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for Weinstein accusers — Weinstein empire unravels amid scandal — The Weinstein Company's bankruptcy talk has been replaced by deal talk.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:
Variety, @agschneiderman, /Film, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, BloombergQuint, KTLA, Reuters, Fortune, Bloomberg, TVWeek.com, NPR and Reuters
Tim Johnson / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Spokesman for FL Senator Bill Nelson says Twitter representatives will provide briefing Monday on how Twitter was used to share hoaxes after Parkland shooting — WASHINGTON — Officials from Twitter Inc. are going to Capitol Hill to explain how impostors could carry off a hoax to undermine …
Discussion:
@juliawb, @justinhendrix, @cwarzel, @stevemullis, @cforman, @dpfunke and @timgrieve
CNNMoney:
John Moody, who wrote an inflammatory Fox News column about the Olympics that was later taken down, has retired — Fox News exec slams Olympic committee's focus on diversity — John Moody, the longtime Fox News executive who wrote a controversial column about the US Olympic committee last month …
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, @oliverdarcy, @mattgertz, Hollywood Reporter, Mediaite, TVNewser, TVWeek.com and Deadspin
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
Twitter says it's seeking proposals from experts to assess its “health” and whether it's fostering positive debate or enabling “abuse, spam, and manipulation” — Twitter, like other major tech companies, has faced a year of punishing criticism, as it's been roiled by misinformation …
Discussion:
Adweek, Twitter, Wired, Recode, Slate, BloombergQuint, Washington Post, @adam_stirling, Digiday, Fast Company, Digital Trends, The Hill, Fortune, Cortico, Business Insider, The Guardian, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, BuzzFeed, CNNMoney, Mashable, Variety, The Outline, @sanazbahargam, @ibarguen, @jack, Jezebel, @rogerpielkejr, @gracie, @jimprosser, @darth, @jack, USA Today, @jack, @jack, @jack, Engadget and CNBC, more at Techmeme »
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
ABC News, The Athletic, and Atlantic are contending for ownership of FiveThirtyEight, which averaged 4M-6M unique visitors/month in past year, ~21M in Nov. 2016 — Statistics guru's website is poised to move on from a five-year tie-up with ESPN — The list of suitors for Nate Silver's …
Discussion:
@shalini and Awful Announcing
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Facebook says it's ending test in six countries that moved Pages' posts from News Feed to secondary Explore Feed, is also ending Explore Feed bookmark globally — Facebook has ended a test that put publishers in one feed and friends in another. — Facebook has decided it's a bad idea …
Discussion:
Forbes, Facebook, Adweek, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Fortune, SlashGear, The Daily Caller, Quartz, Digital Trends, Engadget, TechCrunch, The Guardian, Mashable, The Verge, Fast Company and @caseynewton, more at Techmeme »
Politico:
Ken Kurson, former editor of NY Observer, says he's working with blogger David Wildstein, who was involved in Bridgegate, to relaunch a news site on NJ politics — Ken Kurson, the former editor of Jared Kushner's Observer who helped draft Donald Trump's 2016 AIPAC speech …
Max Willens / Digiday:
For publishers, new revenue lines like events don't make up for advertising losses; Reuters survey finds that the average publisher lists six revenue streams — Many publishers are faced with a math problem. All the new “incremental” revenue lines — commerce, licensing, micropayments …
Paul Blumenthal / HuffPost:
A look at parallels between Internet Research Agency's tactics and Mic.com's: using emotional, divisive content that increases clicks on social media — What Russia's dirty tricks campaign had in common with online media. — The troll operation liked divisive, emotionally charged content …
Discussion:
@akbarsahmed
Peter Kafka / Recode:
BuzzFeed to start selling Tasty-branded cookware in Walmart stores and online; sales projected to make up ~25% of BuzzFeed's commerce group revenue this year — Tasty spatulas and other gadgets are coming to 4,000 stores. — BuzzFeed is looking for money wherever it can find it.
Discussion:
Fast Company
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:
@sarahfrier, @jank0, @alexeheath, @shiraovide, @sarahfrier, @adamsinger, BloombergQuint and Business Insider
Eric Johnson / Recode:
Interview with Katie Couric on her time at Yahoo: though it spent money on big-name reporters, it didn't know how to distribute and scale its quality content — “They hired some big names, and yet they were in the witness protection program.” — When Katie Couric joined Yahoo in 2014 …
Discussion:
Fox News, Beyond Search and The Daily Caller