Mediagazer: Quartz's AI Studio has developed bots to help journalists with data analysis tasks, using machine learning to identify patterns in records and more (Marcela Kunova/Journalism.co.uk)

11:10 AM ET, January 13, 2019

Top News:

CNN:

NBC and Megyn Kelly have officially parted ways; sources say NBC will pay Kelly the remaining sum of her contract, believed to total about $30M — (CNN)Two years after she signed with the network amid much fanfare, Megyn Kelly and NBC have officially parted ways.

Marcela Kunova / Journalism.co.uk:

Quartz's AI Studio has developed bots to help journalists with data analysis tasks, using machine learning to identify patterns in records and more — The US publisher offers reporters with no coding skills a set of free tools to help them write better data-driven stories

Discussion: VentureBeat

The Information:

Sources: Viacom in talks to acquire Tubi TV, an ad-supported streaming service partly owned by MGM and Lionsgate; one source estimated a cost of around $300M — Nearly every major media company in recent years has launched video streaming services that cost viewers a few dollars a month and don't carry ads …

Discussion: @cityofthetown

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Spotify outlines its strategy for podcasts that includes bringing talent in-house or exclusively licensing content and selling ads within its podcasts — Having established itself as a top streaming service with now over 200 million users, Spotify this year is preparing to focus more of its attention on podcasts.

Discussion: hypebot

Peter Lawrence Kane / SFWeekly:

The East Bay Express has laid off four core members of its editorial staff and is moving to an all-freelance model; editor Robert Gammon remains — Four people at the 40-year-old alt-weekly lost their jobs. — UPDATE: Robert Gammon, the EBX's editor, has supplied a comment.

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Barstool Sports says it has 10K+ subscribers to its new membership service since its launch on January 8, with 81% signing up for the $100 annual subscription — Barstool Sports says it already has more than 10,000 paid subscribers to its new membership service, Barstool Gold …

Discussion: Awful Announcing

Financial Times:

A look at how data brokers identify people and how much personal information they sell as IDC forecasts data vendor sales will triple to $10.1B by 2022 — There are many personal details that Paul-Olivier Dehaye is willing to share online, but the behaviour of his bladder is not one of them.

Kit Walsh / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Bird sends dubious DMCA takedown notice to Boing Boing over a post explaining how to legally buy an abandoned Bird scooter and convert it to a personal scooter — Every now and then we have to remind someone that it's not illegal for people to report facts that they dislike.

Discussion: Boing Boing, @dangillmor, TechCrunch, @jason_koebler, @nickabouzeid, @adamsinger, @alexstamos, @waxpancake, @sil, @techdirt, @lenazun, Gizmodo, The Verge and Techdirt

Joshua Fruhlinger / Thinknum Media:

Job openings at Vox are up 100% since September 2018, but many are freelance or contract positions, possibly to sidestep the union or adapt to seasonal content — Normally an uptick in hiring at a new media company like Vox Media ($VOXMEDIA) is a good sign. It means that the company is reinvesting in talent.

Discussion: @rafat

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

WH researcher: Trump participated in 338 short Q&As with reporters in his first two years in office, compared to 75 for Obama, 243 for GW Bush, 394 for Clinton — You may have heard that President Trump on Thursday denied any knowledge that former campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data …

Matthew Kassel / Columbia Journalism Review:
As President Trump's press bashing continues unabated, local journalists face increased incidents of being spurned and vilified by elected officials

Discussion: @cjr, @rokhanna, @news_collab, @spjlv, @penamerican, @rylandky, @ruralj and The Rural Blog

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

SEC filing: Disney CEO Bob Iger's total compensation in 2018 reached $65.6M, up from $36.2M in 2017, due to increased stock awards — On the heels of Disney's historic deal to buy 21st Century Fox, Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger saw a big increase in compensation last year thanks to stock awards …

Discussion: Multichannel News and The Wrap

Washington Post:

Washington Post launches an Arabic-language opinions page with translations of Global Opinion columns, editorials, and op-eds — New Arabic-language destination will feature translated pieces from writers around the world — The Washington Post Opinions section today announced the launch …

Discussion: @borzou, @dabeard, @pressfreedom, @hurdonthehill, @pressfreedom, @repadamschiff, @karenattiah and Politico

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

CBS reaches an agreement to keep using Nielsen's Total Audience measurement services, resolving an impasse since their previous contract expired December 31 — CBS Corp and Nielsen said Friday they have reached an agreement for Nielsen national, digital and local audience measurement.

Discussion: Adweek, Hollywood Reporter, Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and The Wrap

Brianna Sacks / BuzzFeed News:

Ex-staffers of Freedom Daily say Brian Kolfage, who raised $20M via a GoFundMe campaign for Trump's wall, pushed them to fabricate stories for his website — “He never wanted the truth. It was all just for clicks, and the more inflammatory, the better," a former employee said.

Discussion: NPR, The Daily Beast, @greg_doucette, @oneunderscore__, @salhernandez, @stevehofstetter, @bryanlowry3, @oneunderscore__, @brandyzadrozny, @bri_sacks, The Hill, USA Today, Gizmodo, KTLA, TechCrunch and Business Wire

NBC News:
Brian Kolfage's previous fundraising efforts relied on two ultra-conservative websites, Freedom Daily and Right Wing News; Kolfage denies he owned Freedom Daily