Mediagazer: DJ Marshmello's concert on Fortnite drew a peak crowd of 10.7M and led to 100M rise in his YouTube views; the DJ was equipped with a body-motion suit to perform (Tim Ingham/Rolling Stone)

Jonathan O'Connell / Washington Post:

Senator Chuck Schumer, troubled by Alden Capital's history, writes a letter to its president demanding it explain its plans for Gannett if a deal goes through — A firm backed by Alden Global Capital, known for sharp newsroom cuts, would acquire more than 100 daily newspapers in the deal.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and @news_guild

Discussion: Nieman Lab, USA Today, Gannett Investor Relations, Forbes and Business Wire

Shareen Pathak / Digiday:

Digiday Research survey of 100 ad buyers: 14% don't expect the YouTube crisis to have an impact on long-term spending; ~33% said cutbacks would be temporary — As a number of major brands, including Disney, Nestle, McDonald's, AT&T and Epic Games, are pulling their ads from YouTube due …

Discussion: AdExchanger, @aexm and @jackneff

Discussion: The Wrap, Winter is Coming, Ad Age, B&TB&T, CNBC, MediaPost, @rachblevins, Beyond Search, Reuters, WIRED UK, @cnbc, Adweek, Gizmodo, @winnersusedrugs, Tubefilter, @danielmadison78, @mattbinder, @bmorrissey, The Wrap, Engadget, Boing Boing, The Verge, The Verge, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, The Verge, Fortune, Tubefilter, TechCrunch, Engadget, Variety and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Report details how Tribune Publishing, The Guardian, and Slate got their most engaged readers to contribute by focusing on quality content, podcasts, and more — Reader revenue, reader revenue, reader revenue. It's much easier said than done, but these two case studies from Tribune Publishing …

Discussion: MediaPost and Washington Post

Tim Ingham / Rolling Stone:

DJ Marshmello's concert on Fortnite drew a peak crowd of 10.7M and led to 100M rise in his YouTube views; the DJ was equipped with a body-motion suit to perform — Ten million virtual souls showed up for two epic DJ sets. It was a masterstroke in global music marketing

Discussion: The Verge and Variety

Jamie Tarabay / New York Times:

Australian billionaire Chau Chak Wing awarded $200K in a defamation case over a 2015 Sydney Morning Herald story connecting him to a bribery scandal — SYDNEY, Australia — A billionaire businessman won a defamation case on Friday against a media organization that he claimed had wrongly linked …

Discussion: The Age, @nytimes, @fryan, SBS News, B&TB&T, Mumbrella and The Guardian

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Source: Barstool Sports made $15M+ in podcasting revenue in 2018; CEO says over half its ad revenue is from podcasts with average rate per spot up 30% YoY — Barstool Sports recorded more than $15 million in podcasting revenue in 2018, according to a source.

Discussion: MediaPost

Chuck Strouse / Miami New Times:

McClatchy CEO says ~225 employees have accepted buyout offers across the country with sources saying the Miami Herald is losing at least 10 employees — McClatchy Co. CEO Craig Forman announced Wednesday that “a bit fewer” than 225 employees had accepted buyout offers and would be leaving newspapers across the country.

Ira Boudway / Bloomberg:

Chernin Group's Action Network, a sports betting media startup, raises $17.5M Series B led by Fertitta Capital — - Peter Chernin's Action Network closed $17.5 million funding — Investors include owners from MLB, NBA, NHL, Ultimate Fighting — Action Network Inc. …

Discussion: Reuters and Action Network

Casey Newton / The Interface:

Pinterest has stopped returning results for searches on vaccinations, differentiating between freedom of speech and freedom of reach — Programming note: The Interface will be off Thursday as I finish up a project that I will share with you next week. — Since the reckoning …

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Roku reports Q4 revenue of $275.7M, up 46% YoY and vs. $262.11M est., says it has 27.1M active accounts, up 40% YoY; revenue for 2018 grew 45% to $742.5M — Roku wants to become a billion-dollar company in 2019. The streaming device maker told investors Thursday that it projects …

Discussion: Multichannel News, TechCrunch, Digiday, MediaPost, @digiday, @jank0, @jank0, Roku Investor Relations and AdExchanger

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

How New York-area cable news station News 12 is working with ProPublica's Documenting Hate database to track local hate crimes — “Getting things on air will reach the audience you're looking to reach. Getting things online is important so people can find the work later."

Discussion: @riogringa

Maureen Farrell / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Pinterest has confidentially filed for an IPO, seeking a valuation of at least $12B — Online-image search company is expected to seek a valuation of at least $12 billion — Pinterest Inc. has confidentially filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission …

Discussion: Mashable, TechCrunch, Fortune, CNBC, New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Fortune, Fast Company, Business Insider, TechCrunch and AOL, more at Techmeme »