Top News:
The New York Times Company:
NYT announces it has added a breaking news team in London, expanding its Express Desk; the team of five editors and reporters will be led by NYT's Erin McCann — The New York Times continues to strengthen its presence in the U.K. with the addition of a breaking news team in London to expand The Times's Express Desk.
Discussion:
Digiday, Adweek, What's New in Publishing, @mccanner, @moorehn, @stanfordc and @adweek
Reuters:
Sources: Thomson Reuters is close to naming former Nielsen president Steve Hasker as its next chief executive, succeeding Jim Smith — (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO) (TRI.N) is close to naming former Nielsen Holdings Plc (NLSN.N) president Steve Hasker as its next chief executive …
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Marc Tracy / New York Times:
Polk Award winners announced, including The Wichita Eagle, The Baltimore Sun, WaPo's The Afghanistan Papers, and a special award for NYT's The 1619 Project — The New York Times received four George Polk Awards on Wednesday, the most of any news organization, including one for The 1619 Project …
Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
ViacomCBS revenue fell 3% to 6.87M in Q4, its first post-merger quarter, with a net loss of $273M; company anticipates merger savings of $750M, up from $500M — ViacomCBS saw revenue dip 2% and swung to red for the last three months of the year, which CEO Bob Bakish called a “transitional” …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, Reuters and @saraevans83
Casey Egan / S&P Global:
During its Q4 earnings call, Dish chairman Charlie Ergen said that he believes the merger between DirecTV and Dish is “probably inevitable” — DISH Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen believes it is “probably inevitable” that DISH and AT&T Inc.'s DIRECTV, as the two largest U.S. satellite pay TV providers, should merge.
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, The Streamable and Multichannel News
RELATED:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Dish's Sling TV now has 2.5M subscribers, losing 94,000 in Q4, the first time it lost subscribers since its 2015 launch; Dish revenue dropped 2.1% YoY to $3.2B
Discussion:
TechCrunch, @valleyshook, Multichannel News, The Verge, The Streamable, MediaPost and Broadcasting & Cable, more at Techmeme »
Associated Press:
President of broadcaster BeIN Sports, a major sports content buyer, is indicted in connection with Swiss bribery investigation into World Cup television rights — The Paris Saint-Germain president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, was charged on Thursday by Swiss federal prosecutors in connection …
Discussion:
Reuters, New York Times and CNN
Matthew Kassel / Mediaite:
Q&A with Chris Lehmann, who became editor of The New Republic last year, about its redesign, leaning in to its historic role as a magazine of the left, and more — When Chris Lehmann became editor of The New Republic last year, he inherited a magazine that was somewhat rudderless.
Peter Winter / A Life of Fiction:
How distribution monopolies, unchecked power to hike ad rates, and owner families using newspapers as personal cash machines led to bankruptcies like McClatchy — Why McClatchy Newspapers went under, and other local newspapers will too — In ancient Greece there was an official called the “Remembrancer.”
Journalism.co.uk:
Study: 18 to 34 year-olds spent just over a minute a day reading news during the 2019 UK election, compared to more than three minutes a day that over-35s read — With the under-35s spending less than eight minutes a week reading news, the media need to rethink the news agendas …
Discussion:
@themurdochtimes, @niemanreports and @spj_tweets
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Report: traditional pay TV operators in the US lost ~6M subscribers in 2019, a decline of 7% YoY, dropping to about 83M by the year's end — The U.S. satellite and cable TV business declined at an unprecedented rate last year — with traditional pay-TV providers dropping a staggering 6 million customers, a 7% decline year-over-year.
Discussion:
@mcproulx
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
German publisher Spiegel introduces Spiegel Pur, which offers content without ads and tracking for €4.99/mo for non-subscribers, €1.99/mo extra for subscribers — As privacy regulations and internet browsers tighten up, anti-tracking options emerge from publishers.
Discussion:
@148
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Study: in Germany, news was the top genre on Apple Podcasts at 23.5% but on Spotify it was the fifth most popular genre at 8.36%, behind comedy and sports — We've written a lot (well, Nick Quah has written a lot) about Spotify's efforts to move in on Apple's 15-year position as the undisputed No. 1 platform for podcasts.
Discussion:
Podnews press releases, @niemanreports, @niemanlab, @jbenton and @jbenton
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