Top News:
David Folkenflik / NPR:
NYT retracts the core of Caliphate after a review finds that the podcast gave too much credence to its central character and reassigns Rukmini Callimachi — Toggle more options — The New York Times has retracted the core of its hit 2018 podcast series Caliphate after an internal review found …
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New York Times, New York Times, @rcallimachi, New York Times, Washington Post, Business Insider, The Hill, @mitrakalita, @johnjcook, Mediaite, @nycjim, The Guardian, The Wrap, Forbes, @perlberg, @davidfolkenflik, @jbflint, Newser, New York Post, @glcarlstrom, @mattgallowaycbc, @mitrakalita, @katie_robertson, @miriamelder, @neilphauer, @erikwemple, @supriyan, @sulliview, @qjurecic, @johnmoe, @salmanmasood, @sairakh, @lourdesgnavarro, @lailaalarian, @brianstelter, @bgrueskin, @marcatracy, @miriamelder, @janelytv, @hannahallam, @katie_robertson, @steveguest, @laurawags, @mitrakalita, @dparvaz, @brianstelter, @titonka, @marcatracy, @jonahdispatch, @lailaalarian, @lourdesgnavarro and kottke.org
Celine Castronuovo / The Hill:
The Washington Post plans to add 150 jobs next year, bringing its total staff to a record high of more than 1,000 — The Washington Post plans to add more than 150 jobs to its newsroom next year, bringing its total staff to a record high of more than 1,000, the newspaper confirmed to The Hill Thursday.
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@farhip, Press Gazette, @lesserfrederick, @sarafischer, @farhip, @allyschweitzer and @blowryontv
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
FT's union suspends pay negotiations after learning that ex-EIC Lionel Barber made £1.92M in 2019 despite profit falling to £1.89M from £8.2M in 2018 — Former FT editor Lionel Barber received pay and pension benefits worth £1.92m in 2019 as the FT Ltd …
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The Guardian, Talking Biz News and Press Gazette
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
In a memo, NBCU CEO Jeff Shell says that Premier League soccer coverage is Peacock's number one driver of premium subscriptions and engagement — EXCLUSIVE: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell didn't mince words about the “bad dream” that was 2020, but touted the success of Peacock and laid …
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The Streamable
Elaine Low / Variety:
Charli D'Amelio and her family will star in The D'Amelio Show, an eight-episode docuseries on Hulu that will follow “the first family of TikTok” — Charli D'Amelio, who at 16 rocketed to fame with over 150 million followers on TikTok, is getting her own show on Hulu alongside her sister …
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The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline
Patience Haggin / Wall Street Journal:
As its revenue surges, Roku has become increasingly forceful in its negotiations with media companies, as evidenced by its fights with Fox and WarnerMedia — The maker of the leading streaming-media player has taken up brash negotiating tactics over its terms to carry services like HBO Max and Peacock
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@maxclark, @maxwellelliot, @wsj, @mylesudland, @mattbelloni, @rolfewinkler, @asharma, @asharma and Variety
Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
Tribune agrees to sell product review site BestReviews to Nexstar for $160M and will enter into a licensing and revenue-sharing agreement for use of its content — Tribune Publishing and BR Holding Co. will sell the BestReviews website to TV station owner Nexstar Media Group for $160 million, the companies announced Wednesday.
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Dallas Morning News, Chicago Business Journal and MediaPost
Ben Collins / Nieman Lab:
Lots of Americans slipped into conspiracy thinking in the pandemic; we'll need news outlets and others to explain how fantasy took hold and how we can dig out — “We're going to have to learn to create a vocabulary to talk about how their friends fell down the wrong YouTube hole and came out speaking another language.”
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Twitter:
Twitter says it will start its new verification policy on January 21 and is developing profile labels to designate bots and memorial accounts — A couple of weeks ago, we announced that we're planning to bring back our public verification program in 2021, shared a draft of our new policy …
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@twittersupport, Slate, Gizmodo, Android Police, @mayakaczorowski, @danznewz, @ecmclaughlin, @maxwildstein, @godisrivera, @bruzanin, @bluechoochoo, @oliverdarcy, @lizkelley, @janelytv, @mattnavarra, @wongmjane, @ketanj0, @hodgesmr, TechCrunch, Adweek, ScreenRant, Reuters, The Verge, Mashable, The Desk, 9to5Mac, Washingtonian and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
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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%
Discussion:
@twittersupport, @twittersupport, @carolinesinders, @carnage4life, @henrymance, @robmanuel, @oliverjia1014, @javi_draws, @veronica, @anthony, Adweek, Breitbart, @jordanlperkins, @noupside, @jsstansel, @sistertoldjah, @luulubuu, @carynrose, @kevinbparry, @parkermolloy, @dacidbro, @digiphile, @twittersupport, 9to5Mac, Engadget, MacRumors, Pocket-lint and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
Helene Fouquet / Bloomberg:
Tencent buys another 10% stake in Universal Music Group, adding to the 10% stake it bought last year, at the same valuation of €30B — - Vivendi plans to sell additional minority stakes in UMG — Deal values world's biggest music company at $30 billion euros
Discussion:
Reuters, Complete Music Update and Variety
Reza Chowdhury / AlleyWatch:
Comcast's FreeWheel, a TV advertising platform, buys Beeswax, a programmatic ad-tech platform founded in 2014; terms of the transaction were not disclosed — Beeswax, the programmatic ad-tech platform that offers “bidder-as-a-service”, has been acquired by FreeWheel, the digital TV advertising platform.
Discussion:
AdExchanger, FreeWheel, Adweek, @aripap, MediaPost, Digital TV Europe, @jbrichman, Default HubSpot Blog, FierceVideo and Radio & Television …
Taylor Lorenz / Nieman Lab:
As journalists adopt influencer tactics for solo businesses, they'll see more drawbacks that influencers have faced, including reliance on fickle tech platforms — “Successful independent journalists will realize how difficult it can be to strike the right balance between cultivating enough …
Discussion:
@sophiasgaler, @andrewfeinberg, @jaykapoornyc, @susannahbreslin, @micahloewinger, @ibogost, @sachinrekhi, @jamespmcleod, @radiotfb, @lpolgreen, @radiotfb, @radiotfb, @dankennedy_nu, @andrewfeinberg, @sullydish, @golikehellmachi, @vincenzolandino, @rossbarkan, @hunterwalk, @sachgau, @petergyang, @stokel, @kattenbarge, @sarahsmacdonald, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @andrewfeinberg, @mubashariqbal, @meiragebel, @armano, @nwquah, @simonestolzoff, @nwquah and TechCrunch
Jason Gurwin / The Streamable:
Hulu reaches agreement with Nexstar to bring back 20 ABC affiliates to Hulu + Live TV and launch WGN America on the service in January — In October, Hulu + Live TV lost Nexstar ABC affiliates on the service. The two sides have now reached a deal to bring back the 20+ Nexstar-owned ABC affiliates …
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