Mediagazer: Amazon launches the Fire TV Omni Series, its first smart TVs, starting at $410 and shipping in October (Todd Spangler/Variety)

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Amazon launches the Fire TV Omni Series, its first smart TVs, starting at $410 and shipping in October — Amazon is officially in the TV set business. — After years of selling Fire TV devices that plug into third-party HDTVs and teaming with TV makers for Fire TV-based products …

Discussion: Adweek, TechCrunch, CNBC, About Amazon, The Desk, Ad Age, TV Technology, ZDNet, The Streamable, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, @lanceulanoff, FierceVideo, Cord Cutters News and The Wrap, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Source: JPMorgan Chase is acquiring The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery service that bought Zagat from Google in 2018 — Deal is the bank's latest effort to cater to big spenders who like to travel and dine out — America's biggest bank is buying the company behind the Zagat brand.

Discussion: @rafat, @iateitmyway, @musa, @rafat, @hreins, @mignano, @mediaevan, @tanyadua, @schmooey, @caleweissman, @tomgara, @bmorrissey, @houseofstang, @swodinsky, @swodinsky, @swodinsky, @silviakillings and @zachhonig, more at Techmeme »

A.J. Katz / TVNewser:

CNBC signs a new deal with Jim Cramer, which includes daily written and video content and a new subscription product, CNBC Investor Club with Jim Cramer — CNBC announced Jim Cramer has signed a new multi-platform deal with the network. In addition to his on-air duties for Mad Money …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, The Wrap, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

Luke Winkie / On Posting:

Decaying publications like Spin, Newsweek, and Deadspin are denied dignified deaths by investors, who sometimes even try to harvest NFTs from the remains — It should be impossible to read Spin in 2021. The URL should either redirect to an elegiac 404, or a tasteful archive of the magazine's glory years.

Discussion: @luke_winkie, @niemanlab and @kenwheaton

Jake Kanter / The Times:

Sources: BBC is expected to confirm ex-HuffPost UK editor Jess Brammar to the top news role overseeing BBC's domestic and international channels — The BBC is expected to confirm the appointment of Jess Brammar, a former deputy editor of Newsnight and editor of HuffPost UK …

Discussion: The Week, @jamesrbuk, @josephstash, @edmorrish, @pickardje, The Independent, @aljwhite and @matt_walsh

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Ozy Media names investor and board member Marc Lasry as chairman; Lasry intends to grow its investor base and pursue acquisitions — Marc Lasry, the billionaire businessman and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, has been named chairman of OZY Media, the digital-first media and entertainment company founded in 2013 by CEO Carlos Watson.

Discussion: @tomgara and @sarafischer

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:

Institute for Nonprofit News launches a consortium of more than 50 newsrooms to cover issues in rural America, starting in 2022 and lasting at least two years — The Institute for Nonprofit News regularly surveys its member newsrooms about their needs. What their members say they need most?

Discussion: @sarahscire, @emilyroseman1, @ruraled, @bridgetthoreson, @adriana_lacy and @attorneynora

Richard J. Tofel / Second Rough Draft:

Vice touts its reader demographics and traffic figures, but seems to have lost its edgy editorial vision, making it sound like a run-of-the-mill media business — Revisiting what David Carr saw, and why it may have been lost. — Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time …

Discussion: @dskok and @blackamazon

Heidi Legg / USA Today:

Examining political donations of top media owners, executives, board members, and investors: tracking is incomplete, and information about lobbying is opaque — We are in desperate need of a real-time database for super PAC spending, along with transparency on which media and platform owners fund lobbyists.

Discussion: @craignewmark, @dankennedy_nu, @heidilegg and @heidilegg

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:

NBC says it has nearly sold out of its Super Bowl ad units, with some spots going for a record $6.5M, a sharp increase from last year's price of $5.6M — - Cryptocurrency among new sponsor categories for February game — Super Bowl ads last year sold for an average of $5.6 million

Discussion: New York Post, Variety, Ad Age, Axios, @gerryfsmith and MediaPost

Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:

WaPo's Tokyo bureau chief Simon Denyer is leaving the paper; he's reportedly the person referred to in Felicia Sonmez's suit as sexually harassing a colleague — Tokyo bureau chief Simon Denyer will leave the Washington Post, the publication's foreign desk announced in a terse note Thursday.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Beast, @lachcartwright and @lachcartwright

Joshua Yaffa / New Yorker:

Russian journalists labeled foreign agents by the state discuss their uncertainty about whether to leave the country, hopelessness, and the future of their work — Since April, ten media outlets and twenty journalists have been targeted by the state. — The journalists at Proekt had expected some sort of state-sanctioned attack.

Discussion: @newyorker and @yaffaesque