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withdraws from customary role of prior year's best actor presenting best actress award at Oscars — Casey Affleck has withdrawn from presenting the best actress award at the March 4 Academy Award ceremonies.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, The Wrap, /Film, Washington Post, Business Insider, The New York Observer, Mediaite, Fast Company, NPR, New York Times, Rolling Stone, @alexburnsnyt, The Ringer, Glamour, @_celia_marie_, Consequence of Sound, The Daily Caller, Vox, Vanity Fair, Mashable, Slate, thecut, TVLine, PAPERMAG, The A.V. Club, Decider, Splinter and IndieWire
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, CNNMoney, TechCrunch, @katienotopoulos, The Daily Caller, @morewillie, Ad Age, Forbes, The Wrap, @srabil, @justinkownacki, Tubefilter, @timcast, @jenchung, @alyssabereznak, @niemanlab, @johnnydollar01, The Verge, Variety, @rrhoover, @perlberg, Mashable, Business Insider, Engadget, Gizmodo, Mediaite and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
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 …
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
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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:
Variety, Politico, The Wrap, @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, Variety, BuzzFeed, The Daily Caller, 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:
Mashable, Daily Mail, Engadget, Business Insider, The Verge, MacRumors, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Fast Company, 9to5Mac 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:
@davidfolkenflik, @jguynn, @byandreachang, @mattdpearce, LA Observed, @nataliekitro, @chadterhune, @bymattstevens, @mattdpearce and @charlesornstein
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
Colin Deppen / The Incline:
Unionized Pittsburgh Press-Gazette employees, who haven't received raises for 12 years, begin byline strike amid contract negotiations with the paper's owners — Newsroom employees at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are withholding their names from the articles they write and the news products …
Discussion:
The NewsGuild - CWA, @swernerpg, @lexibelc and Pittsburgh City Paper
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a redesigned Books reading app that includes a Reading Now section, dedicated tab for audio books, and redesigned store — Company working on new digital book reader for iPhones, iPads — iPhone maker hires former Amazon, Barnes & Noble exec for unit
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