Mediagazer: ViacomCBS breaks down workforce demographics for the first time: 63.8% of 16,612 domestic staff are white and less than 25% of executives are people of color (Janet W. Lee/Variety)

1:15 AM ET, December 15, 2020

Top News:

LAT Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine, who announced in October that he planned to retire, steps down, as a search for his replacement continues — The Los Angeles Times' leadership transition has accelerated with the departure of Norman Pearlstine, who served as executive editor for two and a half years.

Discussion: VICE, Mediaite, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @vice, @palewire, @sulliview, New York Times, @marcatracy, @brianstelter, @laurawags and @sewellchan

Brett Samuels / The Hill:

Voting machine company Smartmatic issued legal notices to Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN, demanding retraction of claims that its machines flipped votes to Biden — Florida-based electronic voting system company Smartmatic on Monday demanded three conservative media outlets retract their claims …

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

FTC orders Amazon, ByteDance, Facebook, Snap, YouTube, and others to share info on how they collect and use personal data, including how they measure engagement — - The Federal Trade Commission is requiring nine tech companies to share information about how they collect and use data from their users, the agency announced Monday.

New York Times:

As ratings hit new highs, executives and journalists at CNN and MSNBC say they are uneasy about a post-Trump future bereft of drama and scandal — Ratings have hit new highs, but executives and journalists at both networks are uneasy about the year ahead. — CNN and MSNBC thrived during …

Discussion: TVNewser, Vanity Fair, @grynbaum, @hotlinejosh, @davidsess, @aghamilton29, @rossbarkan, @hotlinejosh, @chrisreimer, Columbia Journalism Review, @ethannichtern, @jrichlive and Wall Street Journal

Todd Spangler / Variety:

NBCU says the first two seasons of The Office will stream on Peacock's ad-supported free tier and other seasons will stream on subscription tiers — “The Office” is flying back home to NBCUniversal — after it leaves Netflix at the end of 2020 — to alight exclusively on Peacock …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Business Insider, Bloomberg, UPROXX, Light Reading, Collider, Reuters, The Week, @lucas_shaw, The Wrap, @dianelyssa, The Verge, Adweek, /Film, The Streamable, @vanthebrand, @stevekopack, @pkafka, @pierce, IndieWire, Cord Cutters News and MediaPost

Michael Levenson / New York Times:

Critics slam WSJ's opinion section after it published a column by Joseph Epstein calling Jill Biden “kiddo” and suggesting she drop her use of “Dr.” as a title — Many women said Joseph Epstein's suggestion in The Wall Street Journal was blatantly sexist and underscored …

Discussion: New York Times, @mattyglesias, @melissakorn, The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, UPROXX, @chasten, @toddrowleypa13, @angryblacklady, @kenfisher, Los Angeles Times, @alivelshi, @digitalshields, @smotus, @chrisgeidner, @mjs_dc, @chrisgeidner, @jessicavalenti, @rezaaslan, Breitbart, @wentrogue, @joncoopertweets, @lawrence, @andrewyng, Fox News, @kat_arney, @benjaminwittes, @matthewwalther, @rheabutcher, @colmorrisdavis, @bendreyfuss, @ilyseh, @bettemidler, Poynter, @rupasubramanya, @myhlee, @knightlat, @naomirwolf, @stephaniecreary, @stephaniecreary, @stephaniecreary, @stephaniecreary, @seyitaylor, @aoibhinn_ni_s, @drkhodosh, @daveweigel, @joycewhitevance, @amlwhere, @kimlisagor, @valeriejarrett, @harrisonjaime, @georgetakei, @kurtschlichter, @scott_garrod, @repadams, @rutiregan, @joannastern, @paulwiggins, @joannelipman, @raju, @ldburnett, @bill_shea19, @mingylong, @jimhollo, @viet_t_nguyen, @anushayhossain, @arminrosen, @andrewsolender, @melissakorn, @davidfolkenflik, @brianstelter, @bobbyberk, @darakass, @stefanieoconnel, @fareedzakaria, @jrubinblogger, The Guardian, Newsweek, BBC, People.com, Telegraph, New York Post, The Hill, Business Insider, The Wrap and Complex

Paul A. Gigot / Wall Street Journal:
Paul Gigot, WSJ editorial page editor, equates the Biden team's reaction to an op-ed on Jill Biden's use of “Dr.” to Trump's “enemy of the people” tweets

