Top News:
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
In email to staff, CEO Jonah Peretti says BuzzFeed will make a 15% overall reduction in headcount next week, will share more about its future structure soon — “Unfortunately, revenue growth by itself isn't enough to be successful in the long run," CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in an email to staff.
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Tom Kludt / CNN:
HuffPost layoffs: WGAE spokesperson says at least 15 union members laid off; non-union managers also affected; head of opinion section says unit is “no more” — New York (CNN)Some employees at HuffPost learned Thursday morning that their days in the newsroom are numbered, as layoffs hit the popular news website.
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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
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Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google partners with Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony's visual effects and animation studio, to launch an open source render manager called OpenCue — Google today announced that it has partnered with Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony's visual effects and animation studio, to launch OpenCue, an open-source render manager.
Discussion:
Variety, VentureBeat and 9to5Google
Josh Kosman / New York Post:
Sources: ratings company Nielsen is looking to sell itself at a potential valuation of $10B; private equity firm Blackstone is a prospective buyer — Nielsen just got a pop in the ratings — among deep-pocketed buyout firms, that is. — Nielsen Holdings — the 95-year-old consumer research firm best known …
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.
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The Daily Beast:
The writers of the report on sex allegations against Bryan Singer say Hearst killed the story; source says Hearst Magazines President Troy Young made decision — The Atlantic published the work of two writers at Esquire after they say Hearst bigwigs spiked their exposé on one of Hollywood's biggest directors.
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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
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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.
Eric Wahlforss / @ericw:
Eric Wahlforss, one of SoundCloud's two co-founders, announces he will step back from day-to-day operations on March 1, but will continue in an advisory role — After 11+ years of building SoundCloud, it is time for me to take a break, reflect and think about what's next. I will be stepping back from day-to-day operations and into an advisory role on March 1st. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved and deeply grateful. pic.twitter.com/71DQ8h0Sjv
Discussion:
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Nicholas Quah / Nieman Lab:
Pinna, a premium podcast service for kids programming previously under Panoply's umbrella, is being spun out into a standalone company backed by Graham Holdings — Welcome to Hot Pod, a newsletter about podcasts. This is issue 192, published January 22, 2019. — Pinna stands alone.
Discussion:
Hot Pod News and RAIN News
Nate Lanxon / Bloomberg:
Bing appears to be accessible in China again, as sources say the earlier block was due to an accidental technical error rather than censorship — Internet users in mainland China have begun to report that Microsoft Corp.'s Bing search engine is accessible again after outages in the country persisted for many hours Thursday.
Discussion:
New York Times, Financial Times, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Gizmodo and GeekWire, more at Techmeme »
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Facebook tightens its policies, says it may now remove networks of fraudulent pages and groups created by people who previously breached its rules — PAGES AND GROUPS are the tools Facebook misinformation peddlers love the most. Creating a network of anonymous pages is one of the easiest ways …
Discussion:
The Verge and TechCrunch
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Vanessa Romo / NPR:
Iranian journalist Marzieh Hashemi, who was arrested on arrival in US this month and jailed until she testified before a grand jury, has been released — An Iranian broadcast journalist who was detained by U.S. authorities as a material witness for 10 days, is with her U.S. family …
Discussion:
RT
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 …
Discussion:
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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.
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