Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Great Hill Partners is in exclusive talks with Univision to buy Gizmodo Media Group for an undisclosed sum — Deal would include websites such as Gizmodo, Deadspin, Lifehacker and Jezebel — Great Hill Partners is in exclusive talks with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc …
Discussion:
@onionincunion, @jeremymbarr and @jayrosen_nyu
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Bob Bauer / The Atlantic:
The AMI-Bezos conflict is a case study of legal exposure that can stem from flouting journalistic norms and of how norms relate to constitutional protections — The National Enquirer pushed the limits of journalistic norms—and in the process called into question the legal protections enjoyed by the media.
Discussion:
CNBC, Vanity Fair, Business Insider, @theatlideas and Vox, more at Techmeme »
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it is exploring ways to address anti-vaccine misinformation including reducing or removing it from recommendations and demotion in search results — Facebook Inc., under pressure to reduce harmful, misleading and fake content, said it is exploring removing anti-vaccine information …
Discussion:
schiff.house.gov, Gizmodo, @rmac18, @jayrosen_nyu, The Daily Beast, Engadget, The Week, Fortune, Fast Company, The Hill, CNN, Business Insider and The Verge
James Vincent / The Verge:
OpenAI says it won't release the dataset behind GPT-2, its new text generator algorithm that can write, translate, and summarize text, due to fears of misuse — OpenAI's researchers knew they were on to something when their language modeling program wrote a convincing essay on a topic they disagreed with.
Discussion:
The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, The Guardian, @enkiv2, Gizmodo, @techreview, @jimwaterson, Fast Company, Business Insider and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
SEC filing: Spotify paid ~$337M to buy Gimlet Media and Anchor; Spotify told investors it expects to spend $400M-$500M in total on podcast acquisitions in 2019 — - After Machinima Shutdown, Rooster Teeth Revives ‘Inside Gaming’ and Rescues Other Machinima Shows
Discussion:
TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Adam Jacobson / Radio & Television Business Report:
Apollo Global Management acquires majority stake in Cox Media Group's TV arm; earlier report placed the value at $3B — DAYTON, OHIO — On January 26, RBR+TVBR overheard a conversation involving a Cox Media Group Ohio employee who noted “we should know in a couple of weeks” what their fate would be …
Discussion:
Variety, Bloomberg, CNBC, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, @adamrjacobson1, @b_fung and Broadcasting & Cable
Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:
Sources detail the “generational shift” occurring at the BBC, as it loses four high-profile male presenters in recent months, including David Dimbleby — In just eight months, Andrew Neil, John Humphrys, David Dimbleby, and Eddie Mair have all stepped down.
Discussion:
@markdistef, @alexgspence, @markdistef, @tomwhx and @aljwhite
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Melynda Fuller / MediaPost:
Hearst Magazines names its first chief data officer, Mike Smith, in charge of ad products, digital ad operations, and data capabilities — In its latest move as a data-driven content company, Hearst Magazines has appointed Mike Smith its first Chief Data Officer. — Smith will report to Hearst Magazines President Troy Young.
Discussion:
Folio
Kim Lyons / Columbia Journalism Review:
Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh files complaint with National Labor Review Board, claiming Post-Gazette's publisher threatened to fire staff for union activity — On Saturday night, February 9, John Robinson Block—publisher of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of more than a dozen news outlets owned …
Discussion:
New York Times, @cjr, @cjr, @michaelafuoco, @jsilverpg, CNN, @jamieson, @pgnewsguild and @byrosenberg
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
Inside.com, which has raised $2.6M from SeedInvest and others, hit $1.1M in revenue in 2018 with 750K subscribers and a newsletter open rate of around 40% — Surprise: Subscribers to a nerdy bitcoin newsletter are just about as engaged as subscribers to a nerdy local newsletter.
Discussion:
@niemanlab and @jason
Amy X. Wang / Rolling Stone:
Interview with the Swedish social science research team behind Spotify Teardown, a forthcoming book that takes a deep look at the music streaming giant — Researchers behind the controversial new book into Spotify's operations chat with Rolling Stone about their most surprising findings
Discussion:
Music Ally
Duncan Cooper / Pitchfork:
While some artists whose music is used in TikTok videos are compensated through their labels' sales of blanket licenses, others forgo payment for exposure — The company behind lip-sync app TikTok is reportedly worth three times as much as Spotify, but the artists whose music powers the platform are seeing very little of that money.
Vindu Goel / New York Times:
Critics say India's proposed internet rules, which could let Indian officials compel companies to remove posts, violate constitutional free speech protections — NEW DELHI — India's government has proposed giving itself vast new powers to suppress internet content, igniting a heated battle …
Discussion:
@sflcin and @histoftech
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