Top News:
Mark J. Burns / Morning Consult:
Minute Media, which bought Mental Floss in 2018, buys sports and pop culture site The Big Lead from Gannett; The Big Lead co-founder Jason McIntyre will leave — Minute Media said Thursday that it has purchased sports, media and pop culture website The Big Lead from USA Today parent company Gannett Co. …
Discussion:
Adweek, Awful Announcing, Deadspin, @markjburns88 and New York Post
Ashley Feinberg / HuffPost:
Axios and NBC confirm they have hired an editor to suggest changes to their Wikipedia entries; the editor has also worked for a Facebook PR firm and Nextdoor — Executives at the news company Axios were outwardly unperturbed when Jonathan Swan, one of the Politico-for-kids site's star reporters …
Discussion:
@donie, @ashleyfeinberg, @jwitmer, @saramorrison, @b52malmet, @gregotto, @marinafang, @mmasnick, @jcstearns, @krmaher, @katienotopoulos, @alexckaufman, @claireefallon, @zachdcarter and @craigsilverman
Eli Rosenberg / Washington Post:
A look at Media Matters, which monitors conservative media, and its researcher Madeline Peltz, who dug up Tucker Carlson's chats on Bubba the Love Sponge's show — Madeline Peltz works the night shift at the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America.
Lynette Rice / EW.com:
People magazine's editor in chief, Jess Cagle, is stepping down after five years at its helm and 32 years at Time Inc. — “I've decided it's time to do some other things while I'm still young — or at least alive," he wrote in a staff memo. “It's also time for me to live in Los Angeles full …
Discussion:
Poynter, WWD, @markharrisnyc and Adweek
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Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times:
People magazine names Dan Wakeford, currently a deputy editor, as its new editor in chief starting April 1
Discussion:
Adweek, CNN, @media_ink and MediaPost
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
With $150K in funding, the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, a partnership among nine media orgs in NC, will cover the housing crisis in its first year — In its first official local expansion, the Solutions Journalism Network is partnering with the Knight Foundation to launch …
Discussion:
Poynter, Center for Cooperative Media, @centercoopmedia and Editor & Publisher
Paresh Rajwat / Facebook:
Facebook is rolling out Watch Party support for live TV, testing first in Groups with live sports events, adds music features including in India and Thailand — Today at SXSW, we're sharing updates on how we're bringing people together around video and music on Facebook …
Discussion:
Billboard, Music Business Worldwide, RAIN News, Engadget and 9to5Mac
Julia Thomas / Nieman Lab:
A look at how outlets like 263Chat, Kukurigo, and Magamba are distributing news via WhatsApp, which accounts for almost half of all internet usage in Zimbabwe — A look at how outlets like 263Chat, Kukurigo, Center for Innovation and Technology, and Magamba Network are distributing news via the app.
Discussion:
@juliathomas317, @ramanewdelhi and @niemanlab
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says it removed 2.3B bad ads in 2018, down 28% from 2017 and terminated ~1M bad advertiser accounts, including ~734K publishers and app developers — Around this time of year, Google shares how many “bad ads” it killed the year before. And every year, the number grows. But not this time.
Discussion:
Adweek, support.google.com, TechCrunch, @epro and The Keyword, more at Techmeme »
Lynn Elber / Associated Press:
The Hallmark Channel cuts ties with star Lori Loughlin after her arrest in a college admissions scam — LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Hallmark Channel cut ties Thursday with favored star Lori Loughlin, a day after her arrest in a college admissions scam put the family-friendly network …
Discussion:
Business Insider, Hollywood Reporter, NBC News, TVWeek.com, Fast Company, Fortune, Tubefilter, BuzzFeed News, Vanity Fair, The Daily Caller, ABC13 and Jezebel
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
The public will suffer and dodgy politicians will thrive as the number of reporters from regional outlets covering Congress and federal issues dwindles in DC — When Jerry Zremski started reporting in 2017 on the questionable financial activities of Chris Collins, a Buffalo-area member of Congress …
Discussion:
@sambrodey, @tatecurtis, @janebsinger, @ericschultz, @katzonearth, @sambrodey and MinnPost
New York Times:
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's ties to the film industry fall under scrutiny as the US pushes China for more favorable treatment of Hollywood films — WASHINGTON — “Wonder Woman,” the 2017 film that Steven Mnuchin helped produce before becoming Treasury secretary, hauled in about $90 million at the box office in China.
Discussion:
@mbaram, @robertmaguire_ and @lisabirnbach
Orla McCaffrey / Ad Age:
Report: US esports ad revenue to reach $178M in 2019, up 25%, and $213M in 2020; 30.3M people in US will watch esports at least once a month in 2019, up 18% YoY — Brands are drawn to the younger audiences — As esports keeps creeping towards the mainstream, more brands are jumping in.
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