Top News:
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
The Weinstein Company avoids bankruptcy through a $500M takeover led by Maria Contreras-Sweet; deal includes up to $90M in compensation for Weinstein accusers — Weinstein empire unravels amid scandal — The Weinstein Company's bankruptcy talk has been replaced by deal talk.
Discussion:
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Cara Buckley / New York Times:
E! producer Aileen Gram-Moreno says she was fired for allowing a clip that criticized the network over gender pay disparity to air during Golden Globes show — With accusations of sexual harassment dogging its star host, Ryan Seacrest, and celebrities reportedly planning to steer clear …
Discussion:
@caranyt, @tvwiththinus, East Bay Times, Yahoo! News, Glamour, Hollywood Reporter, Vulture, Hollywood Life, Mediaite, AOL, Deadline, TV Tattle, The New York Observer, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Page Six, Mashable and PAPERMAG
Kristopher Tapley / Variety:
Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster to present best actress Oscar, replacing Casey Affleck who withdrew after sexual harassment accusations — Breaking with tradition in the midst of an awards season that has come to colloquially become known as “the year of the woman,” …
Discussion:
Refinery29, IndieWire, The A.V. Club and Mashable
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed:
Some sites change domain names, a practice known as domain hopping, to avoid ad agency blacklists and losing traffic as a result of Facebook's algorithm changes — Domain hopping is one way publishers are combatting declining traffic from Facebook while also staying one step ahead of advertising blacklists.
Discussion:
@adam22
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Sources detail what some describe as an unhappy work environment at Snap, where CEO Evan Spiegel retains tight control but has been empowering some executives — Employees won't get cash bonuses after missing internal goals — Spiegel said to be working to spread decision-making authority
Discussion:
Cheddar, Slate, BloombergQuint, @sarahfrier, @jank0, @alexeheath, @shiraovide, @sarahfrier and @adamsinger, more at Techmeme »
Paul Mozur / New York Times:
China is prosecuting a citizen who shared a critical message on WhatsApp; message was likely obtained by hacking a phone or via spy in a WhatsApp group — SHANGHAI — Within its digital borders, China has long censored what its people read and say online. Now, it is increasingly going beyond …
Discussion:
@peterinexile, @paulmozur, @nytimesbusiness, @emilyywu, @niubi, @ehundman, @nytimes, @dgtam86, @scs_disputes and @politicalshort, more at Techmeme »
Nina Xiang / China Money Network:
Chinese anime-streaming platform Bilibili files for $400M US IPO, says its revenue increased from $80.4M in 2016 to $379.4M in 2017 and it had 72M MAUs in Q4 — Chinese online anime-streaming platform Bilibili Inc. has filed a F-1 form to raise as much as US$400 million via a listing …
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Gimlet Media expands into voice assistant content with “Chompers”, a sponsored Alexa app that encourages children to brush their teeth with twice-daily episodes — Podcasting company Gimlet Media is launching its first show for Amazon Alexa, part of a broader push into content for voice assistants
Discussion:
RAIN News
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
With Smarticles, The Guardian tests a format where algorithms provide new information based on the reader's last visit and the importance of new developments — Like Circa before it, The Guardian aims to atomize a big breaking story into its individual parts — and then be smart about showing you the right ones at the right time.
Discussion:
@bmorrissey
Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:
Compass News app, with a twice-a-day news digest, has drawn 50K users over 10 months in the UK and is training an AI editor to mimic human editors' decisions — “If you go to any news site, at least half the headlines require a huge amount of assumed knowledge.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
State lawmakers in Maryland, New York, and Washington weigh bills regulating political ads on Facebook, Google, and Twitter — Alonzo Washington delivered a dire warning to his fellow delegates in Maryland's legislature last month: Russia might try to influence their elections, too.
Discussion:
@russellbrandom, @cpassariello and @sunfoundation
American Press Institute:
Survey of 4,113 subscribers to 90 local newspapers: subscriptions are triggered by promotions, quality and accuracy matter, print and digital subscribers differ — This research was conducted by the Media Insight Project — an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research