Mediagazer: Tronc has confirmed it is selling the Los Angeles Times and a number of other newspapers to billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong for $500M in cash (Supantha Mukherjee/Reuters)

3:15 PM ET, February 7, 2018

Top News:

Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters:

Tronc has confirmed it is selling the Los Angeles Times and a number of other newspapers to billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong for $500M in cash — (Reuters) - Tronc Inc (TRNC.O) said on Wednesday it would sell some newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune …

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

Tronc forms new company, Tribune Interactive, with Ross Levinsohn as its CEO and ex-LA Times EIC Lewis D'Vorkin as its chief content officer — Biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has agreed to purchase the Los Angeles Times from its parent company Tronc, restoring local ownership …

Hollywood Reporter:

Disney is developing a number of Star Wars series for its streaming service, CEO Bob Iger said during an earnings call on Tuesday — Disney CEO Bob Iger tells investors that the company is close to revealing at least one of the producing teams behind one of the projects.

Discussion: StarWars.com, Slate, Vanity Fair, The Playlist, @americanstnick, Deadline, The A.V. Club, /Film, CinemaBlend, Press Association and io9

Peter Kafka / Recode:
Streaming service ESPN Plus launching next month at $4.99/mo; sources say it won't have ESPN cable channels' content, which still requires ESPN subscription

Discussion: Fast Company, Forbes, Pocket-lint, TechCrunch, The Wrap, AppAdvice.com, Engadget, Slate, CNBC, CNNMoney, CNBC, Variety, Associated Press, The Verge, @spingriffey, 9to5Mac and Broadcasting & Cable, more at Techmeme »

Christine Wang / CNBC:
Disney reports mixed Q1 results with revenue of $15.35B vs. $15.45B expected; media and networks, consumer and interactive, and studio units miss targets

Discussion: /Film, Recode, Mashable, Broadcasting & Cable, FierceCable, The Wrap, The Playlist, The New York Observer, The Walt Disney Company, Variety and @jyarow

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Reddit bans r/deepfakes, which was devoted to making AI-powered porn using celebrities' faces, and updates site-wide rules regarding “involuntary pornography” — Reddit has banned the r/deepfakes subreddit that's devoted to making AI-powered porn using celebrities' faces …

Discussion: Motherboard, New York Magazine, Engadget and reddit, more at Techmeme »

Samantha Cole / Motherboard:
Pornhub says it's banning AI-generated fake porn videos because they're “nonconsensual”, yet such “deepfake” videos are still available via site search results

Discussion: Variety, Engadget, The Verge, The Guardian, The Next Web, Fast Company, Mashable, The Verge, The Daily Dot and Trusted Reviews, more at Techmeme »

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Vice Media missed its 2017 revenue target of $805M by $100M+, largely due to its Viceland TV channel; co-president Creighton unlikely to return to role — Digital media company misses revenue forecast; shareholders push company to turn a profit — Vice Media is facing uncertainty …

Discussion: Fast Company, @annehelen, @sknthla, @keachhagey, @iankar_, @srabil, @asharma, @simonowens and @raju

Anna Washenko / RAIN News:

RadioPublic launches Paid Listens, guarantees participating podcasters $20 CPM for every listen via its iOS and Android apps — Podcast company RadioPublic has adopted a new service for show creators to get paid for their work. The approach is designed for podcasts that don't have the scale …

Discussion: RadioPublic, @mattervc, @evoterra and Fast Company

Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed:

A look at 29 Facebook pages and sites of fake news publishers, which are using Instant Articles to help completely false stories load faster and earn revenue — Most fake news Instant Articles included ads from Facebook's advertising network. — While some mainstream publishers …

Discussion: @firstdraftnews, @janelytv, @niemanlab, @craigsilverman and @craigsilverman

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed:

Russian trolls posed as black activists on Tumblr and generated hundreds of thousands of interactions with anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-Bernie Sanders content — Tumblrs run by Russian trolls generated hundreds of thousands of interactions with anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-Bernie Sanders content.

Discussion: TechCrunch, @securedemocracy, The Stranger …, Engadget, @20committee, @kylegriffin1, @d1gi, Business Insider and @profcarroll, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Snapchat is launching to tool to let TV networks pipe snippets of live broadcasts directly into the app, starting this Saturday with NBC's Olympics coverage — Deal could forge closer ties between traditional TV networks and Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc. — Georgia Wells and Benjamin Mullin

Discussion: The Next Web, @ctrlzee, @georgia_wells, @kerrymflynn, 9to5Mac and AppAdvice.com, more at Techmeme »

Jack Nicas / Wall Street Journal:

YouTube's recommendations engine, which drives 70%+ of its viewing time, often suggests conspiracy channels and more, even to users who don't seek them out — Google's video site often recommends divisive or misleading material, despite recent changes designed to fix the problem

Discussion: @jacknicas, @trevornoren, @max_read and @bradnews, more at Techmeme »

Robert Feder:

Three former editors of DNAinfo Chicago are starting a local news site with five reporters, funded by subscriptions with support from blockchain-based Civil — Three editors from the former DNAinfo Chicago are reuniting to start up a new neighborhood news website to be funded by reader subscriptions.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @byalisonbowen, @coltcabana, @repannwilliams, Kickstarter, @emily__olsen, @lillian_ruiz, @rachelholliday, @amandarivkin, @greenfieldjohn, @byalisonbowen, @amlwhere and Stephanie Graves

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

The Information's Jessica Lessin and Stratechery's Ben Thompson argue differentiated content and online subscriptions form a viable model for local news outlets — You could almost hear the trumpets blaring in the background of Mark Zuckerberg's announcement last week that Facebook …

Discussion: @jbenton and @rbilton

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Snapchat says it generated $100M in revenue for Discover's publishing partners in 2017, up from $58M in 2016 and $10M in 2015 — Snapchat says it generated $100 million in revenue for content partners on Discover in 2017, up from $58 million in 2016 and $10 million in 2015.

Discussion: Recode and @matildegiglio

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