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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


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.


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


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.”


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 …


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 »


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


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


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


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


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


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 »
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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 »