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, @brosandprose, @aaronpcalvin, @cwarzel, @nytopinion, @lemieuxlgm, @brianstelter, @ma_franks, @clairecm, @asmamk, @wpjenna, @sarahmseltzer, @salhernandez, @pomeranian99, @froomkin, @cwarzel, @tomgara, @ericalg, @marcfennell, @chick_in_kiev, @bernstein, @walldo, @haleysswenson, @jeremydgoodwin, @stephaniemlee, @jeremydgoodwin, @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
Discussion:
@feliciasonmez, @postguild, @dabeard, Breitbart, New York Post, @mlcalderone, @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, The Hill, CNN, Variety, @kiaspeaks, @raiklin, @williamrichjr, @mrmokelly, @strategicpio, @marcatracy, @nuuzz, @mr_jasonjones, FTVLive, KTLA, Deadline, TVWeek.com, Mediaite, Awful Announcing, 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
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.
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Julian Knight named chairman of UK's Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee; he has called for a shift from the BBC license fee to a subscription model — Damian Collins has been ousted from his role as chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee after three years by a former BBC and Independent journalist.
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
Discussion:
@byjonharris, Marketplace, The Buffalo News, @will_bunch, @taralach, @nicolefriedman, @kodacohen, @darrendcarroll, @johnnewsomnr, @jeanniemcbride_, @niemanlab, @johnnewsomnr, @mattdpearce, @hopnotes, @dankennedy_nu, @ajfriedenberger, @journospike, @jbenton, @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 »
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