Top News:
Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Comcast offers about £22B for Sky, a 16% premium on the offer from Murdoch's 21st Century Fox — US cable TV group outbids 21st Century Fox's existing offer for broadcasting group … Comcast is attempting to gatecrash Rupert Murdoch's takeover of Sky, submitting a rival offer …
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Publishers are pivoting to subscriptions, as they did to video, but industry execs warn that reader revenue is a difficult business model to implement — Publishers are pivoting hard to subscriptions. In the past few months alone, publishers including CNN, The Atlantic and Wired have made moves …
Discussion:
@craigsilverman, @digiday, @raju, @janebsinger, @lpolgreen and @heytimgriggs
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook to launch Local News Subscriptions Accelerator, a $3M three-month pilot program to help metro papers boost digital subscription efforts — Facebook Journalism Project will announce today the launch of its Local News Subscriptions Accelerator, a $3 million, three-month pilot program …
Discussion:
Facebook Media, Nieman Lab, Adweek, TechCrunch, Engadget, @thewilderthings, @michellemanafy, @nathanbomey, @jason_w_white, @underoak, The Verge, @onecolleen and @nkulw, more at Techmeme »
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
The New York Times is in talks with streaming services and cable channels about launching a weekly ~30-minute TV show — The New York Times has conquered the podcasting world with “The Daily.” Now it wants to crack television with a weekly news program. — The Times is seeking …
Discussion:
The New York Observer, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter
Ashley Feinberg / HuffPost:
Transcript of a Q&A with the New York Times' Editorial Page Editor James Bennet which happened during a meeting with NYT staffers in December — “The world needs this from us right now.” … James Bennet: So the op-ed page was created to do a bunch of different things.
Discussion:
Splinter and Editor & Publisher
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Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
NYT editorial-page editor James Bennet defends op-ed page controversy, saying it publishes a variety of voices; newsroom sources voice concern and embarrassment
NYT editorial-page editor James Bennet defends op-ed page controversy, saying it publishes a variety of voices; newsroom sources voice concern and embarrassment
Discussion:
HuffPost, @blakehounshell, The Wrap, The Daily Caller, bookforum.com, @wolfrum, @joshuahol, @jeffjarvis, @mathewi, @page88, @xeni, @gregmitch, @morlockp, Splinter, @glennf, Splinter, @maxboot, @rickyrawls, @vanityfair, @corgizhukov, @awinston and @paleofuture
Natasha Bertrand / The Atlantic:
Twitter DMs show Trump confidant Roger Stone and WikiLeaks communicated directly in October and November 2016, contrary to their denials in 2017 — On March 17, 2017, WikiLeaks tweeted that it had never communicated with Roger Stone, a longtime confidante and informal adviser to President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
@kpoulsen
Sonam Rai / Reuters:
Discovery Communications had a net loss of $1.14B in Q4, says it expects to close $14.6B acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive by end of Q1 2018 — (Reuters) - Discovery Communications Inc's (DISCA.O) revenue topped analysts' forecasts in the fourth quarter as the owner of Discovery Channel …
Discussion:
NASDAQ.com and PR Newswire
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Maria Sheahan / Reuters:
Germany's highest court rules that Google is not obligated to ensure websites are free from defamatory content before displaying links to them in search results — FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Google (GOOGL.O) is not obligated to ensure websites are free from defamatory content before displaying links …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Search Engine Land and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Julia Alexander / Polygon:
Logan Paul is rejoining YouTube's monetization program after a two-week suspension but is ineligible for its Preferred Ads, its platform for premium advertisers — A 90-day probation is still in effect — Logan Paul's YouTube channel is getting advertising again, but his probation isn't entirely over yet.
Discussion:
Tubefilter, Business Insider, @shadypenguinn and The Verge
Quinn Norton / The Atlantic:
How social media created and attacked a version of myself that lacked context after The New York Times hired, and then fired, me for its editorial board — The day before Valentine's Day, social media created a bizarro-world version of me. I have seen strange ideas about me online before …
Discussion:
emptywheel, Mediaite, @digidave, @katierogers, @astepanovich, @nickstatt, @willsommer, @bafeldman, @aherman2006, @_cingraham, @lesterfreamon, @drewbeck, @kevin2kelly, @timothynoah1, @alexnazaryan, @ckummer, @aglasgowgirl, @sjgrunewald, @jessesingal, @vivian, @jason_pontin, @futureboy and @jayrosen_nyu
Brittany Shammas / Miami New Times:
Internal email: Howard Saltz, editor and publisher of Tronc's The Sun Sentinel in Broward County, is leaving effective Wednesday — Just after noon today, in the midst of covering what is arguably the biggest story in the nation right now — the Parkland high-school shooting spree …
Discussion:
@miaminewtimes, @rosemaryohara14, @buddynevins, @marcacaputo, miamiherald, @marcacaputo and @rosemaryohara14
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Fox News wins appeal against TVEyes, a service that enables searching, watching, sharing of TV clips; ruling says TVEyes' product not justified as fair use — The 2nd Circuit rejects copyright fair use arguments made by the media monitoring service TVEyes.
Discussion:
Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, MediaPost, Radio & Television …, TVNewser, Bloomberg, Associated Press and The Daily Caller
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Michael Wolff has floated unsubstantiated rumors about Trump having an affair but has now backtracked and canceled interviews after tough questioning — Christian Fraser, a host with the BBC program “Beyond 100 Days,” has tweeted that Michael Wolff, author of “Fire and Fury …
Discussion:
@realfacelessman, @erikwemple, @escarry, @viacristiano and Mediaite
Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
Vanity Fair Editor Radhika Jones has made a series of new hires, naming Claire Howorth as deputy editor and Caryn Prime as director of editorial operations — Ten days after Vanity Fair's new editor, Radhika Jones, took an ax to the staff she inherited from Graydon Carter, she is slowly filling some of the positions.