Mediagazer: Content recommendation company Taboola says it has agreed to go public via a SPAC, valuing the company at $2.6B and raising $545M (Sara Fischer/Axios)

9:10 AM ET, January 25, 2021

Top News:

CNN:

Larry King, a long time CNN talk show host, dies at 87 — (CNN)Larry King, the longtime CNN host who became an icon through his interviews with countless newsmakers and his sartorial sensibilities, has died. He was 87. — His son, Chance, confirmed King's death Saturday morning.

Discussion: @kingsthings, New York Times, @piersmorgan, @cnn, Poynter, TVNewser, Axios, @cnnpr, New York Times, @craigyferg, Always Be Watching, @missbitcoin_mai, @hughriminton, @jscollinsap, @philippecorbe, @jmileskhou, @booth, @trevinwax, @sapere_vivere, @edborgato, @aeharshada, @derekwatts, @matthwatson, @ajkatztv, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, @nygovcuomo, @ashkan, @karaszewski, @keitholbermann, @annericeauthor, @camanpour, @acosta, @edlavacnn, @davidbegnaud, @sedano, @roybelly, @rolandsmartin, @marclamonthill, E! Online, @marclamonthill, @sruhle, @wajahatali, @bob_wachter, @mariashriver, @anacabrera, @oliverjia1014, @stephaniebusari, @adweek, @brianstelter, @bensherwood, @harrymccracken, @kaitlancollins, @cwarzel, @shinangovani, @madisonsiriusxm, @trevorncube, @kimberleyeleo, @ddayen, @sagaftrafound, @markwarner, @trevorncube, @edlavacnn, @wakeupsheeeep, @raysteelertv6, @adweek, Associated Press, @karaszewski, @dcsportsbog, @theryanparker, @mastertes, @georgetakei, @nytimes, @jeffreygoldberg, @philrosenthal, Mononym Mythology, @sizwedhlomo, @shimonpro, @edlavacnn, @ocktalks, @scottwthr, @viaalana, @thr, Larry King, @markdevenport, @oliverdarcy, @patkiernan, @virsanghvi, RT, ScreenRant, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, Ad Age, Slate, Washington Post, /Film, Vox, BBC, Daily Mail, Sky News, NBC News, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian and Los Angeles Times

Marisa Sarnoff / Mediaite:

NYT reportedly cancels the contract of an editor after her tweets about having “chills” watching Biden's plane land drew criticism, mostly from conservatives — The New York Times has reportedly terminated the contract of an editor who tweeted that she had “chills” …

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Content recommendation company Taboola says it has agreed to go public via a SPAC, valuing the company at $2.6B and raising $545M — Taboola, the content recommendation company known best for the chum box ads at the bottom of publishers' websites, has agreed to merge with special purpose …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Business Insider, New York Times, Adweek, Bloomberg, @m_delamerced, CNBC, @sam_baker, @sarafischer, Taboola Blog, @silvermanjacob, @mdudas, Reuters and contextisking.com, more at Techmeme »

Robert P. Baird / Columbia Journalism Review:

An in-depth look at Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective, which a source says has spent $250M on journalism, buying stakes in The Atlantic, Axios, and others — With the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs is becoming a force in American media. What is she trying to achieve?

Discussion: @cjr, @pennyriordan1, @_meher, @raju, @mathewi, @teddyschleifer, @zunguzungu and @cjr

Archie Bland / The Guardian:

Emails suggest members of Rolling Stone's influencer network, who pay $2K in fees, can have their content published; Rolling Stone says it labels the content — Emails from ‘best-known entertainment media outlet’ invite ‘Culture Council’ to pay for chance to publish on website

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

Inside CBS' fraught investigation into allegations of racism and misogyny on the part of CBS Television Stations President Peter Dunn and another senior exec — Gripped by scandal in the summer of 2018, CBS came up with a way to contain the crisis. — The television giant's board hired …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, @latimes, @davidcayj, @mattdpearce, @deggans, @latimes and @megjameslat

Jason Gurwin / The Streamable:

WWE Network and NBC's Peacock sign a deal for exclusive streaming rights for WWE Network content in the US from March 18 — Wrestling fans will have a new way to stream WWE Network starting in March. Peacock has reached a deal that will bring exclusive streaming rights to WWE Network in the U.S. to the service.

