Top News:
Aron Pilhofer:
With The Athletic purchase, NYT will directly compete for subscribers with local news sites that cover college or pro sports, topics once owned by local papers — It turns out, The New York Times does really care about local news — just not in the way we thought.
Discussion:
Quantale.'s Newsletter, @bgrueskin, @pkafka, @pilhofer, @jeffjarvis, @dangillmor, @dkiesow, @chronotope, @jeffjarvis, @chronotope, @jayrosen_nyu, @pilhofer, @davidclinchnews, @jeffjarvis, @pilhofer, The Wrap, @pilhofer, @sharonwaxman, @qhardy, @jackshafer, @jackshafer, @pilhofer, @pkafka, @jeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @pilhofer, Defector and MediaPost
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Sara Fischer / Axios:
NYT has agreed to acquire The Athletic in an all-cash deal valuing the startup at $550M; co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann will stay on after the deal — The New York Times has agreed to acquire The Athletic in an all-cash deal valuing the sports media startup at $550 million …
Discussion:
@sarafischer, New York Times, Axios, @sarafischer, @business, @apompliano, Vanity Fair, @courtsidevc, @kaitlyncmcgrath, @hiltontarrant, @tashanreed, @tomangell, The Sport Marketeer, The Drum, Bloomberg, @davidgura, @sarafischer, Huddle Up, The Hockey Tactics Newsletter, Financial Times, Poynter, @paulkuharskynfl, @joshsternberg, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @sulliview, @dskok, @jessicalessin, @jeffjarvis, @pkafka, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @dangillmor, @rafat, @nytimesguild, @hollyzachariah, @ckrewson, @ckrewson, Wall Street Journal, Newser, CNBC, Front Office Sports and New York Post
Peter Kafka / Vox:
The NYT-Athletic deal is a big bet with significant risk, as growth slows for The NYT and profit remains elusive for The Athletic
Discussion:
The Ringer, @pottsmark, @markberman, @ylichterman, @shanbow, @arctictony, @adamlevitan, @shanbow, @jeffschultzatl, Defector, Awful Announcing, Financial Times, @sizpatel, @davidgura, @bryancurtis, @byscottpowers, @ringer, @profblackistone, @scohensea, @mattzeitlin, Poynter, @oliviawitherite, @thegridkid, @jessegranger_, @tybatiste, @travonne, @melissalockard, @aarongleeman, @zpathletic, @electricalwsop, @liam_twomey, Talking Biz News, @aarongleeman, @ken_rosenthal, @adamlefkoe, @bydavidgardner, @vosdscott, @willystaley, @maxjrosenthal, @conordougherty, @sbienkowski, @thegridkid, @gintautasd, @rafat, @freightalley, @rafat, @pkafka, MediaPost, @cnyari, @mathewi, @pkafka, @pkafka, @mikeorren, @nw3, @pkafka, @rasmus_kleis, @brettkollmann, @realobf, @tvgrimreaper, @rafat, @danprimack, @danprimack, @nichcarlson, @rafat, @jeremylittau, @jeremylittau, @jeremylittau, @mattietk, @ericliptonnyt, @jeremylittau, @jeremylittau, @jeremylittau, @daryrezvani, @keganreneau, @john_p_carvalho, @jeremylittau, @jeremylittau, @jeremylittau, @rafat, @freddiecampion, @arashmarkazi, @jeffveillette, @chrisryan_nj, @_zeets, @mathewi, @katie_martin_fx, @dylanbyers, UPI, Sportico, Deadline, The Spun, Financial Times, Nieman Lab, The Wrap and The Hill
Bloomberg:
Sources: Sinclair's sports group, Diamond Sports, is close to clinching a deal to stream NBA games on a new service to launch in the first half of this year — - Diamond said to be nearing loan for regional sports networks — The struggling subsidiary gets a boost from NBA digital rights
Discussion:
@business, Awful Announcing, @aagave, @richlightshed, @allisonmcneely, The Streamable and @richlightshed
Lauren Johnson / Insider:
LinkedIn grew its editorial team from 75 to 95 journalists in 2021, its Daily Rundown reaches 159M users, and it has a 40-person team that works with creators — - LinkedIn continues to ramp up its editorial arm with 95 journalists that curate business news.
Discussion:
@lmoses, @mediaevan and Talking Biz News
Bloomberg:
John Legend sells the rights to his music catalog from late 2004 through early 2021 to BMG and investment firm KKR — - Companies strike deal for copyrights, royalties from his music — High valuations are pushing more and more musicians to sell — John Legend joined the growing list …
Discussion:
Vibe, @danprimack, Variety, Billboard, Music Business Worldwide, Axios, The Wrap, Rolling Stone, New York Post, Music Business Worldwide and Music Ally
Bloomberg:
Sources: Reddit could go public as soon as March 2022 at a valuation of up to $15B; the company was last valued at $10B in August 2021 — - Social media company could go public as soon as March — Reddit could be valued at as much as $15 billion in listing
Discussion:
Protocol, more at Techmeme »
Reuters:
Two journalists were killed in Haiti on Thursday after suspected gang members shot at a group of reporters who arrived to interview the leader of a rival gang — Two Haitian journalists were killed Thursday on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince after suspected gang members opened fire on a group …
Discussion:
CNN, The Guardian, @kylieatwood, LatAm Journalism Review, Al Jazeera, Committee to Protect … and France 24
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google says Android TV and Google TV have over 110M monthly active devices combined, up 30M from May 2021 — While Roku and Amazon's Fire TV are often the first thing people think of when it comes to home entertainment platforms, Google's Android TV OS is growing quickly.
Discussion:
Light Reading and The Streamable
New York Times:
How Tucker Carlson, condoned by Fox management, revised the history of the January 6 riot along with right-wing podcasts and others, to deflect blame from Trump — How revisionist histories of Jan. 6 picked up where the “stop the steal” campaign left off, warping beliefs about what transpired at the Capitol.
Discussion:
Washington Post, @peterbakernyt, @aliasvaughn, CNN, @nytimes, The Guardian, Insider, Raw Story and @jimrutenberg
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India's antitrust watchdog orders an investigation into Google after complaints from news publishers that the company is abusing its news aggregation dominance — India's antitrust watchdog has ordered an investigation into Google following complaints from news publishers who allege that the search giant is …
Discussion:
Livemint, @justiacom, The Indian Express, The Economic Times, @chandrarsrikant, Reuters, Moneycontrol and NDTV
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
A California court orders Twitter to reveal the identity of a user who tweeted photos mocking a billionaire, after the user didn't respond to a copyright claim — Back in November we wrote about a very bizarre attempt to abuse copyright law to uncover who was behind a Twitter account, @CallMeMoneyBags.
Discussion:
@mmasnick, @rmac18, @natlseccnslrs, @blackamazon and @mmasnick, more at Techmeme »
Jennifer Pignolet / Akron Beacon Journal:
Akron's The Devil Strip will not be able to restart publication, and board members say they will resign, after an analysis of the co-op's finances and bylaws — The Devil Strip news magazine in Akron will not be able to restart publication after abruptly laying off its entire staff in October …
Discussion:
Scene and Heard, @niemanlab and @jbenton
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