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The Walt Disney Company:
Disney to acquire 21st Century Fox, including stakes in Sky and Hulu, after spinoff of certain businesses like Fox News, for $52.4B in stock — 21st Century Fox to spin off Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox News, Fox Business, FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network to its shareholders
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Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Post-merger, “New Fox” to include live news, sports, and the Fox brand, as a return to “our roots as a lean, aggressive, challenger brand”, per Lachlan Murdoch — Sale of 21st Century Fox assets includes stakes in Sky in the UK and Hollywood film studio as tycoon focuses on Fox News and newspapers
Amy Chozick / New York Times:
With Disney deal, Murdoch's decades-long acquisition streak comes to an end in the face of the rise of streaming, despite past and current efforts to scale — For a while, Rupert Murdoch seemed invincible. — First, the mogul emerged relatively unscathed from a 2011 phone hacking scandal involving …
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Wall Street Journal, @jbflint, Stratechery, The Guardian, Splinter, @nytimesbusiness, @markdistef, @cnn, @jimrutenberg, @sarahlellison and The Daily Caller
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
FCC votes to dismantle Obama administration net neutrality rules in a 3-2 vote — WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to dismantle landmark rules regulating the businesses that connect consumers to the internet, granting broadband companies power to potentially reshape Americans' online experiences.
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The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable, Media Matters for America, The Verge, @agschneiderman, corporate.comcast.com, Politico, Media Matters for America, Recode, CBS News, Washington Post, Ars Technica, Ad Age, Techdirt, Fast Company, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Forbes, NBC News, Free Press Blog, The Verge, ThinkProgress, The Guardian, Radio & Television …, Broadcasting & Cable, Slate, Business Insider, Mother Jones, Wired, Politico, Motherboard, AdExchanger, @mattyglesias, @chrisdunntv, @markberman, The A.V. Club, Fortune, CBS Los Angeles, @cnet, @danielschuman, @speakerryan, @corybooker, @b_fung, @digiphile, @mclyburnfcc, @jrosenworcel, @digiphile, @binarybits, CBS13, The Verge, Kotaku, GeekWire, @ceciliakang, @puiwingtam, TorrentFreak, FOX6Now.com, Bustle, UPROXX, act.freepress.net, Pacific Standard, abc7ny.com, Fast Company, Bustle, The Week, Techdirt, Cord Cutters News, Multichannel News and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Sydney Ember / New York Times:
Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. to retire as New York Times publisher on Dec. 31 but remain as chairman, as his son, Arthur G. Sulzberger, replaces him — In a generational changing of the guard, Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, 37, will become the publisher of The New York Times on Jan. 1.
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The Wrap, Ad Age, @nytimes, Mediawire, Poynter, @gabrielsnyder, @nickkristof, Business Insider and @sewellchan
New York Times:
Four women detail violent sexual behavior by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons between 1988 and 2014, and three say he raped them; Simmons denies rape allegations — Mr. Simmons, a powerful gatekeeper in the entertainment and media worlds, damaged careers and self-confidence with his pattern …
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The New York Observer, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, @drewsings, Salon, The Ringer, UPROXX, NPR, People.com, Highsnobiety, Miami New Times, The Daily Caller, The Week, @latimes, @carleyroney, @yashar, Variety, @nytimes, CBS New York, The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, AOL, Bustle, Mediaite, The Wrap, @evansiegfried, @danielnmiller, @mattdpearce, @nytimesarts, The Grapevine, @yashar and Deadline
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook confirms it will stop subsidies for Facebook Live publishers, encouraging them to use mid-roll ads, and says pre-roll ads are coming to Watch — Everyone's least favorite ads are coming to Facebook, but six-second pre-rolls will only appear on original Watch tab videos you purposefully view and not in the News Feed.
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Facebook Media, Digiday, Multichannel News, Ad Age, Variety, The Next Web and @bmorrissey, more at Techmeme »
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Business Insider to drop “business” from its name in January to expand beyond corporate and financial news; Insider to launch niche verticals like Insider Wine — The company will rebrand as Insider Inc. as part of a strategy to expand into niche coverage areas on social media and elsewhere
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@larakiara, @4evrmalone, @jackmarshall, Business Insider, @stevekovach and @mdudas
Jason Schwartz / Politico:
NYT hires fact-checker for DC desk, an unprecedented move for a newspaper, in response to political weaponization of reporting errors and the volume of news — As news errors become fodder for Trump's attacks, the venerable daily makes an extra push for accuracy.
Mike Shields / Business Insider:
Internal memo: Refinery29 is laying off 34 staffers, or about 7.5% of its workforce, and sees “a correction” in digital media — - Refinery29 is letting go of 34 staffers, or 7.5% of its workforce. — It's the latest sign of a turbulent market for digital publishers battling the duopoly of Facebook and Google.
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, @willoremus, @toreyvanoot and @mattdpearce
Committee to Protect Journalists:
CPJ: record high 262 journalists jailed globally in 2017 in relation to their work, with half of those imprisoned in Turkey, China, and Egypt — For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed …
Discussion:
@pressfreedom, New York Times, Mashable and Mediaite
Selina Wang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba's video streaming unit, Youku Tudou, has signed multiyear content licensing deals with NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures — Multiyear agreements give Youku subscribers access to movies — Deal comes as Alibaba doubles down in entertainment, Hollywood
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
UK lawmaker calls on Twitter to provide more info about Russia-linked accounts' activity during Brexit referendum, saying its initial response was inadequate — Social media platform listed just six tweets to UK parliamentary committee looking into claims that Russia meddled in referendum campaign
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Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »