Mediagazer: Sports podcast company Blue Wire, which hosts 140+ podcasts, raises $5M Series A; it focuses on minority and female voices, and 35% of its podcasters are POC (Sara Fischer/Axios)

10:40 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, Poynter, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @vice, @palewire, @sulliview, @marcatracy, @brianstelter, @laurawags, @sewellchan, Mediaite and New York Times

Freedom of the Press:

Report: arrests of journalists in the US grew to ~117 in 2020, up 1,200% YoY; the week of May 29 to June 4 had more arrests than previous three years combined — Promoting press freedom in the 21st century — Today, Freedom of the Press Foundation is releasing a report on the unprecedented number …

Discussion: GEN, Committee to Protect …, The Guardian, Committee to Protect …, @pressfreedom, @pressfreedom, @tekaldas, @pressfreedom, @bethnakamura, @trevortimm, @pressfreedom, @graysonclary, @freedomofpress, @freedomofpress, Forbes and The Hill

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.

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sign an exclusive multiyear deal to host and produce podcasts for Spotify via their production company Archewell Audio — - The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are getting into podcasting. — Spotify announced Tuesday it has signed a multiyear deal with Prince Harry …

Discussion: Axios, CNN, Variety, The Wrap, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Hollywood Reporter, @jbursz, The Verge and Spotify

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, @clancyreports, @grynbaum, @adityasood, @ajitgeorgesb, @hotlinejosh, @davidsess, @aghamilton29, @rossbarkan, @frankconniff, @hotlinejosh, @chrisreimer, @ethannichtern, @jrichlive, Columbia Journalism Review and Wall Street Journal

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

CNBC let correspondents like Rick Santelli speak their minds on issues in the past but may now require rules of decorum as it becomes a part of NBCU News Group — Rick Santelli, the veteran CNBC correspondent, recently got into an on-air spat with one of his longtime colleagues.

Discussion: @bristei and @jbflint

Axios:

Sources: PMC plans to merge back end operations of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Vibe, including ad sales, marketing, and brand partnerships — Penske Media Corp. (PMC) is planning to merge the back end functions of three of the top music news publishers in the U.S., according to two sources familiar with the company's plans.

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 …

Discussion: Smartmatic.com, Mediaite, @benyt, Forbes, @oliverdarcy, @mikiebarb, @jayshams, @kimmasters, @jamessurowiecki, @ewerickson, @brendannyhan, @mmasnick, @slpng_giants, @willsommer, @fpwellman, @oliverdarcy, @brianstelter, @oneunderscore__, @jaketapper, @benyt, Axios, CNN and Mediaite

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Sports podcast company Blue Wire, which hosts 140+ podcasts, raises $5M Series A; it focuses on minority and female voices, and 35% of its podcasters are POC — Blue Wire, a sports podcast company, has raised $5 million in its series A round, founder Kevin Jones tell Axios.

Eben Novy-Williams / Sportico.com:

DAZN has sold Sporting News, of one of US's oldest sports publication, to Pax Holdings and several other soccer news sites for $100M+ to a group backed by TPG — Sports streaming service DAZN has sold Sporting News, one of America's oldest sports publications, to British family office PAX Holdings.

Discussion: Awful Announcing

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, Daily Updates …, @ileech, @bpaves, @ben_inskeep, @bpaves, @coreyhutchins, @davidpomerantz and @myvpm

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

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Accounting Specialist Editor, Remote US — Reuters

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Asia Credit Reporter, Seoul — Bloomberg

Senior Social Media Specialist, NC — espnW

Associate Editor - Aviation, TN — Firecrown

Assistant Editor - Digital, NC — SBJ

Video Producer - YouTube, NY — Morning Brew

Senior Managing Ed. - Daily Desk — The Athletic

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Content Managing Editor — Freedom Forum

Editor, MA — Nieman Reports

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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+

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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

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

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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook launches Collab, a TikTok-inspired music making app, on iOS in the US, after announcing a beta version in May

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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:
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Earlier Picks:

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

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: @lokshin, @cbcchrisbrown, @bretthar123, @kaedotcom, @kevinrothrock, @bershidsky, @fabrice_deprez, @nytimes, @biannagolodryga, 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: Ad Age, @joshuaogundu, @mgtalksretail, @turnernovak, @markghuneim, The Verge, FierceVideo, Pocket-lint, TVBEurope, Samsung Global Newsroom and Digital TV Europe

Upvoted:
Reddit announces it has acquired short-form video app and TikTok rival Dubsmash

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: One Man & His Blog, @mdaware, @drbiden, @wsjopinion, agádoisesseóquatro, The Morning Missive, New York Times, The Neal Ungerleider …, Los Angeles Times, @womenatdj, @melissakorn, UPROXX, Raw Story, @angie_rasmussen, @kt_so_it_goes, @popehat, @chrisgeidner, @keitholbermann, @helenkennedy, @digiphile, @digiphile, @edbott, @samuelaadams, @keitholbermann, @franklinleonard, @michele_norris, @qhardy, @dbarkin, @annecw, @gregggonsalves, @gregggonsalves, @gregggonsalves, @gregggonsalves, @gregggonsalves, @jrubinblogger, @michaellarosadc, @maggienyt, @vivian, @rasmus_kleis, @marcatracy, @chsommers, @aoscott, NPR, The Hill, @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, Fox News, @katecbowler, @ewong, @bobdavis187, @katherinelewis, @evadou, @womenatdj, @iamtimsteele, @racheld, @laureennarro, @mknz, @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 and Mediaite

From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
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Marshall Cohen / CNN:
CCDH: before the election, Elon Musk made 87 X posts that were debunked by fact-checkers, hitting 2B+ views; his political posts had 17.1B views since July 2024

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is exploring a push into smart glasses by conducting an internal study, codenamed Atlas, to gather employee feedback on products on the market

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