Top News:
The Daily Beast:
NYT Opinion editor says it was her decision to spike a Bret Stephens column criticizing Baquet's reasons for firing McNeil, not Sulzberger's as Stephens claims — A top New York Times columnist claims the paper's publisher shelved his opinion column defending Donald McNeil …
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
HBO Max to launch in Latin America and the Caribbean in June; existing HBO-branded streaming services in Europe will shift to HBO Max later this year — WarnerMedia's streamer HBO Max is set to launch across 39 Latin American and Caribbean territories in June.
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Kantar: CBS generated a record $545M in ad spending during the Super Bowl, which had a record 57 minutes of ad time — (Reuters) - ViacomCBS' CBS network generated a record $545 million in advertising spending during the NFL's Super Bowl LV this past Sunday, according to preliminary estimates from research firm Kantar.
Discussion:
Digital TV Europe, @readdanwrite and @sheila_dang
RELATED:
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy:
Bloomberg is laying off employees as part of a “new structure to elevate editing”; sources: layoffs will affect about 90 employees — Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait confirms layoffs in a memo to staff: “I am not going to pretend today is a happy day for the newsroom. It is always painful to tell journalists that they are losing their jobs.” I'm told the layoffs are affecting about 90 employees. https://twitter.com/...
Discussion:
Insider and Talking Biz News
Angela Fu / Poynter:
Three Gannett newsrooms in New Jersey have announced they are jointly unionizing and forming the Record Guild, part of the NewsGuild of New York — The new union will include the Bergen Record, the Daily Record and the NJ Herald. — Three Gannett-owned newsrooms in New Jersey announced Wednesday morning they are jointly unionizing.
Discussion:
@mcdiduch, @poynter, @angelanfu, The NewsGuild - CWA and nyguild.org
Reuters:
BBC World News has been barred from airing in mainland China — (Reuters) - BBC World News has been barred from airing in China, the Chinese state media CGTN said bit.ly/2Z51L43 early on Friday, citing the National Radio and Television Administration. — Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Discussion:
The Hill, TVNewser, news.cgtn.com, Variety, Al Jazeera, ABC News, The Indian Express, @chinaresearchgp, @afp, news.cgtn.com, @bbcyaldahakim, @ezracheungtoto and @ezracheungtoto
Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:
LightShed Partners' Rich Greenfield and others have launched a $75M tech and media investment fund and invested in Podchaser and audio startup Slipstream — The venture arm has already made investments into startups Podchaser, Slipstream and Antenna Analytics.
Discussion:
GlobeNewswire, Bloomberg, Barron's Online, @richlightshed, @richlightshed, @richlightshed and Variety
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.
Caroline Davies / The Guardian:
Meghan Markle wins her privacy case in summary judgment against the Mail on Sunday, which published extracts from a letter she wrote to her father — Judge gives summary judgment in favour of royal over extracts of letter to estranged father, Thomas Markle
Discussion:
Financial Times, New York Times, Observer, Reuters, Associated Press, Vanity Fair, The Week, @jxb101, CNN, BBC, @chrisshipitv and @judiciaryuk
Kerry Flynn / CNN:
Staffers at Medium in editorial, engineering, design, and product units say they're unionizing; a majority of about 140 employees signed union cards with CWA — New York (CNN Business)Gawker Media made history five years ago for being the first digital news company to ratify a union contract …
Discussion:
@mediumworkers, @mediumworkers, @alainakafkes, @kerrymflynn and @kerrymflynn
Constance Grady / Vox:
With the release of “Framing Britney Spears”, the idea that the media treated her unfairly is accepted but it's revisionism to say it didn't know it was wrong — We're all complicit in what happened to Britney. But some of us more so than others.
Discussion:
Esquire, CAFE, @constancegrady, @voxdotcom and The Media Nut
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The New York Times is testing NYT Kids, a standalone, ad-free digital subscription product for kids aged 8-11, which will feature a lot of “how to” content — The New York Times is in the early stages of developing a digital subscription product for families called NYT Kids, executives tell Axios.
Discussion:
@matthartman, @mikeorren and @sarafischer
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