Mediagazer: Jon Miller and TPG acquired majority control of Fandom last month at a valuation, sources say, of $200M (Peter Kafka/Recode)

4:05 PM ET, March 13, 2018

Top News:

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, @jeremymbarr, Adweek, TechCrunch, @darcyday, @andrewlavallee, @keachhagey, @jbflint, @natjarv, @snackfight, Mediawire, The Wrap, The Daily Caller and Variety

Press Gazette:

Following nerve agent attack on ex-Russian spy in England, UK MPs call for RT's broadcasting license to be reviewed and for the network to be banned — Kremlin-funded TV station RT (formerly Russia Today) has hit back at MPs' calls to ban it from broadcasting in the UK after the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

Discussion: The Guardian, CNNMoney, Politico, @hadas_gold and Editor & Publisher

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.

Catherine Neilan / City A.M.: UK broadcast regulator Ofcom says RT's broadcasting license may be revoked if UK finds Russia was behind attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal

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: @charliebeckett, @sarafischer, Android Police, @pkafka, MacRumors, @shiraovide, @jonathanex, Gizmodo, @raju, @digitalshields, Engadget, Fast Company and Seeking Alpha, more at Techmeme »

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: @jarroddicker, @jayrosen_nyu, @benmullin, @markscott82, @tessatkinson, @justin_b_smith and Press Gazette

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: Journalism.co.uk, @jeluebering, @jonathanstray and @niemanlab

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: Washington Post, Hollywood Reporter, CNN and Fortune

Susan Goldberg / National Geographic:

National Geographic asked a historian to audit its archives, admits to “appalling stories” filled with racism in its past, vows to examine and confront racism — We asked a preeminent historian to investigate our coverage of people of color in the U.S. and abroad. Here's what he found.

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: @abrams, @binarybits, @ellenhuet, @kashhill, @aurich, @danbeucke and @nitashatiku, more at Techmeme »

Tom Miles / Reuters:

U.N. human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar say that Facebook has played a role in spreading hate speech in the country — GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar said on Monday that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech there.

Discussion: Thomson Reuters, Motherboard, TechCrunch, New York Magazine, The Hill, Fast Company and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

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: @vtlen, Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan and @sulliview

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos and co-founder of SBNation, announces he is launching Civiqs, a public opinion research group — Nearly a million respondents are a deep new data source for Democrats. One early finding: Don't talk about impeachment. — BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief

Discussion: @billinportland, @buzzfeedben, @taniel, @markos, @markos and Daily Kos

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Eddy Cue Q&A on the line between free speech and open platforms, plans to integrate Texture content into Apple News, why Apple likely won't buy Disney, Netflix — We're on the ground at SXSW 2018 in Austin, Texas where Apple's Eddy Cue is about to take the stage to discuss media curation with CNN's Dylan Byers.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Variety, Columbia Journalism Review, TheStreet, FierceCable, Apple, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, The New York Observer, CNNMoney, Fast Company, VentureBeat, AppAdvice.com, Gizmodo, @reneritchie, @shiraovide and @apollozac

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Apple acquires digital newsstand Texture, which gives its readers access to ~200 magazines for $10/month, as it doubles down on content “from trusted sources”

Discussion: The Verge, Business Insider, Washington Post, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, @joshelman, Quartz, PR Newswire, @richdemuro, Folio, Variety, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and Fortune

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This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:05 PM ET, March 13, 2018.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Deputy Ed. - Gen. Assignment Desk, DC — WaPo

EU Technology Reporter, Brussels — Bloomberg

Breaking News Reporter, NY — Guardian US

Harrisburg Reporter, PA — PCBC

Senior Editor - Styles, NY — NYT

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter, Ireland — Newsweek

Assistant Digital Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Senior Editor - Visuals (Temporary), DC — NPR

Copy Editor, Remote US — ProPublica

Markets Reporter, NY/CA — Sherwood Media

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Food Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Staff Writer, NV — Las Vegas Weekly

Pharma Editor, Remote — Endpoints

Higher Ed. Reporter, Remote CA — EdSource

Politics Reporter, Brussels — Politico

Investigations & Enterprise Ed., WI — Cap Times

Social Strategy Editor, NY — WSJ

Senior Narrative Editor, CA — Cloud Chamber

Editor-in-Chief, NY (flexible) — The 74

Housing Reporter, OK — The Frontier

Writer/AI Content Reviewer, CA — Outlier

Writer/Editor, Remote — Mediaite

Multi Media Reporter, NC — Cardinal & Pine

Afternoon/Night Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

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Senior Editor, Remote US — PCWorld

State Worker Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

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More News:

Peter Kafka / Recode:
Jon Miller and TPG acquired majority control of Fandom last month at a valuation, sources say, of $200M

Blake Montgomery / BuzzFeed:
Brennan Gilmore, who filmed terror incident at Charlottesville, has sued Infowars, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft, and others for defamation

Discussion: Mediaite and The Hill

Patrick Brzeski / Hollywood Reporter:
In China, new proposals could see current regulatory body overseeing media abolished and replaced by a new organization under closer control of ruling party

Discussion: Variety and Variety

Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:
Following “blagging” allegations, Sunday Times reporters instructed not to delete emails relating to former UK PM Gordon Brown and Alastair Campbell

Discussion: @markdistef, @markdistef and @byline_media

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook is testing Facebook Camera AR experiences via tracking markers on posters of two films, will add tracker-based AR capabilities to AR Studio in April

Earlier Picks:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
MoviePass CEO backtracks on previous comments about tracking users before and after movies, says the app only tracks users' location when they use the app

Discussion: TechCrunch, MacRumors, BGR, Fast Company, 9to5Mac, [H]ardOCP News/Article Feed and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
YouTube TV is raising its price to $40/month starting Tuesday, plans to add more channels; current subscribers will keep $35/month pricing

Discussion: Neowin, The Verge, AppleInsider, Android Police, CNET and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

Ted Bridis / Associated Press:
Analysis: federal government censored, withheld, or couldn't find records in 78% of requests in the past year; it spent $40.6M defending decisions in FOIA cases

Discussion: RTDNA Recent Articles

Andrew Marantz / New Yorker:
Inside Reddit as it rolled out the October 2017 policy update that resulted in the ban of numerous subreddits, including ones for Nazis and bestiality

Discussion: @daveleebbc, @daveleebbc, BGR and @ericrweinstein

From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

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