Top News:
Associated Press:
Sources: National Enquirer owner paid former Trump doorman $30K for rumor that Trump had illegitimate child; contract had $1M fine if rumor disclosed elsewhere — NEW YORK (AP) — Eight months before the company that owns the National Enquirer paid $150,000 to a former Playboy Playmate …
Discussion:
@mj_lee, Mediaite, CNNMoney, New Yorker, Washington Post, Slate, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, Vanity Fair, The Wrap, ThinkProgress, @debramessing, @newyorker, The Daily Beast, RADAR, fox5sandiego.com, @petersterne, @ronanfarrow, @carolleonnig, @lrozen, @peterstris, @jasonleopold, @petersterne, @passantino, @rohded, @emmersbrown, @lalpert1, @michaelluo, @rohded and @yashar
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New York Times:
Probe of Trump's lawyer examines ties with David Pecker, head of American Media Inc., and raises questions about First Amendment and company's political role — President Trump has long had ties to the nation's major media players. But his connections with the country's largest tabloid publisher …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Washington Post, emptywheel, CNNMoney, The Gateway Pundit, Mashable, Mediaite, @newday, @tahoesquaw1, AOL, @tedlieu, @twpolk, @brianstelter, @jimrutenberg, @williampeace81, @twpolk, CBS News, New York Times, The Daily Beast and Susan Solomon
Michael Calderone / Politico:
AP acknowledges killing a story in August 2017 on National Enquirer squashing a rumor about a Trump “love child”; NYT and WSJ say they also pursued story — AP acknowledges spiking and then reviving a story of how The National Enquirer paid off a Trump tipster.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Washington Post, @will_bunch and @mlcalderone
David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik:
Sources: Tronc Chief Digital Content Officer Lewis D'Vorkin left the company today and Tronc's entire centralized digital content staff was let go — BREAKING NEWS: Tronc chief digital content officer Lewis D'Vorkin left the company today - entire Tronc centralized digital content staff let go, per several sources to NPR. / more
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, @davidfolkenflik, @jackshafer, @megjameslat, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik and @pmontoro
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Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
Crowdtangle data for Diamond and Silk's Facebook page shows steady numbers for total interactions; original video views decline was similar to Maddow's page — On Tuesday and Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg came to Washington and testified, for the first time, in front of two Congressional committees.
Discussion:
Mediaite, @facebook, MediaPost, The Daily Beast, TheResurgent.com, Media Matters for America, @dseetharaman, Washington Post, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @andrewkirell, @juddlegum, @maggiejordanacn, @ewerickson, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @facebook, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, Diamond And Silk, @kazweida, Mashable, The Verge and New York Magazine, more at Techmeme »
Sydney Ember / New York Times:
A Colorado civic group, Together For Colorado Springs, is leading an effort to buy The Denver Post, owned by Alden Global Capital, with $10M pledged so far — A Colorado civic group is spearheading an effort to buy The Denver Post, which on Sunday excoriated its owner, a New York hedge fund …
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
As executives leave Univision's Fusion Media Group, staffers worry about looming budget cuts and possibly new owners — Two years after its splashy acquisition of the former Gawker sites, Isaac Lee's Fusion Media Group is careening into a new era of belt-tightening and downsizing.
Discussion:
@maxwelltani, Politico, @tommorton, @rafat, @fidmart85, @johngary, @benmullin, @barry, @heyveronica and @toomuchme
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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: FCC wants more distance between Sinclair and the would-be owners of WPIX-TV and WGN-TV, is concerned it is selling the stations for below market prices — Regulator pushes back against potential buyers of TV stations Sinclair plans to unload to gain approval for the deal
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon and Media Matters for America
Janko Rottgers / Variety:
Hulu offering subscribers HBO add-on for $4.99/month for a limited time; if used, after six months, price rises to $14.99/month — Hulu is giving its subscribers a deep discount on HBO just in time for the return of “Westworld” later this month: The video subscription service began selling …
Discussion:
The New York Observer, The Verge, CNET, Engadget and Seeking Alpha
CNNMoney:
The government's star witness in its AT&T lawsuit, economist Carl Shapiro, took the stand on Weds to argue that AT&T-Time Warner deal would be bad for consumers — The government's star witness in its suit to stop AT&T's proposed purchase of Time Warner took the stand in a marathon court session Wednesday.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, @ceciliakang and @romoraleselcoro
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
ProPublica investigative journalist Julia Angwin and data scientist Jeff Larson are leaving to launch a newsroom covering tech's impact on society — “I've long wanted to build a newsroom around this concept of pairing technical experts with journalists. So that is what this newsroom will be about."
Discussion:
@laurahazardowen, @ndiakopoulos, @palewire and @zararah
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Disney and Redbox battle in court over Disney movie download codes Redbox resells; Redbox claims its staffers were threatened when buying Disney DVD combo packs — Disney is taking the gloves off in its battle with kiosk operator Redbox, working to make it significantly harder for Redbox to obtain DVDs of recent Disney releases.
Discussion:
Deadline, MediaPost, Media Play News and Variety
Chris Welch / The Verge:
First look at ESPN+, the $4.99 per month direct-to-consumer streaming service, launching today within a redesigned ESPN app on iOS and Android — Today is the debut of ESPN+, a $4.99 direct-to-consumer subscription video service that offers a little bit of MLB and NHL action with a lot …
Discussion:
Variety, Variety, Recode, GeekWire, TechCrunch and Axios, more at Techmeme »
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