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 …
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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 …
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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.
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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
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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.
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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.
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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 …
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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 …
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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.’
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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.
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