Mediagazer: Sources: John Lasseter's conduct with women went beyond “uninvited hugs” to groping; Disney had a handler attend events with him to supervise his behavior (Deadline)

5:25 PM ET, November 29, 2017

Top News:

Mike Allen / Axios:

Memo from NBC News Chairman Andy Lack: “Today” anchor Matt Lauer has been fired following a complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behaviour — NBC “Today” star Matt Lauer, the highest paid personality in TV news, was fired following “a detailed complaint …

Discussion: New York Times, New York Times, @thedailyshow, Page Six, @todayshow, @ewagmeister, CNNMoney, The Guardian, Vox, @herbscribner, @yashar, @raminsetoodeh, Washington Post, The Wrap, @brianstelter, Mediaite, @lpolgreen, Mediaite, CNBC, The Wrap, Newser, Deadline, Business Insider, ABC News, Jezebel, @alexweprin, @jimrutenberg, Media Matters for America, TIME, TVWeek.com, Variety, @robingnelson, PAPERMAG, EW.com, People.com, Fox News, @pastpunditry, @fbonacci, Mashable, The Daily Caller, Broadcasting & Cable, Mother Jones, Ad Age, Rolling Stone, @lookner, Sputnik International, Wonkette, @allisonkilkenny, Fortune, The Gateway Pundit, @hilarieburton, @banikarim, Net Worked, The Daily Beast, WGN-TV, @jamilsmith, Quartz, abc7ny.com, Financial Times, The New York Observer, @peppergii, FOX2now.com, Deadline, The Week, Fortune, AOL, @brianstelter, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, Vanity Fair, The A.V. Club, IndieWire, Law & Crime, @hoarsewisperer, The Daily Caller, @dylawn4, The Hill, The Ringer, @manda_like_wine, @jazadelphia, @lrihendry, @karnythia, @hadas_gold, @jamiestelter, @hadas_gold, @heidivoight, @rebeccashap, @brianstelter, Forbes, Refinery29, Reuters, Fast Company and Consequence of Sound

Variety:

NBC sources describe Lauer's transgressions: lewd comments, invitations to his hotel room late at night on assignment, and dropping his pants in his office — As the co-host of NBC's “Today,” Matt Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted …

Erik Ortiz / NBC News:

Video: “Today” co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb share Matt Lauer's firing on Wednesday's show; Guthrie says they are devastated — Matt Lauer, the anchor of “Today” for two decades, was fired by NBC News after a detailed complaint about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.

Discussion: Washington Post, Fast Company, The Gateway Pundit, RAPPLER, VICE News, Fox News Insider, Right Wing Watch, Newser and iMediaEthics

Jeff Baenen / Associated Press:

Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion”, says he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior — MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” said Wednesday he has been fired …

Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:

BuzzFeed to cut ~100 jobs, mostly business-side roles in its US and UK offices, as it faces a revenue shortfall; President Greg Coleman to step down — CEO Jonah Peretti aims to diversify revenue sources beyond native advertising — Facing a significant revenue shortfall this year …

Discussion: USA Today, The New York Observer, Financial Times, Fast Company, The Ringer, Adweek, Press Gazette, The Drum, Business Insider, @wordsbydan, @wsj, Tubefilter, @alexweprin and The Daily Caller, Thanks:@beet_tv

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

Media companies, from upstarts like BuzzFeed to the NYT, face a correction and must continue to diversify revenue; counting on unlimited VC money spells doom — Agony is the natural state of the news industry. Newspaper sales per capita peaked before color television was a thing …

Discussion: Thomson Reuters, @profcarroll, @mattdpearce and Bloomberg

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Wired Magazine is launching a metered paywall in January; EIC Nicholas Thompson says a price has not been set yet but it will be less than $9.99 a month — Wired magazine plans to introduce a metered paywall in January, which may precede online subscriptions at other Condé Nast publications

Discussion: Folio, @rafat and @nxthompson

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Memo: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti says the company is restructuring its business operations to help diversify its revenue streams beyond native advertising — That's about 6 percent of its workforce. President Greg Coleman is also out. Here's the memo from CEO Jonah Peretti.

Discussion: @pkafka, Ad Age, Mediawire, AdExchanger and @rafat

Shira Ovide / Bloomberg:

Snapchat's redesign likely won't appeal to new users, despite goal of growing users, and may alienate media partners by separating content from friend messages — The messaging service can't seem to decide whether to cater to avid users or appeal to a broader audience.

Discussion: Axios, TechCrunch, Fast Company, The Wrap, @shiraovide, Digital Trends, The Ringer, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Tubefilter, The Next Web, The Verge and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

John Skipper / ESPN Front Row:

Memo: ESPN President John Skipper announces 150 layoffs, mainly in studio production, digital content, and technology — EDITOR'S NOTE: ESPN President John Skipper shared this message with employees this morning. — Today we are informing approximately 150 people at ESPN that their jobs are being eliminated.

Discussion: TVWeek.com, SI.com, USA Today, Multichannel News, FierceCable, Mashable, Fortune, Fast Company and The Daily Caller

Deadline:

Sources: John Lasseter's conduct with women went beyond “uninvited hugs” to groping; Disney had a handler attend events with him to supervise his behavior — In the wake of John Lasseter's announcement that he would take a six-month leave from Disney-Pixar Animation …

Discussion: Vanity Fair and IndieWire

New York Times:

Sources: Trump continues to privately harbor a handful of conspiracy theories with no grounding in fact, including doubting the Access Hollywood tape — WASHINGTON — Shortly after his victory last year, Donald J. Trump began revisiting one of his deepest public humiliations: the infamous …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Guardian, Media Matters for America, Slate, Mediaite, CNN, NPR, VICE, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, VICE News, Wonkette, ABC News, AOL, Business Insider, KTLA, Fortune, The Week, Splinter and New York Magazine

Jason Schwartz / Politico:

CNN says staff will not attend White House media Christmas party; sources say Trump's tweet about CNN International is believed to imperil journalists abroad — Under fire from Trump, the network says it would be ‘inappropriate to celebrate with him as his invited guests.’

Discussion: Splinter, Mashable, Newser, Fortune, The Daily Caller and The Hill

Ed Pilkington / The Guardian:
Project Veritas, the organization that tried to dupe WaPo into writing a fake story about Roy Moore, received $20K from Trump's charitable org in 2015

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Week and Vanity Fair

Ben Thompson / Stratechery:

Arguments against FCC's Net Neutrality rollback miss that regulation incurs opportunity costs and more attention should be paid to inter-ISP competition — Note: This post was previously titled “Why Ajit Pai is Right.” I have changed it to reflect my interest in a substantive debate, not flame-throwing.

Discussion: Recode, Fortune, @matthewstoller, @chillmage, @klintron, @chillmage, @ajitpaifcc, @jaypinho, @klintron, @klintron and @profcarroll

Tony Romm / Recode:
FCC's Pai says tech giants like Twitter and Facebook use “the regulatory process to cement their dominance” and pose biggest threat to online speech, not ISPs