Discussion: Variety, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Axios, The Wrap, The Wrap, @sherman4949, Hollywood Reporter, PR Newswire, TVLine, @notsam, @perlberg, @xpangler and @vishal1mehra, Thanks:@thestreamable

Russell Contreras / Axios:

Ex-CNN exec S. Mitra Kalita and PA radio exec Sara Lomax-Reese launch URL Media, a newsletter seeking to expand local news on Black and brown communities — Former CNN executive S. Mitra Kalita and Philadelphia radio executive Sara Lomax-Reese have launched a newsletter seeking to expand local news …

USAGM:

USAGM's acting CEO replaces the heads of RFE/RL, RFA, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks and three board directors named by Pack days before his resignation — WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Acting Chief Executive Officer Kelu Chao has replaced …

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik, @vermontgmg, The Hill, @davidfolkenflik, @ilangoldenberg, @byronyork, NPR, Politico and New York Times

Alexander Gladstone / Wall Street Journal:

AMC Entertainment says it signed deals for $917M in funding to survive the COVID-19 pandemic for months and avoid bankruptcy — World's largest movie theater chain buys time with debt and equity deals as it continues to burn cash during the Covid-19 pandemic

Discussion: Variety, New York Times, Business Wire and Sunday Snapshots

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:

Beyond unhappy customers and claims of censorship, cable providers won't drop networks like Fox News due to FCC statutes, leased access, programming leverage — - Comcast has limited ability to ditch competing news channels — Smaller networks like Newsmax could pay for distribution

Discussion: Washington Post, @sulliview, Baer in Mind, @justinhendrix, Three Arrows Blog, @guypbenson, @postopinions and @newsynick

Chris Erik Thomas / Study Hall:

A deep dive into NYT's crossword puzzle, as long time editor Will Shortz has been slow to address cultural changes and diversify its constructors and editors — Despite decades worth of missteps and competition from a growing indie scene, the Times puzzle is slow to change.

Discussion: @michaelluo, @kerrymflynn and @niemanlab

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 9:10 AM ET, January 25, 2021.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Financial Times:
Groups that want to buy newspapers away from hedge funds like Alden face a problem: funds are making money and execs like Heath Freeman aren't looking to sell

Discussion: @blackamazon, @ryanlcooper, @mattdpearce, @ftlifearts, @hazelsheffield, @ddiamond, @mcallguild, @natalie_devito, @ress_kim, @mcallguild, @aodespair, @5plish, @adam_marton, @aodespair and @adam_marton

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, on starting and scaling one of the biggest YouTube tech channels to 13.5M subscribers, day-to-day work, and future of his business

Discussion: contextisking.com, @blackamazon, @taylorlorenz, @steven_aquino, @coreybehnke and Business Insider

Caitlin L. Chandler / Columbia Journalism Review:
In Germany, the publication and court-ordered retraction of articles alleging sexual abuse raise questions about the right to privacy vs. press freedom

Discussion: @rosao_hara, @laloeffelstiel, @legalnomads, @sesmith, @laloeffelstiel, @davidmackau, @leahlibresco and @katiejmbaker

Julia Alexander / Musings on Mouse:
Studios must find a way to make movies that both grow subscribers and work for the huge box office in China, where their streaming services likely won't launch

Discussion: @loudmouthjulia

Todd Spangler / Variety:
MoffettNathanson survey: 62% of Apple TV+ subscribers were on free offers in Q4 2020, only 30% said they plan to renew at the regular $4.99/month price

Discussion: The A.V. Club, Cord Cutters News, @tealambition, @kipjmooney, @colettelala, @lanceulanoff, @tvgrimreaper, @xpangler and @mrtvstud

Marc Tracy / New York Times:
The New Yorker returns National Magazine Award for a 2018 story after its investigation found that the main subjects deceived the author and its fact-checkers

Discussion: @mantzarlis and @brianstelter

Chuck Lindell / Austin American-Statesman:
Texas Supreme Court clears the way for four defamation lawsuits from Sandy Hook parents to proceed against Alex Jones and Infowars

Earlier Picks:

Byron Kaye / Reuters:
Google classifies an Australian regional gov't PR site as a news source, a first for the country and illustrative of gaps left by the loss of smaller outlets

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @_a_y_o_o and @reuters

Dan Rather / Steady:
Dan Rather, who built a large Facebook audience in recent years after his career in TV news, joins Substack

Discussion: @danrather, @martinrather and @kantrowitz

J. Clara Chan / The Wrap:
Tom Brokaw, who anchored NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004, announced on Friday that he is retiring from the network after 55 years

Discussion: @meetthepress, The Guardian, @yahooent, @abcworldnews, @usatoday, @brianstelter and @danrather

Wall Street Journal:
Comcast's NBCUniversal is shutting down its sports cable channel, NBCSN, at the end of the year and moving much of its programming to USA network

Eric Boehm / Reason:
WaPo updated an article about Kamala Harris from July 2019 by removing an anecdote where she jokingly compared life on the campaign trail to jail

Discussion: Washington Post, @read_n_learn, Snopes.com, @levinejonathan, @hansmahncke, @benyt, Wide World of News and @reason

Zoe Greenberg / The Boston Globe:
Boston Globe launches Fresh Start, an initiative that will allow individuals to ask the paper to update or anonymize past coverage of them online

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Thoughts on Apple TV's history and future; sources: a larger-than-usual number of features scheduled for iOS 19 have been postponed to iOS 19.4 in spring 2026

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Cantor Fitzgerald agreed to invest as much as $600M in Tether for about a 5% stake in the past year; Cantor holds most of Tether's $134B in assets

Benedict Evans:
An overview of macro tech trends for 2025, focusing on generative AI, LLMs, scaling challenges with training ever bigger AI models, the capex surge, and more

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page