Top News:
Max Willens / Digiday:
How BuzzFeed is reorganizing and charting a path to a sustainable business, according to sources and a memo CEO Jonah Peretti sent to employees Tuesday night — The next version of BuzzFeed is being whittled into focus. — Over the past week, the venture-backed publisher has been gripped by a very public multi-day round of layoffs.
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Will Oremus / Slate:
The global layoffs at BuzzFeed, once a successful beacon in a shrinking industry, mark an end of innocence for the outlet and for staffers with big social reach
Madison Malone Kircher / New York Magazine:
Q&A with a Michigan college student who has made 692 quizzes for BuzzFeed as a hobby, becoming the 2nd-highest traffic driver for the site's quizzes worldwide
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Observer, New York Magazine, @raewitte, Gizmodo, @choire, @willoremus, @reckless, @laurawags, @lrhogan, @mathewi, @4evrmalone, @4evrmalone, @mattdpearce, @auntbeckyrose, @sarahlkaufman, @nymag, @jakeswearingen, @austin_walker, @eleanorbate, @jeff__benjamin, @karaschlegl, @niemanlab, @conroyforreal, @robferdman, @kwameopam, Fluxblog and Nieman Lab
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
The media's both-sides, middle-lane approach to politics isn't good for the public, but it's great for politicians and pundits who bill themselves as centrists — One of supposed golden rules of journalism goes like this: “If everybody's mad at your coverage, you must be doing a good job.”
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@mlcalderone, @patbagley, @ejdionne, @jayrosen_nyu, @sulliview and @jayrosen_nyu
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
Axios made roughly $25M and nearly broke even in its second full year, and plans to launch a high-end subscription business in 2019 — The start-up, forged by former Politico all-pros, made $25 million in its second full year. What's next? Subscriptions, naturally.
Discussion:
@reedfrich, @patrickruffini, @dylanbyers, @rafat, @niubi and @vanityfair
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Report: Apple told studios and networks to be ready for a launch of Apple's streaming service by mid-April, the same month investors see a Disney+ preview — Studios were reportedly told to be ready by mid-April — Little is known about Apple's standalone streaming service, aside from the mountain of original content that's coming.
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Fast Company, Recode, The Information, Multichannel News, @pkafka, Tubefilter, PCMag India, @mcwm, @shiraovide, @shiraovide, @jtoonkel, The Wrap, /Film, TechCrunch and Observer, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
AT&T Q4: WarnerMedia revenue was up 5.9% YoY to $9.2B, but Entertainment Group revenue was down 4.8% YoY to $12B amid subscriber losses for DirecTV, DirecTV Now — AT&T posted healthy growth in wireless and WarnerMedia segments for the fourth quarter of 2018, but missed top-line revenue targets …
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
Publishers are finding meaningful revenue from podcast advertising, a model that some publications, including The Economist, find more viable than video ads — Publishers are finding meaningful revenue from podcasts, a format that, in some cases, offers a more viable ad model than video.
Discussion:
@xenocryptsite, @pkafka, @mmasnick, @mccanner, @awealthofcs and @benmullin
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Documenting the R. Kelly case: interviews with Jim DeRogatis, who has reported on the case for almost 20 years, and Dream Hampton, who made Surviving R. Kelly — CHICAGO — For the journalists who have dug the deepest on R. Kelly, these should be satisfying days.
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Vox, @ennisnyt, @bellwak, @raceforward, @nytimes, @nytimesmusic and Daily Herald
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Fake news outlets switch domain names to get past Facebook's fact-checking system, publishing old stories under new names to regain reach on Facebook — One of the most frequently debunked fake news publishers on Facebook is still getting past the platform's fact-checking system — and it's doing it by using the simplest of tricks.
Discussion:
@sbenkelman
Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:
Conviva: streaming TV hours rose 89% YoY in 2018 with a 165% increase in Q4; connected TVs accounted for 56% of all streamed views in 2018, up from 47% in 2017 — Quality increases, but viewers are less patient — The amount of video being streamed showed strong growth in 2018 …
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Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Online women's magazine The Pool, which lost its co-founders last year, is fighting for survival as writers go unpaid — Company's director says it is ‘not over yet’ but staff say they are waiting for January wages — The online women's magazine The Pool, which was co-founded by Lauren Laverne …
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@bellamackie, Bookseller News, @sianysianysiany, @orbyn, @orbyn, @claire_phipps, @orbyn and @eve_rebecca
Anthony Crupi / Ad Age:
Nielsen C3 primetime ratings for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox dropped 11% YoY for Q4 2018 in the 18-49 age group, with a 27% drop in the same period since 2016 — The big four networks have seen many of their demographically desirable viewers disappear — As younger viewers continue …
Stephanie Sugars / Committee to Protect Journalists:
Analysis of Trump's anti-press tweets since announcing his candidacy show an escalation from targeting specific journalists to attacking the media as a whole — Since announcing his candidacy in the 2016 presidential elections to the end of his second year in office, U.S. President Donald Trump …
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@rowlsmanthorpe, @stephanie_alena, @penamerican and @sam_vinograd
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