Mediagazer: ViacomCBS acquires 49% stake in Miramax, which is owned by BeIN, for $375M (Georg Szalai/Hollywood Reporter)

Top News:

ViacomCBS acquires 49% stake in Miramax, which is owned by BeIN, for $375M — The L.A.-based company, which has been owned by Doha-based BeIN Media Group and run by CEO Bill Block, has a library with 700-plus titles, including such Oscar winners as ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Chicago.’

Discussion: Variety, Variety, MediaPost, Axios, Multichannel News, @viacomcbs, @variety and @richlightshed

Keida Kostreci / Voice of America:

Albania approves a set of anti-defamation laws which critics see as an attempt to muzzle the media and give the nation's top media regulator too much power — Albania's Parliament approved a controversial set of government-proposed anti-defamation laws on Wednesday, which critics say grant …

Discussion: Reuters, Committee to Protect …, Balkan Insight, Albanian Daily News, @penamerica, Associated Press and The Shift News

Stanford Internet Observatory:

Microsoft's Bing appears to return an alarming amount of disinformation for user queries, far more than Google does, based on a test of 13 queries — Bing's importance in the information landscape of the U.S. shouldn't be overlooked. While its share of the search market in the U.S. might …

Discussion: The Keyword, @alexstamos, @whatthebit, @mathewi, @brendannyhan, @majorhayden, @welhai, Search Engine Land and Softpedia News

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

NY judge dismisses appeal by Michael Leidig of Central European News in libel case against BuzzFeed, saying he failed to prove BuzzFeed's reporting was false — News agency boss Michael Liedig has had his appeal against a libel judgment that backed Buzzfeed's 2015 story dubbing him the “king of bullshit news” thrown out.

Business Wire:

Triton to start publishing monthly reports on top networks and podcasts ranked by weekly downloads; NPR, Stitcher, Radio.com, and Cumulus have signed on — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Triton Digital®, the global technology and services provider to the digital audio and podcast industry …

Discussion: @nwquah and Radio Ink

Sara Guaglione / MediaPost:

The Atlantic's feature on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which was read for 30M+ “total engaged minutes”, is #1 in Chartbeat's Most Engaging Stories of 2019 — Chartbeat, the digital publisher data and analytics company, has revealed its annual list of most engaging stories of the year.

Discussion: Chartbeat Blog

Heather Carpenter / Reuters:

Reuters joins Covering Climate Now, an initiative co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation to strengthen the media's focus on the climate crisis — In the latest move to reinforce its commitment to covering climate change, Reuters announced today that it has joined …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @coveringclimate and @jumpsteady

Chris Eggertsen / Billboard:

Jury finds Cox Communications liable for its customers' piracy of 10,000+ musical works, awards $1B to Sony Music, EMI, Universal, and Warner Music — Cox Communications was found liable for piracy infringement of more than 10,000 musical works by a U.S. District Court jury in Virgina on Thursday …

Discussion: Variety, The Verge, @mmasnick, @future_of_music, TorrentFreak, @marcjacobsonpc, @eriqgardner, Axios, Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap

Tim Baysinger / The Wrap:

NY governor signs a bill prompting a study of opportunities for female and minority TV writers and directors and providing $5M to spur more diversity in hiring — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the state's Television Diversity Tax Credit Bill into law on Thursday.

Discussion: Multichannel News, Variety and Deadline

Brian X. Chen / New York Times:

A summary of NYT reporters' favorite tech tools, based on three years of the Tech We're Using column: smartphones, encrypted communication, and spare batteries — After three years and more than 130 columns, the smartphone was tops. There were also some deliberate Luddites among us.

Discussion: @nytmedia and @nytmedia

Megan Graham / CNBC:

Ad exchange Rubicon Project agrees to merge with video advertising management platform Telaria, to better compete with Google and Facebook — - Public ad tech companies Telaria and Rubicon Project have agreed to merge as they try to make a stronger play in the growth of connected television …

Discussion: Digiday, AdExchanger, @rubiconproject, ir.tivo.com, @businessinsider, @tkawaja, @sarahsluis, Business Wire, @cnbctech, @davemorgannyc, MarTech Today and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Sources: Facebook is pursuing rights to music videos from record labels to boost interest in Watch, has already begun testing music videos in Thailand and India — Facebook Inc. is pursuing rights to music videos from major record labels, programming that could boost interest in its Watch video service …

Discussion: CNET and Engadget