Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
CBS and Viacom to merge in a ~$30B all-stock deal, creating ViacomCBS Inc.; Shari Redstone will be chair and Bob Bakish will be president and CEO — Companies seek greater scale to survive in a media landscape dominated by major tech companies and bulked-up rivals.
Discussion:
Business Insider, New York Times, CNBC, Variety, Fast Company, Deadline, Ad Age, Radio Times, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Verge, Variety, Variety, Variety, Deadline, @stevekovach, The Streamable, Business Insider, Deadline, Associated Press, Bloomberg, IndieWire, @benmullin, Wall Street Journal, Talking Biz News, ViacomCBS Inc., Ad Age, @jbflint, @jbflint, @wsj, @backlon, @benmullin, @pkafka, @matthewkeyslive, @umairh, @trekfan4747, @keithboykin, @benmullin, @tvmojoe, @edmundlee, @techjournalist, @benmullin, Awful Announcing, Reuters, Fortune, Reuters, The A.V. Club, Washington Post, Engadget, 9to5Mac, The Guardian and Vox
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Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Sources: CBS's and Viacom's TV production entities to remain separate for now, with CBS TV under Joe Ianniello, and Paramount TV under Jim Gianopulos — Because they were once part of one media company that was split into two, the newly reunited CBS and Viacom's assets fit together with little overlap.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and TVWeek.com
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Interview with Joe Ianniello, president and acting CEO of CBS, who will be named chairman-CEO of CBS after the Viacom-CBS transaction is complete — Joe Ianniello was seen as the odd man out once members of the CBS and Viacom boards got serious about merger discussions this past spring.
Discussion:
Multichannel News, @pkafka, The Wrap and @ranimolla
The New York Times Company:
Atlantic reporter Taylor Lorenz to join the New York Times Styles desk on the tech culture beat — Taylor Lorenz, who has written extensively on how humans create art, enact society and concoct businesses on digital surfaces and platforms, is joining the Culture of Tech reporting team.
Discussion:
@jakelahut, @nycsouthpaw, @jbenton, @caseynewton, @choire, @taylorlorenz and @taylorlorenz
Pew Research Center:
Older Americans, black adults, and Americans with less education are more interested in local news than their counterparts; older adults prefer TV as a source — These groups also prefer to get local news on TV — Nearly a third of U.S. adults (31%) follow local news very closely …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @pewresearch, @pewresearch, @samesfandiari and @galenstocking
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Interview with Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg on how the Tumblr acquisition came about, what's next for Tumblr, adult content in apps, and more — Blogging is back, hopefully — It's been a long and winding road for Tumblr, the blogging site that launched a thousand writing careers.
Discussion:
@jayrosen_nyu, @reckless and @reckless, more at Techmeme »
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
NYT says deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman has been demoted and will no longer oversee the team covering Congress or be active on social media — New York (CNN Business)Jonathan Weisman, the deputy Washington editor for The New York Times (NYT), has been demoted after a pair …
Discussion:
New York Times, Talking Biz News, PEN America, @marcatracy, Poynter, @janrobinjackson, @thedailybeast, @tracybeanz, @jayrosen_nyu, Columbia Journalism Review, @_waleedshahid, @_waleedshahid, @maxwelltani, @karenkho, @mottel, @blackamazon, @gothamgirlblue, @drphilgoff, @farhip, @craigsilverman, @andrewperezdc, @pareene, @oliverdarcy, Vanity Fair, Jezebel, @mlcalderone, The Wrap, The Hill, Politico, The Daily Beast, Washington Examiner and Mediaite
Axios:
A look at the sports streaming landscape, which is growing more competitive even though the rights to major sports are tied up in long-term linear TV contracts — The battle to become the next big sports streamer is underway, but unlike the entertainment streaming wars …
E. Tammy Kim / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at some of the dozens of other prosecutions of journalists in Myanmar that went unseen behind the story of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo — The world cheered when two Reuters journalists were freed from prison. But who's watching out for the rest?
Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed News:
Sources: when their book deal blew up after sexual misconduct allegations against Glenn Thrush, Thrush kept his advance but Maggie Haberman had to return hers — The first two years of the Trump presidency were a boom time for political books, and one of the boomiest was the deal announced …
Discussion:
@dylanbyers
Tim Peterson / Digiday:
Document shows YouTube is testing a members-only video feature, which will allow publishers to upload SVOD videos to YouTube without cannibalizing subscriptions — This article is part of the Digiday Video Briefing, which features must-reads, confessionals and key market stats.
Discussion:
Tubefilter
Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
Behind the rise of “twinfluencers” on social media, as content produced by twins continues to explode in popularity on YouTube and Instagram — Why so many famous YouTubers and Instagram stars are twins — You're not imagining it: Influencers really are multiplying.
Discussion:
@willstew, @morrisanimal, The Verge and @fordm
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