Top News:
Sanjana Karanth / HuffPost:
The Washington Post's spend on its Super Bowl ad, reportedly $5.2M, has provoked anger in some quarters, including the Washington-Baltimore News Guild — Many are having issues with how much it cost, saying that money could go toward paying journalists. — The Washington Post aired …
Discussion:
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Philana Patterson / USA Today:
Gannett says its board has unanimously rejected an acquisition offer from Digital First Media, saying that the offer is not credible and undervalues the company — Gannett Co. said Monday that its board has unanimously rejected an unsolicited proposal to be acquired by media company MNG Enterprises Inc. …
Matt Donnelly / Variety:
Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop signs deal for docuseries with Netflix and a podcast distribution deal with Delta Airlines, while pausing its quarterly mag — - Hollywood PR Trio Launches Reputation-Management Cyber Firm to Vet Celebrities, Corporate Giants — Goop, the lifestyle …
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Dominic Patten / Deadline:
Early ratings for the 2019 Super Bowl show a decline of 5% YoY, marking a historic 10-year low — UPDATE, 2:14 PM: The score for the New England Patriots' win yesterday over the Los Angeles Rams was historically low and so is the viewership for Super Bowl LIII.
Discussion:
Nielsen, Variety, Adweek, Observer, MediaPost, The Wrap, Mashable, MediaPost, CNN, Fortune, @davidwkenny, Vox, Vanity Fair, Ad Age, @shermichael_, @ava, ProFootballTalk, Mediaite and Newser
Nicole LaPorte / Fast Company:
Speaking at the Television Critics Association's winter gathering, FX CEO criticises Netflix for “not telling you the whole story” about its viewership figures — Is You really the smash that Netflix says it is? What about Sex Education? Its most public scold says don't believe the hype.
Tatiana Siegel / Hollywood Reporter:
Source: Netflix is closing in on a deal to purchase director Joe Berlinger's film on Ted Bundy, starring Zac Efron, for $9M — The streaming giant proved to be a natural fit given that director Joe Berlinger already has a docuseries about the serial killer on the platform.
Discussion:
Variety, Fortune, Business Insider, The Playlist, The Daily Caller, The A.V. Club and Consequence of Sound
Stewart Clarke / Variety:
Viacom has launched MTV Play, a streaming app for music channel MTV, in the UK targeted at younger viewers and cordcutters; it is priced at £3.99 a month — Viacom is going direct-to-consumer, launching an MTV Play app in the U.K. It marks the first time that Viacom …
New York Times:
The Instagram egg account, with 10M+ followers, was started by an advertising professional; a Hulu ad based on the egg debuted Sunday promoting mental health — He works in advertising. — When Chris Godfrey learned in early January that the record for “likes” on an Instagram post was held …
Discussion:
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Kristen Hare / Poynter:
After the Associated Press made data available on its data.world platform, it had 1400 downloads from 300 local newsrooms in 2018 — The forces facing local news aren't all bad. — Report for America is putting more reporters in local newsrooms. ProPublica's adding local investigative journalists.
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Digital media companies ought to adopt a strategy similar to pay TV, offering combinations of news outlets for one basic monthly price, without separate log-ins — - Digital media companies might benefit from a bundled service that doesn't require customers to subscribe to multiple a la carte services.
Discussion:
One Man & His Blog, @rafat, @jfberke, @sherman4949 and The Daily Beast
Ian Parker / New Yorker:
A profile of Dan Mallory, a bestselling novelist and former senior publishing executive who told numerous lies to advance in the book industry — Dan Mallory, who writes under the name A. J. Finn, went to No. 1 with his début thriller, “The Woman in the Window.” His life contains even stranger twists.
Discussion:
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Tatiana Siegel / Hollywood Reporter:
National Geographic acquires global rights to environmental documentary Sea of Shadows, in deal believed to be the biggest non-fiction acquisition at Sundance — The purchase is believed to be the biggest nonfiction acquisition from the 2019 edition of the festival.