Mediagazer: Filing: Endeavor, Ari Emanuel's entertainment company, seeks to raise $600M+ at a valuation of ~$8B in its IPO (Alex Weprin/Hollywood Reporter)

1:50 PM ET, September 16, 2019

Top News:

The dearth of TikTok videos on Hong Kong protests offers a glimpse of how China could shape the perception of real-world events by US and global audiences — Hong Kong unrest features prominently on most social media, but not on TikTok — A search for “#hongkong” on Twitter reveals …

Discussion: @sarahfrier, @craigsilverman, @profcarroll, @jorge_guajardo, @matthewstoller, @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @mattdpearce, @markseibel and @parmy, more at Techmeme »

What's New in Publishing:

A look at TopBuzz, the English version of ByteDance's Chinese AI-powered news aggregator Toutiao, that rose from 1.8M MAUs in Nov. 2017 to 23M MAUs by Oct. 2018 — The MIT Technology Review called it “the insanely popular Chinese news app that you've never heard of.”

Discussion: @mattnavarra and @rkellett, more at Techmeme »

Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times:

Netflix acquires the global rights to Seinfeld for five years, starting in 2021 when Amazon and Hulu's rights expire; Hulu was paying $150M a year for US rights — Netflix has fired back in the battle for popular network sitcoms by landing the global streaming rights to “Seinfeld.”

Discussion: Variety, New York Times, Ars Technica, Business Insider, The Wrap, The Streamable, Vanity Fair, The Playlist, The Week, @megancgraham, The Verge and CNET

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Since CJR and The Nation announced Covering Climate Now in July to spur focused climate crisis coverage, over 250 news outlets have committed to the effort — New York (CNN Business)More than 250 news outlets around the world have committed to Covering Climate Now. — What is it?

Discussion: Variety, American Press Institute, Press Gazette, Columbia Journalism Review, Talking Biz News, DeSmogBlog, @kerrymflynn, @mlcalderone, The Spinoff and The Guardian

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:

Filing: Endeavor, Ari Emanuel's entertainment company, seeks to raise $600M+ at a valuation of ~$8B in its IPO — The entertainment company's IPO is now expected this fall. — Endeavor hopes to raise $600 million-plus in its initial public offering, according to a filing with the Securities …

Discussion: SEC.gov, Financial Times, Variety, The Wrap, Deadline, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and @edmundlee

Max Willens / Digiday:

The Daily Beast says cutting the cost of Beast Inside by 65% over the past 15 months to $35/year has led to conversion rates 5x that of initial $100/year — Since The Daily Beast launched its membership program, Beast Inside, last summer, the IAC-owned news brand has managed to improve …

CBC News:

Facebook says it is planning changes to tool allowing advertisers to rewrite news story headlines after UK's Conservative party altered a BBC headline in an ad — BBC article used in ad with a changed headline that contradicted article content — Advertisers on Facebook are able …

Discussion: CNET, more at Techmeme »

Allyson Chiu / Washington Post:

NYT corrects story with new Kavanaugh allegation, says full account from upcoming book notes that friends of woman involved say she does not recall the incident — When the New York Times revealed a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh this weekend …

Discussion: The Hill, Mediaite, Fox News, The Wrap, @alxthomp, New York Magazine, @howardkurtz, Mediaite, @sulliview and @daviduberti

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:
New York Times gets heavily criticized over a now-deleted tweet that described sexual assault as “harmless fun”

BBC:

The Guardian apologizes for publishing an editorial that originally said that ex-UK PM David Cameron had only felt “privileged pain” over the death of his son — The Guardian has apologised for saying David Cameron had only felt “privileged pain” over the death of his son.

Discussion: The Guardian, BuzzFeed, @markdistef, @markdistef, @markdistef, HuffPost UK, The Times & The Sunday Times, The Week and Bookseller News

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

Bloomberg says roughly two-thirds of its subscribers convert from site visits, 25% from its app, and around 8% from Apple News — Bloomberg Media is on track to double its digital subscribers by the end of the year, with revenue from subscribers reaching double-digit percentage …

Wall Street Journal:

As AT&T's CEO plans to retire, AT&T's TV business keeps declining, the Time Warner integration looks shaky, and now an activist shareholder pushes for changes — Plans by CEO Randall Stephenson to leave the helm to a longtime ally triggered the threat of a proxy fight by an aggressive Wall Street activist investor

Discussion: @cgasparino, @wsjbusiness, @wsj, @wsj and @robert_spalding, more at Techmeme »

James Warrington / CityAM:

UK government drops probe into Saudi investments in Evening Standard and Independent, after regulators conclude the deal didn't warrant further inquiry — The government has decided not to pursue a probe into Saudi investments in the Evening Standard and the Independent, despite concerns they could harm freedom of expression.

Discussion: Financial Times and GOV.UK

Kerry Flynn / CNN:

Following Twitter and Facebook, Snapchat launches a library of political ads on its platform from 2018 and 2019, available as downloadable spreadsheets — New York (CNN Business)Snapchat launched a political ads library as the mobile app becomes a campaign tool for 2020 candidates.

more at Techmeme »