Top News:
New York Times:
Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to film a pilot episode of a talk show tentatively titled Sean Spicer's Common Ground, no network is attached — Ellen. Oprah. — ... Sean? — Sean Spicer, arguably the world's most famous White House press secretary …
Lara O'Reilly / Wall Street Journal:
AT&T confirms it will buy AppNexus, which operates one of the largest independent ad exchanges; sources last week said the price was expected to be around $1.6B — Following acquisitions of AppNexus and Time Warner, telecom giant wants to do more than capitalize on its own content
Discussion:
Business Wire, USA Today, Adweek, VentureBeat and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
Politico:
James and Deborah Fallows have signed a deal with HBO to turn their new book “Our Towns” into a TV series, with plans to broadcast it in 2019 — THE HOUSE is likely to vote on its new immigration bill as soon TOMORROW or Wednesday, sources tell us.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, New York Times and Politico
CNHI:
Raycom Media-owned local newspaper chain CNHI to explore sale of newspapers in 22 states after Raycom agreed to Gray Television group acquisition — MONTGOMERY, Ala. - CNHI, LLC, one of the country's leading providers of local news and information, said Monday it is exploring the sale of its newspaper properties in 22 states.
Discussion:
Poynter, ledger-enquirer, Media Nation, Editor & Publisher, The Rural Blog and Dan Kennedy
RELATED:
Munsif Vengattil / Reuters:
Gray Television to buy Raycom Media in a cash and stock deal worth $3.65B; combined company will have 142 stations in 92 markets and reach ~24% of US households
Gray Television to buy Raycom Media in a cash and stock deal worth $3.65B; combined company will have 142 stations in 92 markets and reach ~24% of US households
Discussion:
Radio & Television …, Raycom Media, Poynter, Atlanta Business Journal, Fox Business, TVWeek.com, WTOL-TV, Variety, Deadline and Wall Street Journal
The Daily Beast:
Sources: Fox News suspends contributor and former Trump aide David Bossie for two weeks after Bossie made a racist comment on Fox & Friends Weekend — David Bossie, the former deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump and current outside adviser to the president, has been suspended …
Discussion:
TVLine, Contemptor, HuffPost, Variety, Fortune, Mediaite, New York Times, iMediaEthics and The Guardian
RELATED:
Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Russell Crowe will star as Roger Ailes in the forthcoming television series about the ex-Fox News CEO, based on Gabriel Sherman's book — Showtime has given an eight-episode order to a limited series about Roger Ailes, with Oscar winner Russell Crowe set to star as the controversial Fox News founder in his US television debut.
Discussion:
@gretchencarlson, @sethamandel, @xeni, @xeni, Fortune and Mediaite
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Inside a fact-checking conference highlighting selection bias, automating searches, using video to reach a larger audience, and dealing with online hoaxes — ROME — Political fact-checkers from more than 50 countries gathered here to take stock of a fast-growing journalistic movement …
Daniel Holloway / Variety:
The Daily Beast and CBS Television Studios sign first-look deal covering development of the news site's daily published content for scripted TV — The Daily Beast and CBS Television Studios have signed a first-look deal covering development of the news website's daily published content for scripted TV.
Daniel Holloway / Variety:
CBS extends streaming rights deal with NFL to allow the network to stream Sunday games on CBS All Access to mobile, computers, and connected TVs through 2022 — CBS has reached an extension of its NFL media-rights deal that will allow the network to stream games on mobile devices.
Discussion:
Engadget, Ad Age, MediaPost, Multichannel News, 9to5Mac, Deadline, TechCrunch and Reuters
Marlee Baldridge / Nieman Lab:
The Sacramento Bee is trying to increase its subscriptions from 15K to 60K within the next few years, to become completely sustained by reader revenue — “We're looking hard at what types of stories drive digital-only subscriptions. We know the last story someone read before they hit the meter …
Seb Joseph / Digiday:
Sources: programmatic ad spending, which saw steep declines after GDPR, has started to recover with some publishers' audience opt-in consent rates hitting 75% — Programmatic ad spending has started to recover a month after the arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation caused it to nosedive.
Discussion:
Beet.TV, more at Techmeme »
TIME:
A look at the journalists fighting for press freedom across Southeast Asia, in the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia — Southeast Asia may never have been a paragon of the free press, but the democratic strides it made in the late '80s and '90s are rapidly unraveling.
Patrick Brzeski / Hollywood Reporter:
Wanda Film to acquire 96.8% stake in Wanda Media for $1.78B as part of restructuring plan, will invest in content production and online games — Wanda's U.S. film companies — AMC Entertainment and Legendary Entertainment — aren't included in the proposed deal, which aims to bring …
Discussion:
China Film Insider and Asia Times