Top News:
Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:
Since 2016, American Media has made Karen McDougal professional promises and paid $150K in a catch-and-kill arrangement for her story of her affair with Trump — One woman's account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Mediaite, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Week, Axios, @maggienyt, Hollywood Life, The Daily Beast and AOL
David Beard / Poynter:
Interview with The Intercept's Research Director Lynn Dombek on researchers, their skill sets, and their role in site's Dakota pipeline and Rob Porter stories — Move over, Woodward and Bernstein. — This era's great journalistic diggers include Julie Tate, Kitty Bennett, Alice Crites, Margot Williams and Sheelagh McNeill.
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
New analysis shows 36K tweets from Internet Research Agency linked most often to Breitbart News, then Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle; RT ranked 19th — Russia's disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election relied heavily on stories produced by major American news sources …
Discussion:
Wired, Nieman Lab, @nitashatiku, @wired, @ilvestoomas, Fast Company, @profcarroll, @justinhendrix and Jonathan Albright
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
District court judge says using image from tweet in a news story could violate copyright, in a case involving multiple news outlets including Vox Media, Gannett — The defendants including Breitbart, Time, Vox and the Boston Globe warned a loss would “cause a tremendous chilling effect on the core functionality of the web.”
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Congressman says office of FCC inspector general, a nonpartisan internal watchdog, is investigating the relationship between Ajit Pai and Sinclair Broadcasting — WASHINGTON — Last April, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, led the charge for his agency …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Chartbeat: AMP traffic to publishers increased 100% since 2017 as mobile dominates traffic growth; Parse.ly data shows Facebook referral traffic fell to 25.3% — According to new data from Chartbeat, the vast majority of traffic growth publishers are seeing from platforms is now coming from Google AMP …
Discussion:
Recode, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Accelerated Mobile …, Digiday and Marketing Land, more at Techmeme »
Brian Dowling / Boston Herald:
Digital First Media has acquired the Boston Herald in a bankruptcy auction with an $11.9M bid, beating out GateHouse Media and Revolution Capital — Digital First Media won the Boston Herald in a five-hour bankruptcy auction with an $11.9million bid that all but settles who will carry …
Discussion:
BostonGlobe.com and @bobmcgovernjr
Adam Rogers / Wired:
A look at the complicated case of Quinn Norton and The New York Times, in which the NYT compounded its apparent lack of due diligence with surrender to the mob — Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times announced it was hiring an opinion writer named Quinn Norton to write about “the power, culture, and consequences of technology.”
Discussion:
@erikwemple, Washington Post, New York Magazine, @fraying, @jayrosen_nyu, @tomscocca, @barry, HuffPost, @davidklion, @ashleyfeinberg, @freeblackgirl, @dangillmor, @jessicaschulb, @barrettbrown_, @lpolgreen, @lorenraedej, @ciphergoth, The Federalist, @bydanielvictor, HuffPost, Slate and Slate
Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed:
Reporter's outreach to shooting survivors via Twitter was hindered by accounts falsifying her words and targeting her; Twitter said targeting didn't break rules — In the wake of the Florida high school shooting Wednesday, Twitter users began spreading doctored tweets targeting Miami Herald reporter Alex Harris.
Discussion:
@cwarzel, @marxmedia, @mat, @harrisalexc, @noupside, @hashtaggriswold, @emilybell, @harrisalexc, @derekwillis, Poynter and Media Matters for America
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Magna Global: TV ad sales in the US fell 7.8% to $61.8B in 2017, the biggest drop outside a recession in at least 20 years, with no sign of a pickup in 2018 — Sales drop last year was worst outside a recession in 20 years — The peak of the market was two years ago, Magna Global says
Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:
UK magazine circulation July-December 2017: Economist up 8% YoY, Fortune EU down 32%, Spectator at all-time high as editor lauds digital for rising print sales — Spectator editor Fraser Nelson has said digital is behind a “renaissance” of print sales, which he said were at an all-time high …
Discussion:
Coffee House, WWD and One Man & His Blog
Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed:
How Facebook prioritizing friends' content with many comments led to a post reappearing atop people's News Feed over and over, increasing “engagement” even more — Last Saturday — 12 days ago now — I shared a cringeworthy video on Facebook: a 6-minute clip …
Discussion:
@oliverdarcy, @katienotopoulos, @annehelen, @dominicholden, @cwarzel and @aahaworth, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Facebook partners with Lyft, Chase, Save the Children, and others to bolster its Community Help efforts by offering more information on food, transport, shelter — Facebook is amping up its Community Help efforts, now enabling companies like Lyft, Chase, International Medical Corps and Save …
Discussion:
Facebook, Forbes, Android Police, Engadget, Fast Company and Adweek, more at Techmeme »
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