Mediagazer: Lionsgate beats estimates with revenue of $836.4M for the quarter ending in December, down 16.2% YoY, and a net loss of $13.9M; Starz revenue rose 6% (Brent Lang/Variety)

10:55 AM ET, February 5, 2021

Top News:

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Snap says its TikTok competitor Spotlight had 100M MAUs in January, two months after its launch, and receives an average of 175K video submissions per day — A surprisingly successful debut — Snap says its TikTok competitor, Spotlight, had 100 million users in January 2021, just two months after it launched.

Discussion: CNN, @karissabe, @verge, @mattrosoff, @megancgraham, Investor's Business Daily, CNBC, Business Wire and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:

Snap beats with Q4 revenue of $911M, up 62% YoY, vs $857.4M est., DAUs were up 22% YoY to 265M; stock down 7%+ after hours on weak Q1 forecast — - Snap's stock fell in after-hours trading on Thursday after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings despite beating Wall Street's expectations on earnings, revenue and user growth.

Discussion: The Wrap, @ashkan, @charliebilello, @ashleyrcarman, @tgpharding, Fast Company, Ad Age, Financial Times, Axios and Variety, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Election tech company Smartmatic files $2.7B defamation lawsuit against the Fox Corporation, Fox News, and hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro — Smartmatic accused Rupert Murdoch's network of promoting a false narrative about the 2020 election that damaged the company.

Kate Beddoe / The Keyword:

Google rolls out an initial version of Google News Showcase in Australia, with participation by and financial support for The Canberra Times, Crikey, and others — With the news moving faster than ever, it's clear that journalism is an essential way to keep people informed.

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

Editor & Publisher gave permission to Internet Archive to digitize its full archives, making them easily searchable, a step that other newspapers should take — My two intellectual loves are history and journalism — alternately, history and its first draft — and I'm always happy to see the two overlap.

Discussion: @internetarchive, @jbenton and @media2070

Tim Cross / VideoWeek:

Supply-side platform Magnite, formerly Rubicon Project, to acquire sell-side video platform SpotX for $1.17B — Supply-side platform Magnite announced this morning it has agreed a deal to acquire sell-side video platform SpotX from European media group RTL for $1.17 billion in stock and cash, subject to regulatory approval.

Discussion: Variety, Magnite, AdExchanger, CNBC, @davemorgannyc and Beet.TV

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty names Jamie Fly as president and CEO, who will resume leadership after being dismissed by Michael Pack in June — WASHINGTON — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Board of Directors has named Jamie Fly as the company's President and CEO, effective February 16, 2021.

Discussion: @jamiemfly, @davidfolkenflik, @karenkornbluh, @john_hudson and @christopherjm

News Corp:

News Corp reported Q2 net income of $261M on revenue of $2.41B; WSJ subs were up 19% YoY to 3.22M, and NY Post reported its first profit in modern times — FISCAL 2021 SECOND QUARTER KEY FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS • Revenues were $2.41 billion, a 3% decline compared to $2.48 billion in the prior year …

Discussion: New York Post, @joepompeo, Press Gazette, @pressgazette, @pressgazette, @mirandadevine, New York Times and Talking Biz News

Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:

In NLRB filings, WGAE says G/O Media management broke law by telling staff it fired Gizmodo's Alex Cranz to retaliate for her discussion of working conditions — Online publisher G/O Media Inc. told employees of its tech-news website Gizmodo that it fired a co-worker because of her union activism …

Discussion: @wgaeast, @josheidelson, @mattdpearce, @josheidelson and Talking Biz News, more at Techmeme »

Chris Stokel-Walker / WIRED UK:

TikTok's launch on Android TVs in France, Germany, and the UK yesterday is part of its push to diversify its audience and bring its stars into the mainstream — The app's arrival on smart TVs is part of a plan to diversify its audience - and bring its stars further into the mainstream

Discussion: @stokel, @psythor, @brendangahan and @evafogdk, more at Techmeme »

The Daily Beast:

Sources: NYT's Rukmini Callimachi has been re-assigned to cover higher education following the Caliphate scandal — The Pulitzer finalist who came to fame via her Middle East coverage is moving to a vastly different beat following the scandal over her largely debunked podcast.

