Top News:
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Axios raises $20M to fund newsroom expansion, plans to increase staffing to 150 by the end of 2018 — The 10-month-old media startup plans to increase staffing to 150 by the end of 2018, develop new coverage areas, and expand its data analysis and product offerings
Discussion:
TechCrunch, The Wrap, @jimvandehei, Fast Company, Tubefilter, @maxslaterrobins, @mathewi, Variety, @brianstelter, @jeffjarvis and @jayrosen_nyu
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Report: Mashable has agreed to sell itself to Ziff Davis for around $50M, a fraction of the site's $250M valuation less than two years ago — Digital-media firm Mashable has clinched a sale for the company — and it's not for a price that founder Pete Cashmore or investors including Turner were looking for.
Discussion:
Axios, Folio, TheStreet, Mediawire, Ad Age, Fortune, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Tubefilter, @keachhagey, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Adweek, @pkafka and Adweek, more at Techmeme »
CNBC:
Sources: Comcast has approached 21st Century Fox to express interest in buying some major assets — Comcast has approached 21st Century Fox and expressed interest in an acquisition of some of Fox's assets, sources say. — Comcast is interested in the same set of assets that Disney approached Fox about.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Business Insider, Reuters, FierceCable, The Week, USA Today, The Wrap, Recode, Axios, Ad Age, The Guardian, TVWeek.com, The Hill, @megjameslat, Los Angeles Times, The New York Observer, @jcmccracken, Hollywood Reporter, Financial Times, TVNewser, CNNMoney, @alexweprin and @cnbcnow
The Daily Beast:
Freedom of the Press Foundation plans to stop routing funds to WikiLeaks after funneling $500K in donations over 5 years; Xeni Jardin left group in December — In the heat of the presidential election campaign last year, Xeni Jardin, a journalist and free speech advocate, developed a sickening feeling about WikiLeaks.
Discussion:
The Intercept, emptywheel, @bungdan, @emptywheel, @attackerman, @exiledsurfer, @jswatz, @jswatz and The Outline
Sean Illing / Vox:
New study finds China uses “cheerleading”, or flooding the internet with positive news in order to eclipse bad news, as a method to manipulate its population — Now Russia is following China's blueprint. — The art of suppressing dissent has been perfected over the years by authoritarian governments.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook rebrands Mentions, which was only available for verified accounts, as Creator app, opens it to all; app available on iOS now, and Android within months — Facebook wants to turn mindless, passive video consumption into “time well spent,” and now it's giving social media stars …
Discussion:
Facebook, Adweek, Ad Age, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, @baekdal, Refinery29, Forbes, Axios, VentureBeat, Deadline, ZDNet, Fortune, The Verge, MacRumors, Tubefilter and Variety, more at Techmeme »
Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline:
MoviePass launches a one-year subscription plan for $89.95 — For a limited time, MoviePass is offering a one-year subscription plan for a flat fee of $89.95, which translates to $7.50 a month (that price already includes a $6.55 processing fee). That price is under this year's 3Q average movie ticket …
Discussion:
Business Insider, The Wrap, Variety, @christoronyi, The Verge, Engadget and /Film
Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
Forbes says it is reducing print frequency from 14 issues/year to 10 and also cutting 20 people from payroll — Forbes, which in its glory days published its flagship print magazine every other week, is going to cut back to only 10 issues in 2018 as it sliced 20 more people from its payroll.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: BuzzFeed to miss 2017 revenue target by 15%-20%, and 2018 IPO looks unlikely; Vice Media is also expected to miss its revenue target — Prospects for a 2018 initial public offering by the high-profile publisher now appear remote — Digital publisher BuzzFeed is on track to miss …
The Guardian:
At News Corp AGM, Murdoch says “our hands are...full making our existing papers viable”, and that digital advertising has been “tremendously damaging to print” — Speaking at News Corp AGM, Murdoch hails Times, Australian and Wall Street Journal as successes …
Maxwell Tani / Business Insider:
Vox Media editorial and video staffers announce plans to join Writers Guild of America East — - Vox Media staffers are seeking to unionize their newsrooms. — Many digital media newsrooms have unionized in recent years, in hopes that a union can serve as a bulwark against industry turbulence.
Discussion:
Vox Union, @vox_union, @charlie_l_hall, @alexckaufman, @aemccarthy and @hamiltonnolan
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Twitter says it will monitor verified users' offline behavior and remove verification badges if behavior is inconsistent with its rules — What losing a badge really means — Twitter's announcement yesterday that it would begin removing verification badges from some accounts had an immediate impact …
Discussion:
BloombergQuint, Recode, @mtfarnsworth, @gsarafan, @thedextriarchy, Business Insider, Mashable, The Wrap, CNBC, AOL, The A.V. Club and The Ringer, more at Techmeme »
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