Top News:
Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:
Felicia Sonmez's suspension exposes the tyranny of newsroom social media policies, which often read like hamfisted attempts to reconcile competing impulses — On Sunday—amid the wave of public eulogizing that followed the death of Kobe Bryant—many people on Twitter stressed …
Discussion:
New York Times, New York Times, @hshaban, The Guardian, @mattdpearce, @eshap, @max_read, @max_read, @nytopinion, @jeffgiesea, @taylorlorenz, @jeremydgoodwin, @brosandprose, @aaronpcalvin, @cwarzel, @nytopinion, @lemieuxlgm, @brianstelter, @haleysswenson, @ma_franks, @clairecm, @jeremydgoodwin, @asmamk, @wpjenna, @sarahmseltzer, @stephaniemlee, @salhernandez, @pomeranian99, @froomkin, @cwarzel, @tomgara, @ericalg, @marcfennell, @walldo, @chick_in_kiev, @bernstein, @daveyalba, @davpjor, @ellesep, @_cingraham, @fenitn, @lainnafader and @jon_allsop
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Ted Johnson / Deadline:
WaPo reinstates reporter Felicia Sonmez after her suspension following her tweets about a rape allegation against Kobe Bryant and her response to backlash
WaPo reinstates reporter Felicia Sonmez after her suspension following her tweets about a rape allegation against Kobe Bryant and her response to backlash
Discussion:
@feliciasonmez, @postguild, @dabeard, @mlcalderone, New York Post, Breitbart, @feliciasonmez and @soledadobrien
Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times:
ABC News suspends chief national correspondent Matt Gutman for wrongly reporting that all four of Kobe Bryant's daughters were on the helicopter that crashed — ABC News has suspended the correspondent who speculated on-air that all four of Kobe Bryant's daughters were on board the helicopter …
Discussion:
@mattgutmanabc, CNN, FTVLive, Variety, @kiaspeaks, @raiklin, @williamrichjr, @mrmokelly, @strategicpio, @marcatracy, @nuuzz, @mr_jasonjones, KTLA, Deadline, Mediaite, Awful Announcing, TVWeek.com, TVNewser, Fox News and The Wrap
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
Q&A with Ben Smith on his move to NYT, his lack of doubt about publishing the Steele dossier, BuzzFeed's young union, and the merging of politics and media — On Tuesday, the New York Times announced that its new media columnist, a job most famously held by the late David Carr …
Discussion:
@yayitsrob, @mathewi, @rafat, @lisatozzi, @asankin, @atossaaraxia, @benmullin, @jbenton, @mairavz, @adriana_lacy, @yoloethics, @michaelluo, @kurtsoller and @adriana_lacy
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Dylan Byers / NBC News:
EIC Ben Smith is leaving BuzzFeed in early March to join NYT to write the Media Equation column made famous by David Carr
EIC Ben Smith is leaving BuzzFeed in early March to join NYT to write the Media Equation column made famous by David Carr
Discussion:
@buzzfeedben, @raju, @michellemanafy, @reillyadam, @dylanbyers, @tomnamako, @niemanlab, @ichotiner, @ggreenwald, @chanders, @austinhunt, @joepompeo and The Daily Caller
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
A look at CollegeHumor's rise, from a scrappy startup to a digital media player, and its fall, as YouTube and Facebook made its business model obsolete — The company grew from a scrappy startup to a digital media player. Now it's clinging to life after mass layoffs.
Discussion:
@mschaubach
Sarah Manavis / The Guardian:
The BBC's inability to handle internet culture subjects and develop a presence on platforms like TikTok will exacerbate its failure to connect with under-30s — Young people want content shared on social media platforms they actually use. The BBC must keep up, or lose them
Discussion:
@dougalshawbbc, @charliehtweets, @tomb8man, @rosssemple, @sophiasgaler, @dinosofos, @vicderbyshire, @owswills and @sarahmanavis
Reuters:
Verizon adds 790K phone customers in Q4, well above estimates of 525K subscribers, as it benefited from including Disney+ in some of its plans — Verizon Communications Inc on Thursday added more monthly mobile phone subscribers than expected as it benefited from including Disney+ streaming service with some of its plans.
