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CNBC:
Verizon Media Group, which owns Yahoo and AOL, plans to cut 7% of its global workforce, according to an email to employees from CEO Guru Gowrappan — Independent Programming Subscribe to CNBC PRO Licensing & Reprints Join the CNBC Panel Advertise With Us Closed Captioning Digital Products Privacy Policy Internships
Chris Welch / The Verge:
After Netflix price hikes, Hulu will lower its base, ad-supported subscription plan to $6/mo, down from $8/mo, and hike its Live TV service to $45/mo on Feb. 26 — The core service is getting cheaper, but live TV now costs more — Hulu just announced that it will lower the price of its base …
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Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google launches YouTube TV in 95 new US markets, says it now covers 98% of US households — 98 percent of US households are covered as of today, with the rest coming soon — YouTube TV is finally nearing nationwide availability. The streaming TV service first launched in February 2017 …
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Variety, The Wrap, TechCrunch, YouTube Blog, CNBC, Broadcasting & Cable, TechCrunch, Marketing Land, @backlon, Engadget, Forbes and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »
The Atlantic:
Four additional men accuse Bryan Singer, director of X-Men and Bohemian Rhapsody, of seducing or raping them as minors — Over the past two decades, Bryan Singer's films—The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, Superman Returns, four of the X-Men movies—have earned more than $3 billion at the box office …
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Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:
Condé Nast will put all its titles behind paywalls by the end of the year, after success with metered paywalls for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Wired — Magazine publisher expects subscription revenue to increase significantly — Magazine publisher Condé Nast said it would put …
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Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Reporters Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw leave the new Gawker after Bustle Digital Group refused to oust editorial director Carson Griffith over offensive remarks — The new site's only two full-time writers exited Wednesday in protest of editorial director Carson Griffith's offensive remarks about everything from race to penis size.
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
The Economist will launch The Intelligence, a 20-minute daily news podcast on Jan. 29, which has taken a year to create and is supported by eight new staffers — The Economist is the latest publisher to launch a daily news podcast in order to broaden its reach in audio and ultimately drive people to subscribe.
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Journalism.co.uk, MediaPost, RAIN News and Talking Biz News
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Microsoft is automatically installing NewsGuard, a plug-in that guides users on which news websites can be trusted, on mobile versions of its Edge browser — Mail Online rated one out of five for credibility by new feature to fight fake news — Microsoft's internet browser is warning users …
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Fox News is launching “Hannity on Air”, a look at the opening monologue of Sean Hannity's radio show, on its Fox Nation video streaming service next week — Sean Hannity sometimes tells younger colleagues at Fox News Channel that he is “the bridge between two generations of Fox” …
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TVNewser, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable and @jeremymbarr
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Patreon says it has 3M+ patrons, up by 1M+ in 2018, who support 100K+ creators; the company will pay creators $500M in 2019, reach $1B paid since launch in 2013 — Membership services platform Patreon now has more than 3 million patrons who pay to support any of its over 100,000 creators every month, the company announced Wednesday.
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Tubefilter, Fast Company, VentureBeat, Patreon Blog and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Facebook:
Facebook to launch Page Quality tab for admins, showing when content is removed for policy violations and when post distribution is reduced due to fact-checking — We're taking new steps in how we handle Page content that goes against our policies. First, starting tomorrow people who manage …
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Adweek, VentureBeat, Mashable and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
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Gene Demby / NPR:
With the exception of news outlets run by and aimed at people of color, mainstream news outlets employ euphemisms rather than use the word “racist” — In 1964, the New Yorker dispatched the writer Richard Rovere to follow Barry Goldwater, the senator from Arizona …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Cheddar launches on PlayStation Vue, is now available on all US over-the-top subscription services; CEO projects the company will be profitable in Q4 — Video-news startup Cheddar is launching its live-streaming news networks on Sony's PlayStation Vue, making it the first content provider …
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Engadget, Cheddar and Cord Cutters News
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Trump-era press briefings are exercises in futility and lying, but we need them anyway so reporters can probe and pressure the administration — There's an old joke, recounts Woody Allen's character Alvy Singer, in the movie “Annie Hall.” — Two elderly women are at a Catskills mountain resort …
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John Wagner / Washington Post:
On Twitter, Trump says he told Sarah Sanders “not to bother” with press briefings, citing his belief that the press covers her “rudely and inaccurately”
On Twitter, Trump says he told Sarah Sanders “not to bother” with press briefings, citing his belief that the press covers her “rudely and inaccurately”
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Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:
Two-time Pulitzer winner Russell Baker, whose Observer column appeared in The New York Times and other papers for 36 years, has died at 93 — Russell Baker, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose whimsical, irreverent “Observer” column appeared in The New York Times and hundreds …
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@adamliptak, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, NPR, @jamesgleick, The Week, @ron_fournier, @typotoo, @bcappelbaum, @ellgood, @ohlistic, @poisonville, @mitchstephensny, @penguinrandom, @kathyamico, @aodespair, @jonostrower, @poisonville, @harrisondsmith, @davemontero, @maureendowd, @malexjohnson, @elizabethdrewoh, @comey, @rexhuppke, @carol_weston, @jmartnyt, @fitzfox5dc, @palafo, @juliehinds, @retromannyc, @peterbakernyt, @maureendowd, @jmeacham, @greencomma, @johnyangtv, @maggienyt, The Wrap, Associated Press and NBC News