Mediagazer: Sources: potential Rolling Stone buyers include Penske Media plus owners of Playboy and The Hollywood Reporter and Kuok Meng Ru, founder of investor BandLab (Joe Pompeo/Vanity Fair)

2:10 AM ET, December 20, 2017

Top News:

David Uberti / Splinter:

An audio recording of Ziff Davis executives' first meeting with Mashable staff sheds light on how the site is to be folded into existing e-commerce business — The recent trajectory of tech site Mashable has put it at the forefront of some of the worst trends reshaping digital media.

Discussion: @mlcalderone, @mathewi, @jmrivera02, @tim_bays, @saba_h, @mattrosoff, @bmorrissey, @petersterne, @moorehn and @moorehn

Maxwell Tani / Business Insider:
Leaked documents: before sale Mashable lost $4.2M in three months through September, was set to miss revenue targets, and relied heavily on digital advertising

Discussion: @mcwm, @rafat, @daviduberti, @meena_thiru, @shortformernie, @thestalwart, @kmmokai, @mathewi, @jason_kint, @mgsiegler and @maxwelltani

Reporters Without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders: 65 journalists were killed in 2017, the least deadly year for professionals in 14 years; Syria and Mexico are deadliest countries — Overview: figures at a glance How we calculate these figures — The 2017 round-up figures compiled by Reporters Without Borders …

Discussion: Reuters, Forbes, @adriennemahsa, DW.COM, Broadcasting & Cable, CBS News and Al Jazeera English

Lev Garcia Flores / Associated Press:

Mexican reporter Gumaro Pérez was shot and killed in Veracruz on Tuesday by attackers while he was attending Christmas party at his son's school — https://apnews.com/92904b4df584470fbce9 3eca7a03dd52 — XALAPA, Mexico (AP) — Attackers burst into an elementary school where a Christmas party …

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Google Chrome will start natively blocking ads that do not comply with Coalition for Better Ads guidelines on February 15 — In June, Google revealed that Chrome will stop showing all ads (including those owned or served by Google) on websites that display non-compliant ads “starting in early 2018.”

Michelle Davis / Bloomberg:

Source: Carlos Slim plans to cut his stake in The New York Times from 17% to about 8%, selling securities in a private offering — Mexican billionaire's stake would be reduced to 8% from 17% — Structure of sale is said to create tax benefits for Slim — Billionaire Carlos Slim …

Discussion: PR Newswire, Financial Times, The Daily Caller, @danprimack, @winnieokelley and @michellef_davis

Associated Press:

Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates deleted his Twitter account following a contentious exchange with Cornell West in which Richard Spencer became involved — NEW YORK (AP) — Ta-Nehisi Coates has had enough. The influential author and journalist has deleted his widely followed Twitter account, writing “peace, y'all.

Discussion: New York Times, @jamilsmith, @grantwahl, Sifiso Mkhize, @adviserdavid, @waxelfoley, The Hill, @dlind, @mightyocd, Mediaite, @jamilsmith, @asteadwesley, Hip-Hop Wired, @nhannahjones and Twitter

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

Sources: potential Rolling Stone buyers include Penske Media plus owners of Playboy and The Hollywood Reporter and Kuok Meng Ru, founder of investor BandLab — After 50 years at his iconic magazine, Jann Wenner will soon be leaving the building, a hard act to follow. Will Jay Penske take his place?

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

YouTube signs new long-term agreement with Universal Music Group over music rights, royalty rates; sources say Sony Music signed new agreement with YouTube, too — New Universal, Sony agreements allow video uploads to continue — Deals establish royalty rates between YouTube, rights holders

Discussion: xda-developers, The Verge, Variety, Business Insider, 9to5Google and Axios, more at Techmeme »

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Prompted by the “de-badging” of Milo Yiannopoulos, internal emails show confusion among Twitter execs over user verification policies and meaning of the badge — Emails suggest that verification was never quite what Twitter said it was and that the company was aware it served …

Discussion: Gizmodo, @cennydd, @44, @cwarzel, @kurtwagner8, @cwarzel, @katienotopoulos, @kantrowitz, @heatheremerrick and @lainnafader, more at Techmeme »

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Rep. Marsha Blackburn proposes bill to ban site blocking and throttling but allow fast lanes and bar FCC from regulating ISPs as common carriers under Title II — FCC would be permanently barred from using Title II authority over broadband. — A Republican lawmaker is proposing …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Hill, The Verge, @publicknowledge, Gizmodo, Breitbart, @ceciliakang, Mashable, Multichannel News and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Firm pulls out of $120K contract to provide media monitoring to EPA after report that top executive was investigating EPA staff critical of Trump administration — WASHINGTON — A consulting firm has pulled out of a federal contract to provide media monitoring services to the Environmental Protection Agency …

Discussion: @ericliptonnyt, @ericliptonnyt, @ericliptonnyt, @weareoversight, Gizmodo, @senwhitehouse, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones, Washington Post, Axios and San Bernardino Sun

Marc Hogan / Pitchfork:

Pitchfork reporter describes a demo of an interactive project with hand-tracking, designed for Magic Leap hardware in conjunction with rock band Sigur Rós — A first look at the billion-dollar company's potentially game-changing collaboration with Sigur Rós

Discussion: Business Insider, The Verge, Magic Leap, Magic Leap and 9to5Google

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Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
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Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
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Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
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