Top News:
Dave McNary / Variety:
Casey Affleck, accused of sexually abusive conduct in 2010, withdraws from customary role of prior year's best actor presenting best actress award at Oscars — Casey Affleck has withdrawn from presenting the best actress award at the March 4 Academy Award ceremonies.
Discussion:
Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, /Film, Washington Post, Business Insider, The New York Observer, Mediaite, Fast Company, @alexburnsnyt, The Ringer, Rolling Stone, NPR, New York Times, Vox, Vanity Fair, thecut, The A.V. Club, Glamour, Consequence of Sound, The Daily Caller, TVLine, Decider, @_celia_marie_, Mashable, IndieWire, Slate, PAPERMAG and Splinter
Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed:
How Axios used Mike Allen and distilled news to become influential quickly, with 260K+ newsletter subscribers and more; source says Axios AM fetches ~$75K/week — Every morning, Washington wakes up to Axios AM — Mike Allen's top 10 stories of the day, filled with short bits of breaking news …
Steven Perlberg / BuzzFeed:
CNN is closing Beme and Casey Neistat is leaving following 2016 buyout, which sources say valued it at $20M+; CNN will continue to develop some of its products — CNN acquired Beme in late 2016 with hopes that it would become a major piece of its digital business. Now Neistat's leaving the company.
Discussion:
YouTube, TechCrunch, CNNMoney, @katienotopoulos, Business Insider, @justinkownacki, Tubefilter, @morewillie, @timcast, @jenchung, @johnnydollar01, Forbes, The Verge, Variety, @perlberg, Ad Age, The Daily Caller, The Wrap, Mashable, @srabil, @alyssabereznak, Engadget, Gizmodo, @rrhoover, @niemanlab, Mediaite and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
Reuters:
Sources: Viacom CEO Bob Bakish and CBS CEO Leslie Moonves held “exploratory” discussion on merging companies; boards expected to discuss merger in coming weeks — (Reuters) - Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) Chief Executive Bob Bakish and CBS Corp (CBS.N) CEO Leslie Moonves …
Discussion:
Engadget
RELATED:
Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:
Analysis of behind-the-scenes maneuvers to merge Viacom and CBS and the futures of CEOs Bob Bakish and Leslie Moonves, as Shari Redstone pushes for scale — The mogul faces a delicate negotiation with CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, who wants to be at the helm of the united company.
Ryan Glasspiegel / The Big Lead:
Source: ESPN is exploring options for FiveThirtyEight, including a potential sale to an outlet like The Atlantic or moving the site under ABC News — By the time mid-term election season really heats up, Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight will in all likelihood have a different platform than ESPN.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, Politico, @rafat, @nbj914, @bmorrissey, @danwolken and @mylesudland
Ashley Cullins / Hollywood Reporter:
Former assistant for Harvey Weinstein sues him and Weinstein Company for discrimination and harassment, detailing required tasks to support his liaisons — Sandeep Rehal claims she was required to clean up after his “extremely prolific sexual encounters.” — Harvey Weinstein's former …
Discussion:
Variety, Mediaite, The Guardian, Variety, The Daily Caller, BuzzFeed, Hollywood Life and The Daily Beast
Selina Wang / Bloomberg:
Sources: Twitter is working on a Snapchat-style tool to more easily share videos and photos on the network, but its design and launch aren't yet finalized — Social network is experimenting with new products to woo users — Company seeks to streamline process of posting photos, videos
Discussion:
The Next Web, Engadget, Business Insider, The Verge, MacRumors, Mashable, Daily Mail, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Fast Company, 9to5Google and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
Reports: Kimi Yoshino, business editor at the LA Times and an editor on the Pulitzer-winning Bell corruption scandal stories, was suspended for two days — Kimi Yoshino, the business editor of the Los Angeles Times, has been suspended for two days, according to multiple reports.
Discussion:
@byandreachang, @davidfolkenflik, @schwanksta, @jguynn, @mattdpearce, @nataliekitro, @chadterhune, @mattdpearce, @bymattstevens, @charlesornstein and LA Observed
Mattie Kahn / ELLE:
Meager TV coverage of women's marches highlights imbalance as journalists fail to contextualize and investigate the movement as they have for Trump voters — in women's marches around the world this weekend. But blink, and you'll miss all the attention paid to them on Sunday's top five political talk shows.
Discussion:
@laurenarankin and @b_b_baconator
Register-Guard:
GateHouse Media is buying The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, from the Baker family; GateHouse now has publications in 36 states, 130 daily newspapers — - Colorado-based marijuana company not buying One East Broadway in downtown Eugene, after all; it has already bought another downtown building for a pot shop
Discussion:
@dlboardman, @francescamarief and The Rural Blog
Howard Amos / The Calvert Journal:
The Bell, a US-based, Russia-focused media startup, illustrates a trend of building Russian news orgs independent of owners vulnerable to Kremlin pressure — Screenshot of The Bell's English-language homepage — Two important news stories emerged in December on a topic …
Discussion:
@howardamos
Commissioning Editor - Practical Law — 
Energy Markets Reporter, London — 
Oil Reporter, Singapore — 
Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — 
Business Reporter, SC — 
State Government Reporter, WA — 
Climate Crisis Columnist — 
Multimedia Journalist, CA — 
Community Engagement Mgr., DC — 
Staff Writer - Business, NY — 
Editor, MA — 
Team Editor - Breaking News, ON — 
Senior Reporter & Event Host, NY/CA — 
Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — 
Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — 
News Reporter, MA — 
Multimedia Journalist, PA — 
Managing Editor, WA — 
Private Credit Reporter, NY — 
Trending News Reporter, TX — 
Legislative Reporter, CA — 
Reporter, PA — 
Visual Editor, Remote — 
Staff Writer, MI — 
California Playbook Writer, CA — 
Senior Media Editor — 
National Investigative Reporter, NY — 
Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — 
Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — 
Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — 
Coordinating Editor, OR — 
Staff Reporter, CA — 
Data Editor, NY — 
Editor-in-Chief, AZ — 