Julie Reynolds / DFM Workers:
Alden Global Capital has acquired a $9.2M stake in Lee Enterprises, or 5.9%, based on an SEC filing made the same day Lee announced it will acquire BH Media — Cash from understaffed DFM papers was used to finance stock purchase — Alden Global Capital, the New York vulture hedge fund gutting Digital …
Discussion:
@mercnewsguild, @undeckedcrawdad, @jenwsheehan, MNG Enterprises and @undeckedcrawdad
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Katherine Chiglinsky / Bloomberg:
Berkshire Hathaway to sell its BH Media unit and its 30 daily newspapers to St. Louis Post-Dispatch publisher Lee Enterprises for $140M in cash
Berkshire Hathaway to sell its BH Media unit and its 30 daily newspapers to St. Louis Post-Dispatch publisher Lee Enterprises for $140M in cash
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, @byjonharris, Marketplace, The Buffalo News, @will_bunch, @taralach, @nicolefriedman, @kodacohen, @darrendcarroll, @johnnewsomnr, @jeanniemcbride_, @niemanlab, @johnnewsomnr, @jbenton, @mattdpearce, @hopnotes, @dankennedy_nu, @ajfriedenberger, @journospike, @ckrewson, @raju, @froomkin, @brockvergakis, @imillhiser, @keithboykin, @allisonprang, @abgutman, @maxabelson, @lisaabramowicz1, @dianabhenriques, @specnewsbuffalo, @buffaloscribe, @markpoloncarz, @nickreisman, @colindabkowski, @pwthornton, @ginger_clark, @dankennedy_nu, @hadas_gold, @ljkawa, @k_chiglinsky, @dkiesow, @davidjoachim, @gerryfsmith, Lee Enterprises and Poynter
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Snapchat launches Bitmoji TV, 4-minute comedy cartoons with users' avatars, on a dedicated Snapchat Show page to which users can subscribe to get notifications — If you were the star of every show, would you watch more mobile television? Snapchat is betting that narcissism drives resonance …
Discussion:
Variety, more at Techmeme »
BBC:
BBC News to cut around 450 jobs as part of plans to reach its £80M savings target by 2022 — Around 450 jobs will be cut from BBC News under plans to complete its £80m savings target by 2022. — There will be a reduction in the number of films produced by Newsnight …
Discussion:
Press Gazette, The Guardian, Jon Slattery, Financial Times, @jimwaterson, @hadas_gold, @genepark, @w7voa, @andycomfort, @katebevan, @prospect_clark, @guyadams, @hzbrandenburg, @jamesaalongman, @damiancollins, @sport_simon, The Guardian, @markdistef, @brianstelter, @carljackmiller, @jimwaterson, @markdistef, @markdistef and @charliebeckett
Danielle Abril / Fortune:
Survey of 12,043 US adults: 59% distrust Facebook for political and election news, including 62% of Republicans and 59% of Democrats, while 48% distrust Twitter — Facebook and Twitter are a long way from instilling confidence after letting misinformation flood their services during recent elections, according to a new survey.
Discussion:
@danielledigest
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Study that looked at 72M YouTube comments across 330,925 videos finds evidence of radicalization effect on users that leads them to extreme far-right content — Research presented at the ACM FAT 2020 conference in Barcelona today supports the notion that YouTube's platform is playing a role …
Discussion:
@kevinroose, @moonalice, @fredbenenson, @fightextremism, @marietjeschaake, @jason_kint and @oliverdarcy, more at Techmeme »
News Corp:
News Corp launches Knewz, a news aggregation platform covering more than 400 publishers that uses AI and human editors, available on the web, iOS, and Android — Groundbreaking News Platform Free of Filter Bubbles Launches in Beta; — Features Headlines from Publishers Large & Small, Left & Right, Here, There & Everywhere
Discussion:
Columbia Journalism Review, @sokane1, @hardin, @sarafischer, @taylorlorenz, @justin_ling, @rudygamble, @donie, @sternbergh, @andybcampbell, @miikewilliams, @isaacdovere, @rachellarris, @jpbrammer, @ginnymarvin, @jaredbkeller, @onceupona, @drewcurtis, @hshaban, @thenikkibus, @dgisserious, @drewcurtis, @drewcurtis, @jillkrajewski, @variety, @_cooper, @jaycaruso, @abeaujon, @drewharwell, @backlon, @markdistef, @raju, @alexweprin, @pkafka and The Hill