Top News:
Axios:
Texas AG says the state and nine others have filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming Google illegally hurt competition in the ad tech market — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday that he's leading a lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of taking illegal actions …
Discussion:
New York Times, @txag, Wired, Politico, Wall Street Journal, @markscott82, @kevinroose, Reuters, MIT Technology Review, @tonyromm, Breitbart, @jason_kint, @mmasnick, @jasonabbruzzese, @joshsternberg, @mikebaz, @daiwaka, @tonyromm, @matthewstoller, Financial Times, @pkafka, New York Post, @alecstapp, @karlbode, @ashk4n, @daiwaka, Associated Press, @neoavatara, Adweek, Vox, @emilybell, Law & Crime, @slpng_giants, @ineteconomics, The Week, @russellbrandom, @lutherlowe, @dseetharaman, @kostasrossoglou, @kantrowitz, @bmorrissey, nexttv.com, Business Insider, Mashable, The Verge, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Ad Age, Engadget, CNBC, Skift and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku and WarnerMedia have reached an agreement to distribute HBO Max on the Roku platform, starting Thursday — Roku and WarnerMedia have reached an agreement for the distribution of the HBO Max on the Roku platform — nearly seven months after the streaming service launched.
Discussion:
Axios, /Film, UPROXX, @ercboxoffice, @sarafischer, @richlightshed, @j_m_wood, The Desk, @kateaurthur, CNBC, TVLine, MediaPost, Business Insider, @curtishouck, @sarafischer, ComingSoon.net, Light Reading, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Awful Announcing, FierceVideo, IndieWire, TechCrunch, Cord Cutters News, The Hill and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
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Hollywood Reporter:
Inside Warner Bros.' plan to debut movies on HBO Max, as CEO Ann Sarnoff says partners were not told before because of fears the news would leak — As the long-delayed DC Comics sequel finally debuts — on HBO Max and in theaters — it serves as the litmus test for an unprecedented release strategy.
Discussion:
@aaroncouch, @thatrebecca, @getfandom, @boomborks, @griffschiller, @ser_jon_arryn, ScreenRant, @theflitecast and IndieWire
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Substack launches Substack Reader, an RSS reader for tracking newsletter subscriptions and other feeds, in beta — Substack Reader is now available in beta — If you're worried about all your newsletter subscriptions getting lost in your inbox, Substack may have a solution.
Discussion:
@substackinc, Substack Blog, @hshaban, @charlesflehman, @fvogelstein, @jaredbkeller, @luca, @rklau, @lpolgreen, @film_girl, @pratikpoddar, @kimmaicutler, @jackmarshall, @samueljscott, @jbenton, @caseynewton, @davewiner, @davidcadrian, @lukeoneil47, @seldo, @can, @chrismessina, @carnage4life, @badastronomer, @grayblue, @alexeheath, @alexlmiller, @stammy, @michaelroston, @jamievaron, @nathanblawrence, @aripap, @thestalwart, @davidcho, @pjvogt, @pierce, @mylesudland, 9to5Mac, Engadget and Disjointed, more at Techmeme »
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Jacob Cohen Donnelly / A Media Operator:
A publisher of newsletters on digital media discusses the product and philosophical reasons he is leaving Substack, including lack of control over email lists — It was almost a year ago that I wrote a piece about me getting ready to leave Substack. I was spending the holiday season rebuilding the site on WordPress.
Discussion:
Fred's Newsletter, @prsarahevans, @iankar_, @jarroddicker, @tomcritchlow, @mathewi and @annehelen
Jack Morse / Mashable:
Twitter says it will stop prompting users to Quote Tweet, restoring the standard RT functionality, and says QT use increased but overall sharing dropped by 20% — Well, it was worth a shot. — Twitter announced Wednesday that it will cease prompting users to quote tweet in lieu of the standard retweet.
Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:
Pubs like BI and WaPo are partnering with non-publisher brands in sectors like health to attract new subs; WSJ now has 40+ bundling partnerships in 25 countries — It's a new era of subscription bundling and it's a lot more sophisticated than selling readers on a two-for-one deal.
Discussion:
@_bmturner_ and @jackmarshall
David Pierce / Protocol:
A look at Reelgood, which lets users watch content from 300+ streaming services in the same app and says it now has 6M users, up from 2M at the start of 2020 — David Sanderson's journey to fix the future of TV started with a simple and extremely familiar problem: He canceled cable and suddenly couldn't find anything to watch.
Discussion:
@pierce
Hillel Italie / Associated Press:
The book publishing industry faced a turbulent year amid the pandemic and questions about staff diversity, but books continued to sell — NEW YORK (AP) — Book publishing in 2020 was a story of how much an industry can change and how much it can, or wants to, remain the same.
Discussion:
@steffdaz and @davidwelky
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Radio Free Europe has fired host Timur Olevskiy for unauthorized participation in an online chat, fueling claims from the Kremlin of US hypocrisy on free speech — To his Russian admirers, Timur Olevskiy is a kind of latter-day Walter Cronkite or Mike Wallace, a trusted journalist and fearless muckraker.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Ben Smith's latest NYT column only hinted at Tim Cook's reasons for killing a Gawker-related TV+ show, and buried the lede on Apple's “don't offend China” rule — Ben Smith has been doing crackerjack work writing the Media Equation column for The New York Times all year long …
Discussion:
@ryrivard, @benthompson, @pitts_man, @ryrivard and @pitts_man
Tatiana Siegel / Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: Biden is considering Bob Iger for a key ambassadorship, either to China or the UK, and Jeffrey Katzenberg is also being considered — The Disney executive chairman is at the top of the president-elect's wish list for a diplomatic assignment with the DreamWorks and Quibi mogul also in the mix.
Discussion:
Fox News, @albertomiguelf5, @repgallagher, @stanyeahman, @jaxalemany, @oknox, @ewong, @swanniontv, @repmarkwalker, @alexburnsnyt, National Review, @jrubinblogger, @aalali44, @sepinwall, @beijingpalmer, @joshrogin, The War Room, @matthewstoller, @robillard, @alexsalvinews, @jacobdfilm, @zaidjilani, The Hill and The Week
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