Discussion: @wajahatali, @johnriordangee and @cquintanadc

Lucy Fisher / Telegraph:

Source: in the past year, the UK has expelled three Chinese spies posing as journalists who purported to work for three different Chinese media agencies — The revelation comes amid concerns in Government about Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft from UK institutions

Discussion: @economictimes, @shashj, @los_fisher, @shashj, @niubi, @donaldcclarke, @yatescomms and Al Jazeera

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More News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
The bylines of Defense News and New York Post reporters were attached to disinformation as a means of making it appear legitimate

Discussion: @newsalliance and @sarafischer

Hamish McKenzie / Substack Blog:
Substack co-founder says Facebook and Twitter getting into paid newsletters is a positive thing for writers and the media ecosystem, implores them to go all in

Discussion: Sub Pub, @hamishmckenzie, @davewiner, @firstadopter, @ericnewcomer, @andrewchen, @joshsternberg, @substackinc, @jaycodon, xo Linda, @simonowens, @quinnypig and @safyhallanfarah, more at Techmeme »

Brent Lang / Variety:
Lionsgate beats estimates with revenue of $836.4M for the quarter ending in December, down 16.2% YoY, and a net loss of $13.9M; Starz revenue rose 6%

Discussion: The Streamable, The Wrap, @awallenstein, Associated Press and Lionsgate

Julie Hart / American Press Institute:
New Hampshire's the Laconia Daily Sun is training its letter writers in conflict mediation skills to help reduce animosity in opinion page submissions

Discussion: @davidhulen, @helenebiandudi, Media Nation, @whimsicalinds, @soljourno, @ampress and @spj_tweets

Felix Salmon / Axios:
Katherine Maher, the Wikimedia Foundation's CEO, will step down as of April 15; the foundation's board has created a search committee to find her successor

Zack Budryk / The Hill:
Toronto Star and other Torstar-owned papers left front pages blank Thursday as they launched a campaign for new laws regulating Google and Facebook

Discussion: @irelynelavery, Toronto Star, @jamescridland, @tomkhruisehchev, @kaceekat, @ledrapeaurouge, @lefty_mind, @mediamorphis, @chrisexpthenews, @jessebrown, @andrewbucholtz, @jeffjarvis, Toronto Star, Coast Mountain News and Toronto Star

Andrew Marantz / New Yorker:
The case of John Sullivan, who's participated in and recorded riots, including the Capitol assault, raises questions on how to delineate journalists from others

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @mdvancleave, @utahmads, @ryanjreilly, @mathewi and @michaelluo

Earlier Picks:

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
TV mogul Byron Allen and Charter Communications settle a lawsuit in which Allen claimed racism motivated Charter to refuse to distribute his small TV channels

Discussion: TheGrio, PR Newswire and Deadline

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with The Information's Jessica Lessin on the outlet's incubator for outlets, whether paywalls limit information access, the site's social media policy, more

Discussion: @dskok, @mradamtaylor and @niemanlab

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
NYT is working on a subscription product for Wirecutter, a standalone product for audio app Audm, and says podcasts generated $36M in 2020, up from $29M in 2019

Discussion: Axios, @sarafischer, RAIN News, @cunningham_ben_, @jayrosen_nyu, @nickkristof, @joshsternberg, MediaPost and Poynter

Eric J. Savitz / Barron's Online:
IAC Q4: Vimeo earnings of $1.5M, revenue of $83.8M, up 54% YoY, subscribers up 24% to 1.5M; Dotdash earnings of $30.9M, up 81% YoY, revenue of $74M, up 33% YoY

Manori Ravindran / Variety:
Vice Media diversity report: 56% of staff are women, up 5.8% YoY; 42% of US staff are BIPOC, up 3.9% YoY; among execs, 43% are BIPOC, up from 20% last year

Discussion: @kerrymflynn and The Wrap

New York Times:
CNN President Jeff Zucker says he expects to leave at the end of 2021, when his contract ends

Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
India's IT ministry orders Twitter to block the recently restored accounts of critics and The Caravan magazine, threatens Twitter staff with jail time or fines

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, the first time in 50+ years that the FTC has issued a regulation mandating an economy-wide change

Victoria Song / The Verge:
Meta rolls out multimodal AI in early access for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, mainly to help identify objects, translate signs, and write Instagram captions

Emilia David / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts Phi-3 Mini, a small 3.8B-parameter model about as capable as GPT-3.5, and plans Phi-3 Small and Phi-3 Medium models with 7B and 14B parameters

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