepted, new $170M round will close Friday at pre-money valuation of $150M
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The Awl, Variety, PAPERMAG, Fortune, hypebot, Variety, The FADER, Recode, @rmac18, @joshsternberg, @danprimack, The Verge and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Tara Palmeri / Politico:
Breitbart's campaign against national security adviser H.R. McMaster seems to have done more damage to Steve Bannon — The chief White House strategist is increasingly isolated in the West Wing as new chief of staff John Kelly tries to clamp down on negative news stories.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Mother Jones, @lpdonovan, @drudge_report, @tarapalmeri, @politico, @oliverdarcy, @jacobkornbluh and Splinter
Nyshka Chandran / CNBC:
Chinese regulators are investigating Tencent's WeChat, Baidu's Tieba, and Sina Weibo for user-generated content that “endangers national security” — - Tencent, Baidu and Sina Weibo are being investigated by Chinese cyber-security regulators for potential violations
Discussion:
Axios, TechCrunch, BBC and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:
How Fox News rushed to publish a story about Seth Rich that it later retracted, with key source and Fox News pundit Rod Wheeler later suing the network — This is why the Seth Rich conspiracy won't disappear — For more than two months, Fox News has declined to explain the story behind …
Discussion:
@sulliview, @matthewnussbaum, @matthewnussbaum, @oliverdarcy, @ehananoki and @oliverdarcy
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
A look at Guam's biggest daily paper, the Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News, a 20-person outlet whose traffic now doubles when it posts a story on North Korea — Dana Williams has covered a lot of disasters during her three-decade career as a reporter and editor. — Hurricanes in Florida.
Discussion:
CNN, BUSTLE, Media Matters for America, @deepakadk, @cait_duffy, @justinwingerter, @newsbyschmidt, KTLA, New York Magazine, @benmullin, The Daily Caller and The Week
Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:
Leaked email: HBO offered hackers who stole scripts, shows, and employee info a $250K bug bounty; source says the message was an HBO stalling tactic — The HBO hacker has struck yet again. — Variety has obtained a copy of another message released Thursday by the anonymous hacker …
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Daily Caller, Hollywood Reporter, Sputnik International, CNET, Mashable, Fortune, The Verge, Business Insider and Decider, more at Techmeme »
Associated Press:
Don Alhart, now in his 51st year on-air at WHAM-TV in Rochester, officially holds the world record for longest career as a TV news broadcaster — https://apnews.com/8b9980282af4405e91de 5ba6d9d3bcde — Link copied! — ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — This just in: A New York television news …
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Parse.ly reaches profitability and raises $6.8M in Series B funding led by Grotech Ventures and Blumberg Capital — Heads-up, Chartbeat, one of your competitors is growing — and it's growing fast. — Parse.ly, an analytics platform used by several different news organizations …
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@alansoon
Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:
Fox News competitors like The Blaze, Newsmax, and OANN seek to steal Fox viewers as the network goes through a tumultuous period — Glenn Beck's The Blaze, Newsmax TV, One America News Network and others are among the challengers: “There's no Pepsi to FNC's Coke yet.”
Discussion:
@marklevinshow
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Google reveals sites that fail ad test, risk being filtered by upcoming Chrome ad blocker, including Forbes, LA Times, Lifehacker, Chicago Tribune — Publishers that have fretted about Google's plans to unleash an ad-blocking version of Chrome in 2018 can now see if their own sites' ads will be blocked by the tech giant.
Discussion:
the Econsultancy blog
Kelly Liyakasa / AdExchanger:
Genesis Media, a publisher analytics and data science company, has merged with video ad platform Altitude Digital — Genesis Media revealed Thursday that it has merged with video ad platform Altitude Digital. — The combined entity will do business as Genesis Media. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Discussion:
PR Newswire, @kellyliyakasa and VideoNuze Analysis