Discussion: @drbiden, @mdaware, @womenatdj, @wsjopinion, Los Angeles Times, @michaellarosadc, @chrisgeidner, @marcatracy, @aoscott, @chsommers, @michele_norris, @gregggonsalves, @samuelaadams, NPR, Breitbart, @edbott, @gregggonsalves, The Hill, @popehat, @dbarkin, @maggienyt, @jrubinblogger, @qhardy, @annecw, @keitholbermann, @digiphile, @gregggonsalves, @gregggonsalves, @digiphile, @rasmus_kleis, @gregggonsalves, @franklinleonard, @keitholbermann, @kt_so_it_goes, @angie_rasmussen, @vivian, @helenkennedy, Fox News, The Wrap, The Daily Beast, @carloslozadawp, @everyvoicenc, @chrisgeidner, @maggilista, @ampallas, @davmicrot, @preetbharara, @kateaurthur, @mikelupica, @mollyjongfast, @beijingpalmer, @clairesplan, @superwuster, @bibliotecariarr, @joyannreid, @bartferris5, @jessicavalenti, @jessicavalenti, @jessicavalenti, @jessicavalenti, @gzgzgz____, @frankrichny, @marcambinder, @ijbailey, @dandrezner, @jeffreyasachs, @katecbowler, @ewong, @bobdavis187, @katherinelewis, @evadou, @womenatdj, @iamtimsteele, @racheld, @laureennarro, @mknz, Mediaite, @racheld, @davidgaffen, @bobdavis187, @melaniesill, @forconversation, @mcclainjulie, @steveschmidtses, @hmansoor, @amyargetsinger, @drmassarweh, @highamian, @highamian, @patrickseitz, @bgrueskin, @digitalshields, @daniellarison, @brad_polumbo, @varadmehta, @nktpnd, @erictopol, @jbflint, @janineoflynn, @bgrueskin, @bgrueskin, Washington Post, Politico and Glamour

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Paul Smalera, who was previously the founding editor of Medium's Marker, has been named EIC of The Business of Business, a new publication from Thinknum — Longtime business journalist Paul Smalera has been named editor in chief of The Business of Business, a new publication from Thinknum.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Facebook launches Collab, a TikTok-inspired music making app, on iOS in the US, after announcing a beta version in May — Collab, Facebook's experimental app for making collaborative music videos, is today launching out of private beta testing with a public release on the App Store.

Discussion: Engadget, Adweek, Pocket-lint, @joshuaogundu, The Verge and App Store, more at Techmeme »

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:

Sky strikes a deal to make Prime Video available to its subscribers in the UK, Ireland, Austria, Germany, and Italy; Sky also has deals with Netflix and Disney+ — Sky has finally struck a deal to make Amazon's Prime Video streaming package available to its millions of subscribers across Europe …

Discussion: Digital TV Europe and Variety

Ben Paviour / VPM:

A columnist who also works for Dominion Energy wrote some of at least seven unsigned editorials in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press about Dominion this year — The Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press published a handful of unsigned editorials related to Dominion Energy this year written …

Discussion: @bpaves, @ileech, @coreyhutchins, @myvpm, @bpaves, @bpaves, @ben_inskeep and @davidpomerantz

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

Restoring the VOA after Trump's “wrecking ball” tactics won't be easy, but it's a key resource in the world's “information deserts” and is worth saving — When Sanford Ungar visited a small village in Bangladesh as the Voice of America director two decades ago …

Discussion: @ambdanfried, @sulliview and @stevenaspringer

Upvoted:

Reddit announces it has acquired short-form video app and TikTok rival Dubsmash — Reddit is where passionate communities come together for authentic exchanges about the topics that matter to them. Video is increasingly core to how people want to connect, and as we continue to grow our community …

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

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More News:

Janet W. Lee / Variety:
ViacomCBS breaks down workforce demographics for the first time: 63.8% of 16,612 domestic staff are white and less than 25% of executives are people of color

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Daily Mail pays Sir James Dyson and his wife Lady Deirdre Dyson £100K in libel damages after suggesting they had behaved badly towards their former housekeeper

New York Times:
Analysis of 7,124 English-language fiction books published by major publishing houses from 1950 to 2018 finds 95% of the authors were white

Earlier Picks:

Leonid Bershidsky / Bloomberg:
Profile of Russian online investigative outlets Proekt and Istories, backed by crowdfunding and Western foundations, which have recently broken stories on Putin

Discussion: @bretthar123, @lokshin, @kaedotcom, @kevinrothrock, @biannagolodryga, @cbcchrisbrown, @bershidsky, @fabrice_deprez, @nytimes, New York Post, Meduza.io, The Scottish Sun, Business Insider, The Week, The Times, The Guardian and New York Times

Chris Stokel-Walker / Business Insider:
TikTok says it has partnered with Samsung to launch TikTok on TVs from 2018 or later in Europe, starting with the UK

Discussion: FierceVideo, The Verge, @markghuneim, @turnernovak, @mgtalksretail, @joshuaogundu, Pocket-lint, TVBEurope, Samsung Global Newsroom and Digital TV Europe, more at Techmeme »

Mark Glaser / Knight Foundation:
Nonprofit local news thrived in 2020, as INN membership rose by 25% to reach 300 news organizations, because of resilient business models, new funders, and more

Discussion: @spj_tweets and @knightfdn

From Techmeme:

Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Filing: Apple asks to participate in the remedial phase of Google's US antitrust case, saying it can't rely on Google to defend their revenue-sharing agreements

Bloomberg:
Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace approves lifting its ban on “certain widely used foreign platforms”, naming WhatsApp and Google Play as the first two apps

The Information:
A look at OpenAI's interest in robotics, from investing in startups like Figure and Physical Intelligence to, sources say, considering making a humanoid robot

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