Top News:
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 — A yoga-pants refusenik, a climate science skeptic, and a tech writer with a neo-Nazi pal, among other offenders, have put James Bennet in the crosshairs.
Discussion:
HuffPost, @blakehounshell, @wolfrum, @joshuahol, @jeffjarvis, @mathewi, @page88, @xeni, @gregmitch, @morlockp, Splinter, Splinter, @glennf, @maxboot, @rickyrawls, @vanityfair, @corgizhukov, @awinston, @paleofuture, @joepompeo, @jonathanchait, @jbenton, @jayrosen_nyu, @tomscocca, @jackshafer, @rbryant2012, @joepompeo, @sulliview, @willsommer, @onesarahjones, @davidklion and @jackmirkinson
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 …
Discussion:
Variety, Press Gazette, The Wrap, InvestEgate, Fortune, MarketWatch, Broadcasting & Cable, Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Wrap, Bloomberg, TheStreet, Telegraph, The Guardian, Seeking Alpha, Reuters and @financialtimes
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:
@underoak, @michellemanafy, @jason_w_white, @thewilderthings, @nathanbomey, @onecolleen and @nkulw
Tamara Mathias / Reuters:
Liberty Media offers $1.16B for a 40% stake in restructured iHeartMedia and will finance working capital if iHeart files bankruptcy according to term sheet — (Reuters) - Certain lenders and noteholders of iHeartMediaInc (IHRT.PK) on Monday said John Malone's Liberty Media Corp (FWONA.O) …
Discussion:
Variety, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Radio Ink, Seeking Alpha, Media Star, @patricialclark and Hits Daily Double
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 to put up online paywalls.
Discussion:
@digiday, @raju, @janebsinger, @lpolgreen, @heytimgriggs and @craigsilverman
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 …
Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson is returning to the small screen, joining Epix show “America Divided” as executive producer and correspondent — Carlson will executive produce and serve as a correspondent for season two of ‘America Divided.’ — Gretchen Carlson is returning to the small screen.
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav said the company has added nearly 500K subscribers in Europe to its streaming services during the Winter Olympics — “I can't think of another company ... that has been able to garner almost half a million subscribers in less than 15 days," says Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The News Media Alliance is setting up a political action committee, which will reward members of Congress who help the newspaper industry meet its goals — The newspaper industry is working with Facebook to launch a new project to help local newspapers beef up their digital subscription efforts, Axios has learned.
Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:
Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division continues to have a YouTube presence despite being implicated in five murders; YouTube says a warning label is sufficient — While social media platforms like Twitter crack down on abuse from alt-right accounts, YouTube is defending hosting propaganda videos …
Discussion:
@anthony, @cwarzel, HuffPost and Motherboard
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:
Deadline and Hollywood Reporter