Top News:
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
BuzzFeed laid off its Director of Quizzes because lots of people are willing to make quizzes for free — “This post has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone create a post. Learn more or post your buzz!”
Discussion:
Fluxblog, @niemanlab, @jeff__benjamin, @johnastoehr, @karaschlegl, @conroyforreal, @robferdman, @kwameopam and @kateotherkate
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James Walker / Press Gazette:
BuzzFeed proposes cutting 17 of BuzzFeed UK's 37 editorial staff, with most losses to the Buzz section covering pop culture — Buzzfeed UK's editorial team will be cut by nearly half, its own media reporter has claimed, down from 37 to 20 journalists based in London.
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
BuzzFeed says it will pay laid off employees for paid time off they had earned but not used, after current and former staff demanded it in an open letter — New York (CNN)BuzzFeed will pay laid off employees for the paid time off they had earned but not used, it said Monday …
Discussion:
@peretti, Slate, @dylanmatt, @jane__bradley, @daveyalba, @jeremymbarr, @hshaban, @verambergen and BuzzFeed News Staff Council
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook shares draft proposal describing how its new content review board could work, suggesting it have 40 diverse members, none of whom are Facebook staff — In November, Facebook announced a new plan that would revamp how the company makes content policy decisions on its social network …
Discussion:
Facebook, The Verge, @zittrain, @davidakaye, @jjmacnab, @imillhiser, Adweek, Gizmodo, Fortune, MediaPost, Engadget and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »
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Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Internal docs and sources describe how Facebook educates moderators about political issues and potential “PR fires” that are particular to different elections — Internal Facebook documents obtained by Motherboard show specific steps and strategies taken by the company …
Discussion:
Facebook, @tonyajoriley, The Hill and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
ProPublica:
Changes to Facebook's site break plugins created by ProPublica and others to track and report on exactly how Facebook users are being targeted by advertisers — Our tool had let the public see exactly how users were being targeted by advertisers. The social media giant urged us to shut it down last year.
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Study finds major US newspapers hiked home delivery prices more than 2x between 2008 and 2016, but about two-thirds of print readers remained loyal — Once print advertising collapsed, newspapers hiked prices to get more money from readers. If they hadn't, they'd employ even fewer journalists and be in even worse shape today.
Discussion:
@emilybell, @irischyi, @irischyi, @irischyi, Journalism Studies and Editor & Publisher
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Even as companies like Digital First Media strip-mine local newspapers for profit, their journalists continue doing important work and deserve support — Jeffrey Miller might be the ideal news consumer: He's well-informed, thoughtful and understands the role good journalism plays in American democracy.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @ehernandez, @alanmillernlp, @dangillmor, @thomas_peele, @sulliview and The Rural Blog
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Steve Cavendish / Washington Post:
How Gannett hollowed out newspapers in Tennessee over decades, leaving stories like hospital mergers and local elections now under-covered
Discussion:
@ralstonreports, @mattdpearce, @kensands, @jmartnyt, @rpetty, @carlyewisel, @jrovner, @alecmacgillis, @jayrosen_nyu and @charlesornstein
Reuters:
Verizon Q4: misses expectations with revenue up 1% YoY to $34.3B, a 46K Fios video subscriber loss, and revenue for Verizon Media Group at $2.1B, down 5.8% YoY — rollout@ (Adds details on capital spending, subscribers) — Verizon Communications Inc beat Wall Street estimates …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and Verizon Fios & Custom TV
Max Willens / Digiday:
Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith says the company grew revenue by 16% YoY in 2018, and that its Twitter show TicToc is already profitable — Welcome to the first installment of Keynote, a weekly Q&A series where top media executives discuss their businesses as well as a hot-button issue facing publishers.
Alison Langley / Columbia Journalism Review:
After crowdfunding $2.4M and raising $3.5M from investors, Swiss investigative news startup Republik gets scrappy, asks initial backers to renew subscriptions — Republik, a Swiss news startup, raised $2.4 million in less than two weeks in 2017, when a crowdfunding campaign that promised …
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Despite Facebook spending ~$1B last year on Watch, its would-be YouTube killer is a jumble of ads with no hit shows and a tiny slice of overall video revenue — Three long years ago, when the world knew little about Cambridge Analytica and laughed off the specter of fake news, Mark Zuckerberg had a very different kind of problem.
Discussion:
@shiraovide, @reckless and @simonowens, more at Techmeme »
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