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Memo: in 2018, BuzzFeed generated $100M+ from business lines that didn't exist in 2017; Facebook video platform revenue grew from $500K in Q1 to $3M in Q4 2018 — - BuzzFeed CEO Says Company Is Generating Over $200 Million Annually From Businesses That Didn't Exist Two Years Ago
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, Business Insider, Digiday, BuzzFeed, Adweek, @xpangler, MediaPost, ZDNet and @lucas_shaw, more at Techmeme »


Sources: Amazon teams up with the NY Yankees, Sinclair Broadcasting, and others in a bid to buy the YES sports network from majority owner 21st Century Fox — Amazon is coming to New York — to grab a piece of the Yankees sports network. — Jeff Bezos' tech giant has teamed …
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An overview of Amazon's media strategies, which include partnering with channels, expanding sports rights, and connecting content to products it sells — - Jeff Bezos gives the Amazon Studios team a massive budget to win “Lord of the Rings” and even sends Echo speakers to the Tolkien estate.


In memo, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara apologizes for “personal actions” that embarrassed company and staff after leaked texts show entanglement with actress — “I deeply regret that I have made mistakes in my personal life that have caused pain and embarrassment to the people I love the most.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, Deadline, The Week, @katiekilkenny7, @maxapotter and @joebelbruno
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Former exec of Asian-themed OTT service DramaFever, which shut down in Oct., sues Warner Bros. alleging anti-Asian bias and retaliation amid exec layoffs — A former executive at the Asian-themed OTT service DramaFever filed suit on Wednesday, accusing Warner Bros. of laying off Asian-American executives due to bias.
Discussion:
Forbes, HuffPost, NBC News and Multichannel News


Australian court case puts media outlets on notice that they could face large compensation claims, after The Age was found liable for a reporter's PTSD — A landmark ruling by an Australian court is expected to have international consequences for newsrooms, with media companies on notice …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @jbenton, @lindsaycohen, @seanrobinson1e4 and NEWS.com.au


White House Communications Director Bill Shine has resigned to serve as senior adviser on Trump's re-election campaign — Bill Shine, the former Fox News executive who joined the White House staff last summer to manage President Trump's communications operation, has resigned and will move …
Discussion:
TVNewser, Bloomberg, @clarajeffery, @jeremymbarr, @maggienyt, The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, KNSD-TV, @poniewozik, CNBC, @timobrien, Boing Boing, Politico, CNN, @tripgabriel, New York Magazine, @elianayjohnson, @timobrien, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, @gabrielsherman, @karenyourish, @acosta, The Week, Mediaite, Fortune, Splinter, Newsy and Washington Post


Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman share content plans for Quibi, their streaming service launching in April 2020, including a show on Evan Spiegel and Snapchat — Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman today announced a slate of new series and projects heading to their forthcoming video streaming service, Quibi.
Discussion:
Adweek, Hollywood Reporter, Fast Company and The Wrap, more at Techmeme »


Product manager says Google is building a podcast app and hopes to surface podcasts in search results by using speech-to-text to understand audio content — Google, a sleeping giant in the podcast space, is starting to open its eyes and stretch. — Since launching its native podcast app …

Facebook's shift to more private sharing will make misinformation harder to track and raises questions about the company's liability for its diffusion — On Wednesday, in what seemed like a major shift, Mark Zuckerberg wrote that he wants to reorient Facebook around private, encrypted …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @zeynep, New York Times, New York Times, American Press Institute, The Guardian, New York Times, OneZero, @alexstamos, The Verge, MIT Technology Review, @jayrosen_nyu, @evanselinger, @jason_kint, @sivavaid, @sivavaid, @jessefelder, @willoremus, Memex 1.1, Parse.ly, @_maditla, Techdirt, Stratechery, @jayrosen_nyu, The Verge, Wired, ClickZ, WIRED UK and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »


Serial Box, a digital publisher of serialized fiction that publishes stories in text and audio formats, raises $4.5M in seed funding, led by Boat Rocker Media — Serial Box, a startup bringing back the tradition of serialized fiction, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding.


NBC News and MSNBC plan to expand their podcasts team; one goal is a podcast focused on the 2020 election, starting out weekly and expanding into a daily show — NBC News and MSNBC are spending more to make podcasts. — On Monday, NBC News is announcing the first of several hires this year …