Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
CBS and Viacom to merge in an all-stock deal creating a company valued at ~$30B; Shari Redstone to be chair, Bob Bakish CEO, Joe Ianniello chairman/CEO of CBS — Companies seek greater scale to survive in a media landscape dominated by major tech companies and bulked-up rivals
Discussion:
CNBC, Variety, New York Times, Multichannel News, Variety, Variety, The Verge, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Ad Age, The Streamable, Business Insider, Deadline, The Wrap, Variety, Deadline, Awful Announcing, Deadline, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, The Streamable, MediaPost, Publishers Weekly, Reuters, @jbflint, @jbflint, @stevekovach, @benmullin, Reuters, Fortune, Washington Post, Engadget, The A.V. Club, @benmullin, @benmullin, 9to5Mac, @backlon, @keithboykin, @tvmojoe, @pkafka, @trekfan4747, @edmundlee, @benmullin, @matthewkeyslive, @umairh, @techjournalist and The Guardian
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Peter Kafka / Vox:
A combined CBS and Viacom will still not be big enough to compete with Netflix, Apple, and Disney, and will have to become a buyer of smaller companies — Combining TV programming like NCIS, The Daily Show, and Billions under one company isn't enough in 2019 to compete with other big media companies.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, @ranimolla, @pkafka, TechCrunch, @taralach, @pkafka, Washington Post, CNN and Bloomberg
Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed News:
Detailed post about Epstein's death was on 4Chan 38 minutes before officials announced it; NYC Fire Department investigating if a first responder is responsible — The New York City Fire Department is investigating whether a first responder posted about Jeffrey Epstein's death …
Discussion:
CBS News, The Daily Dot, Breitbart, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Rolling Stone, CNET, The Hill, @profcarroll, Mediaite, Boing Boing, New York Post and Wall Street Journal
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Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
The Twitter-fed misinformation disaster following Epstein's death makes a case for slow news consumption, where readers disengage from breaking news — If, by some crazy chance, you wanted to be well-informed these past few days about the sudden death of Jeffrey Epstein, there was a way.
Discussion:
Vox, @janecat60, @emilybell, @mathewi, @dabeard, @tefomohapi, @b52malmet, The Verge, VICE, Fox News and @hshaban
CNN:
Washington Post executive editor responds to Bernie Sanders' suggestion that Bezos influences coverage, calling it a “conspiracy theory” — (CNN)The executive editor of The Washington Post hit back at Sen. Bernie Sanders' suggestion that the paper's coverage of the presidential candidate …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Fox News, Reason, @b_fung, @rmc031, NPR, Politico, @trinitymustache, @sulliview, The Wrap, The Hill, Poynter and Washington Post
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy openly threatens to fire employees engaged in union organizing, which would violate federal labor laws — Dave “El Presidente” Portnoy, founder of media company Barstool Sports, really, really hates unions. Now he's made explicit threats to fire employees …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Breitbart, @aoc, @nyslabor, Fox News, @nyslabor, Rolling Stone, @annamerlan, Business Insider, Deadspin and @xpangler
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Tom Jones / Poynter:
Layoffs hit GateHouse newsrooms: five at the Oklahoman, two at the Palm Beach Post, two at the Cape Cod Times; many non-newsroom staff have also been laid off — Last week, GateHouse and Gannett announced their intent to merge and form the largest newspaper chain in the country, a consolidation designed to save money.
Discussion:
New York Post, New York Post, Boston Business Journal, @apantazi, @dankennedy_nu and @henderson_mark
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify for Podcasters comes out of beta, giving podcasters valuable listener data like age, gender, location, music taste, and episode listening duration — Spotify for Podcasters comes out of beta today — Spotify is going to give podcasters listener data they can't get anywhere else.
Discussion:
Spotify, @swindledpodcast, @ashleyrcarman, @marcoarment and @mims, 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:
Vanity Fair, The Wrap, New York Times, @marcatracy, Mediaite, @tracybeanz, The Hill, Politico, Washington Examiner, @_waleedshahid, The Daily Beast, @farhip, @_waleedshahid, @karenkho, @maxwelltani, @mlcalderone, @oliverdarcy, @pareene, @mottel, @blackamazon, @gothamgirlblue, @drphilgoff, @andrewperezdc and @craigsilverman
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
Report: UK to give Ofcom new legal powers to penalize video-sharing platforms that fail to establish robust age verification checks and parental controls — European politicians have been tightening the screws on U.S. tech platforms on multiple fronts. Now, a European-wide directive …
Discussion:
Press Gazette, @hadas_gold, @joshajhall, Telegraph, The Independent, CNET and BBC
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
In Australia, after recent raids on media organizations, new government directive adds some protections for journalists, but not for sources and whistleblowers — Back in June, Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the headquarters of the country's main public broadcaster, the ABC …
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Conversation, @niemanlab and The Conversation
Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
While Mueller's inquiry has concluded, the universe of podcasts, pundits, journalists and others focused on the Russia probe has continued to expand — In mid-July, four months after Robert Mueller delivered his investigative findings to the attorney general, a podcast called “The Report” aired its very first episode.
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