Top News:
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Sources: Elon Musk is backing comedy project from former Onion editors Cole Bolton and Ben Berkley, who've hired three writers and an editor away from The Onion — Early in February, the satirical news publication The Onion published a story about Elon Musk, titled, “Elon Musk Offering $1.2 Billion …
Discussion:
@maxwelltani, Business Insider, Mashable, Fast Company, Engadget, Slate, @ktbenner, @tomgara, @mylesudland, Splitsider, @alexjamesfitz, @sarahnemerson, @jank0, @jetscott and New York Magazine
Michael Del Moro / ABC News:
Parents of Seth Rich, the DNC staffer killed in 2016, have sued Fox News, Malia Zimmerman, and Ed Butowsky over retracted story connecting Rich to a conspiracy — The family of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, who was killed in 2016, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News …
Discussion:
Mediaite
Lacey Rose / Hollywood Reporter:
A&E Networks Chief Executive Nancy Dubuc becomes CEO of VICE, while co-founder Shane Smith moves to executive chairman role — News comes a day after Dubuc made official her plans to leave a longtime role at A+E Networks. — Nancy Dubuc is officially taking the reins at Vice.
Discussion:
Ad Age, Variety, Deadline, Wall Street Journal, WWD, @darcyday, Vox, @jeremymbarr, @andrewlavallee, @keachhagey, @jbflint, Adweek, TechCrunch, CNBC, The Daily Caller, @natjarv, @snackfight, Mediawire, Fast Company and Variety
Casey Newton / The Verge:
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says YouTube will add Wikipedia information to videos about popular conspiracy theories within weeks to provide alternate viewpoints — Pushing back on crazy theories — YouTube will add information from Wikipedia to videos about popular conspiracy theories …
Discussion:
Fast Company, VICE News, @noupside, Adweek, Engadget, @max_read, @noupside, @mikeisaac, @pt, Mashable, Engadget, Wired, The Verge and @mikeisaac, more at Techmeme »
RT:
Russia's Foreign Ministry says it will expel British media from Russia if the UK revokes RT's broadcasting license — Not a single British media outlet will be working in Russia if London decides to shut down RT broadcasting in the UK, Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said.
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Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Some cable networks have again aired a live Trump campaign rally filled with insults and falsehoods, and it's still wrong — Even before the 2016 presidential election, CNN's top honcho admitted that his network had given Donald Trump too much free exposure in the Republican primary.
Discussion:
@brianstelter, @sulliview, Margaret Sullivan, @emmartin173, @vtlen, @sulliview and Washington Post
Kashmir Hill / Gizmodo:
How conservative activists from Project Veritas use hoax job recruitment and seduction to catfish tech giants like Twitter; experts question legality — Mo Norai has worked in Silicon Valley for a decade. He's done stints at Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple, but only as a contract worker …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Project Veritas, The Hill, Columbia Journalism Review, @abrams, @binarybits, @aurich, @ellenhuet, @kashhill, @danbeucke and @nitashatiku, more at Techmeme »
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
Sources: subscribers to newspapers will find articles from those outlets appearing higher in Google search results; Google to share more details on March 20 — Tech giant said to begin sharing data on potential customers — Publishers have pushed for new tools to find readers who pay
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti discusses the company's missed 2017 targets, struggles with advertisers, and potential for a partial paywall on the site — This article is a free preview of the new issue of Digiday magazine, our quarterly print publication that's distributed to Digiday+ members.
Discussion:
@simoncrerar, @digiday, @lmoses, @caseynewton, @jayrosen_nyu, Press Gazette, @jarroddicker, @markscott82, @tessatkinson, @justin_b_smith and @benmullin
Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:
A look at Lynx Insights, a Reuters in-house automation tool that surfaces trends and anomalies in data, which reporters can then use to accelerate their work — With Lynx Insights, Reuters wants to marry the data-crunching skills of machines with the editorial judgment of human reporters.
Discussion:
@jeluebering, @jonathanstray, Journalism.co.uk and @niemanlab
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Facebook is aiming to launch a news section for its Watch platform this summer and is testing different video partnerships with roughly ten publishers — Facebook is getting ready to launch a news section for its Watch platform and it's testing different video partnerships with roughly 10 publishers, Axios has learned.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, The Wrap, Android Police, Engadget, @sarafischer, @charliebeckett, @digitalshields, MacRumors, @raju, Seeking Alpha, @shiraovide, @jonathanex, @pkafka and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »
Debra Kamin / Variety:
CBS News President David Rhodes says Stormy Daniels interview has not been delayed because of legal action from Trump and dismissed talk of an injunction — JERUSALEM — CBS News boss David Rhodes hasn't seen Stormy Daniels' “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper, but he promises that it's coming soon.
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, CNN and Fortune
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Jon Miller and TPG acquired majority control of Fandom last month at a valuation, sources say, of $200M — They bought Fandom last month, and they want more. — A few years ago, investors were optimistic about digital media companies. Now they're not. — Time to invest in digital media companies.
Discussion:
@rafat