Mediagazer: Subsidiary of Canada's The Katz Group has bought a majority stake in Laura Ingraham's LifeZette; Ingraham maintains a minority stake (Hadas Gold/CNNMoney)

3:15 PM ET, January 30, 2018

Top News:

Jon Levine / The Wrap:

Vice Media has fired Chief Digital Officer Mike Germano following two separate allegations of sexual misconduct against him — Vice Media has fired its chief digital officer, Mike Germano, after at least two women accused him of sexual misconduct, TheWrap has learned.

Discussion: Digiday, Variety, Adweek, Fast Company, @emilysteel, Business Insider and @emilysteel

BBC:

PwC review of BBC pay structure found no gender bias in decision making, but identified anomalies, recommends clear pay framework, narrower pay ranges — Today the BBC has published a review of on-air pay carried out by PwC, and set out a five-point plan to help create a fairer and more equal BBC.

Discussion: Variety, Press Gazette, Press Gazette, allmediascotland, National Union of Journalists, Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, BBC, @rachel_hump, @newsfrommichiel, Press Gazette and Westmonster

BBC:
BBC Women, a group representing female BBC journalists and producers, say employees experienced “veiled threats” when raising subject of equal pay

Discussion: The Guardian, National Union of Journalists, HuffPost UK and Press Gazette

Hadas Gold / CNNMoney:

Subsidiary of Canada's The Katz Group has bought a majority stake in Laura Ingraham's LifeZette; Ingraham maintains a minority stake — Canadian billionaire Daryl Katz's company is the new owner of LifeZette, the site co-founded by Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

Sam Charles / Chicago Sun Times:

Chicago Sun-Times EIC Chris Fusco says Times will not publish anything by Richard Roeper as it investigates allegations he paid to boost his Twitter followers — The Chicago Sun-Times will not publish columns or reviews authored by Richard Roeper as the newspaper investigates the legitimacy of Roeper's sizable Twitter following.

Pew Research Center:

Pew: analysis of 9.7M tweets shows 75% of tweets about immigration contained links to news sites, with NYT and The Hill as the two most-tweeted sites — An analysis of 9.7 million tweets reveals that news organizations played the largest role in which content was linked to compared with other information providers

Discussion: Nieman Lab

A.J. Chavar / Vox:

National Geographic's Deputy Director of Photography, Patrick Witty, was fired from the magazine after an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment — The magazine's former deputy director of photography, Patrick Witty, is accused of a wide variety of harassment.

Discussion: @davidc7, @maddiemcgarvey, @indira_l, @hannahbloch, @bettinahansen, @duckrabbitblog, @strobist, @driverwrites, @morgmccloy, @nicole_cliffe, @azambelich, @callakessler and @studentactivism

Paul Schwartzman / Washington Post:

Profile of Mark Ein, Washington City Paper's new VC owner, who calls himself a centrist, isn't much of a reader, and says journalists help save our world — Mark Ein, the venture capitalist who recently bought the Washington City Paper, could never be confused for the counterculture contrarians …

Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:

Hyundai pulls planned Super Bowl ad that promoted women's empowerment after response to similar Audi ad last year and poor results with male focus group — Television ads for the big game are emerging from months of work in Madison Avenue war rooms — In early August, creative teams …

Pamela Barbaglia / Reuters:

Sources: Blackstone Group LP offers Reuters news unit annual payments of $325M for 30 years, as part of bid to buy a 55% stake in Thomson Reuters — LONDON (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) has agreed that annual payments of $325 million would be made for 30 years to the Reuters News business …

Discussion: Financial Times, Thomson Reuters, Financial Times and New York Times

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Sources: Amazon and Facebook are interested in bidding for streaming rights to WWE's “Raw” and “Smackdown” franchises, as tech firms compete with TV giants — The year is 2034. The Olympics that have been a fixture on channels owned by NBCUniversal since 2002 have disappeared from TV altogether.

Charleston Gazette-Mail:

West Virginia's Charleston Gazette-Mail declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with Wheeling Newspapers the likely high bidder to assume ownership; layoffs possible — The owners of the Charleston Gazette-Mail agreed Monday to take the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Discussion: @reveal, @ruralj, @bgrueskin, @alexhousethomas, @tombraggsports, @leslierubinwchs, @andy_ed_brown, WSAZ-TV, Herald-Dispatch.com, wvpublic.org, WVNS and WV MetroNews

Celeste Katz / Newsweek:

Newsweek Media's chief content officer Dayan Candappa takes immediate leave following report of his 2016 dismissal from Reuters over sexual harassment complaint — The chief content officer of Newsweek Media Group, which publishes Newsweek and a suite of other digital properties …

Discussion: The Wrap and Talking Biz News

Rossalyn Warren / BuzzFeed:
Reuters editor Dayan Candappa was fired in '16 after sexual harassment complaint; he now oversees content at Newsweek Media Group despite warning about his past

Discussion: @sydneyp1234, @michelefilmat11, New York Post, @joepompeo and Talking Biz News

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

The Trump administration has both boosted political journalists, with print reporters receiving cable TV contracts, and endangered them — WASHINGTON — Asked to reflect on the relationship between President Trump and the news media — an abusive yet symbiotic union, if there ever was one …

Discussion: @jacob_brogan, @michaelkruse and @grynbaum

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

NYT's Glenn Thrush to return to Washington bureau covering HUD, HHS, and the social safety net, after suspension related to inappropriate conduct allegations — Glenn Thrush on Tuesday will return to the Washington bureau of the New York Times after serving a suspension relating to allegations …

Discussion: @ositanwanevu, @ericboehlert, @samstein and The Hill

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin: ‘I regret my role’ in Hillary Clinton false equivalence — So long as President Trump continues disgracing the Oval Office, thoughtful people will probe their own role in helping him get there. — Such appeared to be the motivation behind a mea culpa issued …

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @heatherweaverdc, @tressiemcphd, Mediaite, @on_politike and @jayrosen_nyu