Top News:
Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
Internal AT&T documents show it made a $600K deal with Cohen days after inauguration, specifying he would advise on Time Warner merger and on matters before FCC — Three days after President Trump was sworn into office, the telecom giant AT&T turned to his personal attorney Michael Cohen …
Discussion:
The Wrap, @ericuman, The Root, The Hill, @joenbc, @jamilsmith, @klasfeldreports, Dealbreaker, Slate, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine and Techdirt
Reuters:
News Corp beats estimates with Q3 revenue of $2.09B, up 5.8% YoY, records net loss of $1.13B mainly due to write-downs for Telstra/Foxtel deal in Australia — (Reuters) - News Corp (NWSA.O), controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, topped analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue on Thursday …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, News Corp., Yahoo! News and CNBC
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Financial Times:
News Corp CEO Robert Thomson calls for governments to create an “algorithm review board” to keep tech companies in check — The head of News Corp has called for governments to create an “algorithm review board” to keep tech companies in check, the latest in a long line of attacks …
Discussion:
Deadline and Sydney Morning Herald
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Spotify announces a hateful content and conduct policy to distance itself from controversial artists and introduces AudioWatch tool to scan its back catalog — Spotify has announced a new hate content and hateful conduct policy as it looks to distance itself from controversial music artists …
Discussion:
The Atlantic, Bloomberg, myfox8.com, newsroom.spotify.com, Ad Age, @emceenetwork, @vdare, @buzzfeedben, @danrys, @pitchfork, The Verge and @mtfiii, more at Techmeme »
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Dan Rys / Billboard:
Spotify removes R. Kelly and rapper XXXTentacion from the service's playlists, including-algorithmically generated ones, as part of new “hateful conduct” policy
Spotify removes R. Kelly and rapper XXXTentacion from the service's playlists, including-algorithmically generated ones, as part of new “hateful conduct” policy
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Times, CBS Los Angeles, @ericajoy, @anildash, Vanity Fair, @bhorowitz, @lkherman, NewsBusters, CelebrityAccess, The Root, The Daily Beast, The Outline, FOX40, Refinery29, TechCrunch, TMZ.com, The A.V. Club, The Guardian, Fast Company, PAPER, Washington Post, CBS Dallas, The Scottish Sun, Fortune, Slate, Engadget, Music Business Worldwide, Gizmodo, Business Insider, The FADER, Consequence of Sound, Vox, Mashable, Hits Daily Double and The Muse, more at Techmeme »
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
IAB report: online advertising exceeded total spent on broadcast and cable TV in 2017, reaching $88B, a 21% increase from 2016; mobile rose 36% YoY to $49.9B — Online advertising reached $88 billion last year, a 21 percent increase from 2016 and a new high, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.
Discussion:
@jason_kint, MediaPost, MediaPost, Adweek, Ad Age, IAB and AdExchanger, more at Techmeme »
Bloomberg:
House Democrats release 3,519 Facebook ads from Russia-linked accounts, spanning 2015 to 2017, showing a coordinated campaign to sow distrust in US politics — - House Intelligence Committee Democrats publish 3,519 ads — Posts targeted specific groups to inflame civil discord
Discussion:
Digiday, NBC News, Facebook, ABC News, @adamfelber, Media Matters for America, @axios, @byrontau, @byrontau, Kent Garry, Sarah Ashman, Amy Siskind, @noupside, Wall Street Journal, @facebook, @nbcnews, @firstdraftnews, @oneunderscore__, @sarahfrier, Associated Press, Wired and USA Today, more at Techmeme »
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
Medium abruptly ends feature that let publishers use the platform to collect revenue from their own subscriptions, affecting 21 publishers — “Could we have a better metaphor for the way Silicon Valley considers local journalism?" fumed the owner of one of these remaining publications.
Louis Lucero II / New York Times:
Novelist Junot Díaz steps down as Pulitzer Prize board chairman while the board conducts a review of sexual misconduct allegations against him — The Pulitzer Prize board has opened an independent review of sexual misconduct allegations against the award-winning novelist Junot Díaz …
Greg Dool / Folio:
Meredith nearly doubles National Media revenues with Time Inc. acquisition but thins profit margins, reporting revenue of $479.3M and operating profit of $9M — Meredith Corp.'s ongoing integration of Time Inc. has nearly doubled revenues for its national media business …
Discussion:
PR Newswire, Meredith Corporation and Radio & Television …
Jeff Baumgartner / Broadcasting & Cable:
The rate of decline in pay TV subscriptions slowed in Q1, analyst Craig Moffett says, with cable operators losing 323K subscriptions and satellite losing 418K — ‘Conversion rate’ from traditional pay TV to OTT TV a particularly good trend for major programmers, analyst says
Discussion:
MediaPost and FierceCable
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Talking Points Memo staff unionizes with Writers Guild of America East, joining other media sites including Thrillist, Vox Media, and Vice — This morning I was coming into work after attending my son's school play and got an email from our editorial staff in DC and NY telling …
Brianne O'Brien / BuzzFeed:
BuzzFeed to launch a new Saturday podcast, The News, where BuzzFeed staffers add context to news — Don't get lost in the chaos. Join BuzzFeed News reporters and editors every Saturday for news that's smart, not stuffy. — We get it. — With the news alerts constantly blowing up our phones …
Discussion:
@janelytv