Mediagazer: Univision laid off another 150 people on Thursday across the company, including at Fusion Media Group (Tom Dotan/The Information)

10:40 PM ET, April 13, 2018

Top News:

Michael Ferro sells stake in Chicago Tribune parent Tronc to McCormick Media for $208.6 million — Michael Ferro, who resigned last month as chairman of Chicago-based newspaper chain Tronc, has struck a deal to sell his entire stake in the company, according to a filing late Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, USA Today, CNNMoney, New York Times, Daily Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tonight, @maxwelltani, @kdoctor, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Bloomberg and Variety

New York Times:

Profile: new owner of Los Angeles Times, biotech mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong, who plans to move LAT to suburbs, and pursued Dean Baquet and Marty Baron for EIC — LOS ANGELES — As a son of Chinese immigrants growing up in apartheid South Africa, Patrick Soon-Shiong spent his afternoons racing through …

Andrea Chang / Los Angeles Times:

Tronc fires Lewis D'Vorkin, chief content officer of Tribune Interactive, and lays off several dozen others, including LA-based video and online content teams — Former Los Angeles Times Editor in Chief Lewis D'Vorkin was fired by Tronc Inc. on Thursday and several dozen other employees of the company were laid off.

Discussion: New York Post, New York Post, Seeking Alpha, The Wrap, @megjameslat, @davidfolkenflik, @mattdpearce, @davidfolkenflik, @mattdpearce, @mattdpearce, @jamesqueallylat and Talking Biz News

Berkeleyside:

Berkeleyside, a local news site in Berkeley, CA, completes its direct public offering and raises $1M, the first news site in the country to do so — Berkeleyside announced today that it has raised $1 million in capital from 355 of its readers, making it the first news site in the country to do a successful Direct Public Offering.

Discussion: @may_gun, @frannydink, @tktaylor and The Lenfest Institute …

Tom Dotan / The Information:

Univision laid off another 150 people on Thursday across the company, including at Fusion Media Group — The cutting at Univision continues. The company laid off more than 150 people on Thursday, across the company, including at the beleaguered Fusion Media Group.

Discussion: Variety, New York Post and The Wrap

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Apple staff memo says it caught 29 leakers, including staff, contractors, and suppliers, in 2017, 12 arrested; memo implies possible legal action for leaks — Company memo says it found 29 ‘leakers’ last year, 12 arrested — CEO Tim Cook pledged to ‘double down’ on secrecy in 2012

Manish Singh / The Outline:

Sources: secure messaging app Telegram is being used to distribute pirated movies, TV, music, apps, and even stolen credentials for online services like Netflix — Law-abiding citizens: Please do NOT download. Thank you. — Since its launch in 2013, the instant messaging platform Telegram …

Discussion: Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, @refsrc, Business Insider, @caseyjohnston and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Madison Malone Kircher / New York Magazine:

Sources: Snapchat redesign has led to metrics volatility for Discover publishers; Snap has invited publishers to daylong summits for discussion — When Snapchat first rolled out its redesigned app to a select group in January — users in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom — it was met with an immediate backlash.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Adam Thomas / European Journalism Centre:

The EJC, with €1.7M funding from the News Integrity Initiative and Civil, to offer grants to emerging EU media organizations in October 2018 and February 2019 — It's time to get serious about new journalism models — The European Journalism Centre believes journalists have a key role …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Nieman Lab

Tess Owen / VICE News:

Facebook removes pages linked to white nationalist Richard Spencer and The Nationalist Initiative's page; all pages are linked to “hate groups” by the SPLC — Two Facebook pages associated with white nationalist Richard Spencer have been kicked off the platform.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Daily Dot, Complex, The Root, @misstessowen, @thedemcoalition, Engadget, @lydiacowling95, @jason_koebler and New York Magazine

Tripti Lahiri / Quartz:

Malaysia passes “fake news” law that imposes a $100K+ fine and up to six years in jail on publishers thereof but government could judge what counts as fake news — A month ahead of a general election, Malaysia's new fake-news law has gone into effect—and journalists and rights groups …

Discussion: SoyaCincau.com, Hawaii Public Radio's …, The Straits Times, NST Online, Free Malaysia Today and The Straits Times

Richard C. Paddock / New York Times:

At Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's trial, prosecution witnesses give inconsistent testimony, admit journos didn't betray any secrets that weren't already in the news — YANGON, Myanmar — Once a week, the two Reuters reporters are shuffled out of their prison cells in Yangon, Myanmar …

Discussion: Asian Correspondent, NASDAQ.com, Press Gazette and Reporters Without Borders

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai declines to investigate Sinclair after a dozen senators requested a probe under “news distortion” standard of the public interest test — Pai springs into action—and much faster than when Trump wanted to punish NBC. — Democratic lawmakers yesterday followed …

Discussion: Reuters, TechCrunch, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell …, ThinkProgress, @jrosenworcel, @heminator, @jim_brunner, Hit & Run, @jrosenworcel, The Daily Caller, @fcc, @senatorcantwell, CNET, Deadline and Breitbart

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

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon and Media Matters for America

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Earlier Picks:

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

Discussion: Vox, CNNMoney, New Republic, Poynter, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and @scottmstedman

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

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

Discussion: Washington Post, HuffPost, Engadget, Mediaite, Media Matters for America, The Hill, @yashar and BuzzFeed

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

Discussion: Mercury News, The Wrap and Denver Westword

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
Sources: the US FTC plans to investigate allegations that Microsoft is abusing its market power in productivity software to prevent customers from leaving Azure

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI says the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS can now read code from some developer-focused apps, including VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google releases a free Gemini app for iOS, letting users ask questions, chat via text, voice, or their camera, and use the conversational mode Gemini Live

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