Top News:
The Information:
Internal data shows only 11.3M US households regularly watch NBCU's Peacock; sources: NBCU has pitched ViacomCBS about bundling their streaming services — As Netflix and Disney cement their leads over an array of rivals in the video-streaming market, top executives at Comcast and its NBCUniversal arm are in a quandary.
Saqib Shah / Engadget:
Google launches Google News Showcase in UK and Argentina, after debuting the service in Australia last week, and says it now has over 450 publications globally — Google News Showcase is starting to roll out to more countries worldwide, including the UK and Argentina, on the heels of its Australian launch last week.
RELATED:
Owen Williams / OneZero:
Australia's media law is right to challenge Facebook and Google but is problematic, burdening smaller platforms and misunderstanding the value of sharing links — Google and Facebook are too powerful, but monetization won't solve the core problems — The Australian government is currently …
Discussion:
@ozm and @ozm, more at Techmeme »
Paul W. Valentine / Washington Post:
Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine and a self-proclaimed First Amendment champion, has died at his home in Los Angeles at 78 — Larry Flynt, one of America's most notorious pornographers and self-proclaimed champions of First Amendment freedoms, who built his sprawling business interests …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Fox News, Reuters, @jeannewhalen, Decider, @bradmossesq, The A.V. Club, The Wrap, CBS Los Angeles, UPI, Variety, @michaeldweiss, @mboorstein, @michaeldweiss and Boing Boing
The Atlantic:
The Atlantic launches Inheritance, a multiyear project to make oral histories and other artifacts of Black history and ancestry widely accessible — Too much knowledge has been lost, too many stories distorted, too many people forgotten. We mourn for all we do not know.
Discussion:
Digiday, @wagatwe and @jessedamiani
The Information:
Sources: Stir Money, whose software helps video and audio producers, writers, and performers manage their income, raises Series A led by a16z at $100M valuation — Andreessen Horowitz recently won a competitive deal to lead the Series A financing of Stir Money, a startup whose software helps video …
Discussion:
@kateclarktweets, @transitive_bs and @joshuaogundu, more at Techmeme »
Jabari Young / CNBC:
Sources: the NFL wants to finalize new TV rights soon; Fox, ViacomCBS, NBC, and ESPN currently pay ~$6B/year total, and DirecTV adds $1.5B for Sunday Ticket — - The NFL wants to finalize new TV rights agreements with partners before setting its 2021 salary cap. — The new pact could reach $100 billion.
Discussion:
ProFootballTalk, Thanks:@mattrosoff
Spiegel Online:
Marty Baron says WaPo should have been much more forthright about Trump's lies and “needed to call them that from the very beginning” — Martin Baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post, is retiring. In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, he talks about the Trump years …
Discussion:
@nealboudette, @froomkin, @wesleylowery, @ericboehlert, @wesleylowery, @adamserwer, @nycsouthpaw, @soledadobrien, @mathewi, @froomkin, Mediaite, @wesleylowery, @scarylawyerguy, @adamserwer, @mpitzke, @kniggem, @azi, @froomkin and @froomkin
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
This January, NYT's newsletter The Morning, which launched in May 2020, crossed 1B+ unique opens; readers opened 3.6B+ newsletters from NYT in 2020, up 150% YoY — The New York Times' flagship morning newsletter The Morning hit a milestone in January 2021: over 1 billion unique opens since it launched in May 2020.
Discussion:
@jorcohen, @thebryandavis and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter
Nathan J. Robinson / Current Affairs:
Editor of Current Affairs magazine Nathan Robinson says Guardian fired him as a columnist for sending a tweet about US military aid to Israel — It is widely recognized that critics of Israel, no matter how well-founded the criticism, are routinely punished by both public and private institutions for their speech.
E. Tammy Kim / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with Burmese journalist Swe Win, who fled the country after being shot in the leg, about reporting on the coup, future of journalism in Myanmar, and more — A few months after I profiled the Burmese journalist Swe Win, in August 2019, he was shot in the leg.
Discussion:
@cjr, @jon_allsop and UPI
Megan Graham / CNBC:
Shares of ad tech company Viant, which owns Myspace and debuted on Nasdaq, jumped 90% from its initial price after the company raised about $250M in its IPO — - Viant Technology saw shares pop significantly after the company launched its initial public offering Wednesday.
Discussion:
@megancgraham, @nasdaq, @jlafayette, Broadcasting Cable, Barron's Online, Viant and Reuters, more at Techmeme »