Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: BuzzFeed is planning layoffs that could affect around 250, or 15% of the jobs across the company, in the news and business units — Layoffs could affect about 250 jobs across the company — BuzzFeed is planning to lay off about 15% of its workforce, according to people familiar …
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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
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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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Steven Hsieh / Phoenix New Times:
Two laid off at The Arizona Republic, sources say, as Gannett cost cutting hits newspapers in Indianapolis, Knoxville, TN, Asheville, NC, and more — The Arizona Republic laid off two staffers on Wednesday as part of a national cost-cutting effort by Gannett, the paper's parent company, according sources in the newsroom.
Discussion:
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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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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.
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” …
Discussion:
CNN, @jeremymbarr, Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewser and Mediaite
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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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 …
Discussion:
Mashable, Gizmodo, Fortune, VentureBeat, Adweek and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
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Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
After a three-year court battle, judge affirms the view of Sumner Redstone's family that he understands what's going on around him, appoints guardian ad litem — The titanic battle over media mogul Sumner Redstone's mental state ended with a whimper in a nearly empty Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday.
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter and Awful Announcing
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 …
Discussion:
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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.
Discussion:
Journalism.co.uk, MediaPost, RAIN News and Talking Biz News
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 …
Discussion:
Variety, The Wrap, TechCrunch, YouTube Blog, TechCrunch, Broadcasting & Cable, CNBC, Android Police, @aparanjape, @backlon, @derekmross, Engadget, Forbes and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »
Sheila Marikar / Fortune:
How Quibi's Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman are landing top talent in entertainment and media ahead of the mobile video platform's launch by year's end — The movie mogul (Disney, DreamWorks Animation) and tech executive (eBay, Hewlett Packard) are aiming for short-form glory with the well-funded Quibi.
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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@sulliview, @erikwemple, @jayrosen_nyu, @timobrien, @gjbarb and @dpotternews
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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”
Discussion:
@realdonaldtrump, @whca, CNN, @kaitlancollins, Mediaite, Fox News Insider, @cebergstrom, @jayrosen_nyu and @jbview