Top News:
Recode:
Facebook's daily active user base in the US and Canada fell for the first time ever in Q4, dropping from 185M to 184M in the previous quarter — It was a small but negative change to daily active users in Facebook's most valuable market. — Here's a troubling data point if you're a Facebook investor …
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CNBC, Bloomberg, ZDNet, MediaNama, @privacymatters, @dhh, @bloombergasia, @jmichaelwaller, The Next Web, Fortune, GeekWire and Vanity Fair, more at Techmeme »
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Richard Nieva / CNET:
Mark Zuckerberg says showing fewer viral videos reduced the total time people spent on Facebook by ~50M hours every day, as MAUs reach 2.13B, up 14% YoY — The world's biggest social network is almost minting money, but Mark Zuckerberg has warned news feed changes could hurt business.
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Facebook, CNBC, Press Gazette, Fast Company, TechCrunch, The Wrap, @joshconstine, BGR, Ad Age, New York Times, Recode, New York Magazine, VentureBeat, AdExchanger, Forbes, TechCrunch, CNBC, Business Insider, Variety and @anthony, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
Twitter accounts for celebrities and media figures lose followers after NYT probe into firm that sold followers and as officials call for scrutiny of practice — Federal and state authorities are investigating the sellers of artificial followers and other fraudulent social media engagement.
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Dirk VanderHart / Portland Mercury:
Memo: The Oregonian, owned by Advance Publications, lays off 11 newsroom staffers — After repeated rounds of layoffs, it's hard to imagine the Oregonian having anywhere else to cut. But the news business's grim prognosis marches on, so the cuts continue.
Darren Rovell / ESPN:
21st Century Fox wins 5-year contract for NFL's Thursday Night Football in deal sources say is worth $660M+/year; streaming rights to be sold in next few weeks — Thursday Night Football is changing networks once again. — The NFL announced Wednesday morning that the package will go to Fox for the next five seasons.
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Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, SportsBusiness Daily, nflcommunications.com, Radio & Television …, The New York Observer, Ad Age, Fortune, Bloomberg, Forbes, TVWeek.com, Adweek, Business Insider, FierceCable, ProFootballTalk, VideoNuze Analysis, @darrenrovell, @sportslawguy, @helmandc, @nicksundberg, @richbtig, @cyleeder and Deadline
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:
Twitter now says 1.4M+ US users interacted with tweets from Russia-linked accounts during 2016 election, up from 670K previously announced, has notified them — Twitter on Wednesday said it notified 1.4 million people in the US that they engaged with Kremlin-linked troll accounts during the 2016 US election.
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@cfarivar, @propornot, The Hill, @markseibel, @kantrowitz, Recode, TechCrunch, Engadget, @kimzetter and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
National Book Awards will recognize translated books, giving awards jointly to living authors and translators for works published in the US — The National Book Awards, among the most prestigious literary prizes, are going global. — Starting this year, the National Book Foundation …
Discussion:
Publishers Weekly, Bookseller News, @scottesposito, @philnel, @likaluca, Melville House Books, @likaluca and NPR
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Pandora announces restructuring, shifting resources to ad tech and audience development, cutting workforce by 5% to save $45M annually, will expand in Atlanta — Pandora Media is pink-slipping about 5% of its workforce, a move the streaming-music company said will help it save $45 million annually.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Fast Company, Radio & Television …, MediaPost, Pandora, Business Insider, RAIN News, Radio Ink, @conorsen, AdExchanger, MarketWatch, @urvaksh and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
A look at the economic shifts as publishers move from guaranteed payments to revenue sharing with content recommendation services like Outbrain and Taboola — For the past three years, publishers have benefited from fat guarantees from content recommendation services like Outbrain and Taboola.
Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
Meredith CEO Tom Harty says editorial staff face no changes yet at Time Inc. as Meredith takes over; Time Inc. CEO Rich Battista, other top executives to leave — Meredith is moving in. — The $2.8 billion acquisition of Time Inc. becomes final on Jan. 31, and Meredith officially takes over Feb. 1.
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Fortune, Page Six, @davidzmorris, @abbywestnyc, TVWeek.com and Vanity Fair
Trey Williams / MarketWatch:
Time Warner Q4 revenue grew 9% YoY to $8.6B and annual revenue increased 7% YoY to $31.3B as Warner Bros., HBO, and Turner increased revenue and profits — Shares of Time Warner Inc. TWX, +.95% rose less than 1% in premarket trade on Thursday after the media and entertainment company reported …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, Reuters and Time Warner
Alex Balk / The Awl:
The Awl, born in 2009 from the idea that intelligent readers wanted resonant, weird, and amusing news and ideas, has now passed away; archives survive — The Awl was born of the following thoughts: What if there were a website with a wealth of resonant, weird, important, frightening and amusing bits of news and ideas?
Discussion:
Boing Boing, @kottke, @tomscocca, @dvnjr, Eamonn Fitzgerald, @snackwave_julie, @andrewlavallee, @mishaangrist, @johndelsignore, @casey_cac, @tcarmody and @jyarvin
Scott Roxborough / Hollywood Reporter:
126 prominent European screenwriters and directors sign open letter urging EU lawmakers to adopt copyright law aimed at better compensating creatives online — The 126 signatories, including directors Alan Parker, Stefan Ruzowitzky and Agnieszka Holland, are pushing for the European Union …
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
BBC Director-General Tony Hall says the corporation made a “mistake” in failing to review Carrie Gracie's salary as China editor — Tony Hall appears in London's House of Commons in a public evidence session along with other top executives of the public broadcaster and former China editor Carrie Gracie.
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