Mediagazer: The 2018 Oscars experienced a 16% decline YoY in ratings, with 26.5M US viewers watching the four-hour broadcast; Trump mocked the figures on Twitter (Gwilym Mumford/The Guardian)

4:15 PM ET, March 6, 2018

Top News:

Gwilym Mumford / The Guardian:

The 2018 Oscars experienced a 16% decline YoY in ratings, with 26.5M US viewers watching the four-hour broadcast; Trump mocked the figures on Twitter — Broadcast for 2018 Academy Awards attracted 26.5m viewers, a 16% drop on last year's ceremony … US president Donald Trump has mocked …

Discussion: @realdonaldtrump, New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, NPR, The Wrap, Washington Post, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Splinter, Variety, Decider, Fox News Insider, Fortune, Breitbart, Fox News, Vanity Fair and Mother Jones

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

The Independent says BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan must have “misremembered” anecdote about traffic-boosting headline, mentioned during speech about press at uni — The Independent has said BBC media editor Amol Rajan “must have misremembered” an anecdote claiming he made a column …

Amol Rajan / BBC:

Transcript of BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan's lecture at the University of Kent in England, on the myths surrounding journalism — I had the privilege of delivering this year's Bob Friend Lecture at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Bob was part of the original Sky News line up …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Subscription-based sports media site The Athletic has raised $20M Series C led by Evolution Media, plans to double staff from 120 to 200-350 employees in 2018 — The two-year-old startup plans to double staffing and expand across the U.S. and into international markets

Discussion: @bill_shea19, @dcsportsbog, @chadgraff, @rafat, @_brian_hamilton, @benmullin and Awful Announcing

Dani Deahl / The Verge:

Apple confirms it will stop taking submissions for iTunes LPs, with bundled items like videos or bonus tracks, as of this month; existing LPs will be available — Existing iTunes LPs will still be available going forward — Apple has confirmed to The Verge that it will stop taking new iTunes LP submissions as of this month.

Discussion: Metro.co.uk, Fast Company, Engadget, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac and AppAdvice.com, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Technology news aggregator Techmeme, sister site of Mediagazer, is launching a daily podcast called the Techmeme Ride Home — Because everyone has a podcast. (That's a good thing!) — Techmeme is an influential site that provides concise, headline-length summaries of the day's tech news.

Discussion: Adweek, Fast Company, @jyarow and @selviano, more at Techmeme »

Felix Salmon / Wired:

Serial's success, followed by Gimlet Media's proven effort to commercialize the format at scale, and then NYT's The Daily paved the way for daily news podcasts — How publishers are racing to own the money-printing machine that is the daily news podcast. — I USED TO think that podcasts …

Discussion: @ezraklein, TechCrunch, @gaberivera, @noahchestnut, @scottriggs, @scottmcgrew, @anthonyha, @cyberjournalist and Fast Company

New York Times:

Right-wing journalist Peter Schweizer plans to release a documentary on tech companies' role in filtering the news, casting them as censorious and oppressive — Conservatives are zeroing in on a new enemy in the political culture wars: Big Tech. — Arguing that Silicon Valley is stifling …

Discussion: @jwherrman, New York Magazine, East Bay Times, Vanity Fair, @brendannyhan, @profcarroll, @shiraovide, @owillis, @williamturton, @ceciliakang, @4horsemenapoca, @cwarzel, @slpng_giants and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, more at Techmeme »

Silvia Foster-Frau / MySanAntonio.com:

Co-founder of conspiracy theory website Side Thorn arrested with partner for harassing father of Sutherland Springs victim, told him shooting didn't happen — Two conspiracy theorists who have pushed the idea that the mass shooting at Sutherland Springs on Nov. 5 didn't happen were arrested Monday …

Discussion: @lenpoz, @prehstrcforest, @erinscafe, @brianstelter, @evenbev and @johnamato

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Funny Or Die is retiring its website and migrating over to Vox Media's platform; both are exploring potential collaborations on long-form entertainment — Funny Or Die is putting its aging web platform out to pasture. — Starting this summer, the digital comedy outfit will move FunnyOrDie.com …

Discussion: @mtmoe1, @jackallisonlol, @zkahn, @reckless, Splitsider, @clockwerks, @bankoff, @melissabell and Tubefilter

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Fox is aiming to reduce TV ad time to 2 minutes an hour by 2020, its ad sales chief Joe Marchese claimed at a private industry event in LA last week — Network announced the target at an event it hosted to discuss TV advertising's challenges — Fox Networks Group's ad sales chief …

Discussion: Business Insider and The Wrap

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

A look at the attempted revival of Rolling Stone under Jay Penske; sources say he approached Ryan Lizza about a job at the publication, after talks with staff — Jay Penske, the scion of an auto-racing empire, has a legitimate shot to turn the baby-boomer culture bible around—if he can make it safe for millennials.

Discussion: @pkafka, Politico, @joepompeo and @joepompeo

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Penske Media, owner of Variety and Deadline, has acquired SheKnows Media, including SheKnows.com, Stylecaster, and events business BlogHer — The deal for the network of female-focused sites and the BlogHer conference business is the latest acquisition for Penske Media …

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