Mediagazer: Sources: Reliance and Viacom are in talks to add Lupa and Comcast to a consortium bid for Indian Premier League TV telecast, expected to cross $5.3B (Bloomberg)

10:40 AM ET, February 22, 2022

Top News:

PE firms Apollo and Standard General buy local TV giant Tegna, which owns 64 stations in 51 markets, for $5.4B, valuing Tegna at $8.6B — Standard General and Apollo will pay $24 share for the company, which owns 64 stations in 51 markets. — Local TV giant TEGNA is selling itself to a pair …

Discussion: The Wrap, Bloomberg, New York Post, The Streamable, Next TV, Deadline, Cord Cutters News, @melissakxly4, @johncolucci, @burnettgracem and @brianstelter

Knight Foundation:

Knight Foundation will invest $3.2M over three years to help 26 Black-owned media outlets become financially sustainable — With Knight's commitment of over $4 million, legacy publishers and startup networks will become more financially sustainable to better serve communities of color

Discussion: @localmediaassoc, Local Media Association …, Word In Black, @ramsammy, Knight Foundation, @raju, @localmediarocks, @frankwords, @larrylee916, @pennyriordan1, @knightfdn and @larrylee916

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

Polk Awards: The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The New Yorker win two awards each; WSJ's Facebook Files wins the business reporting prize — The Times was honored for coverage that revealed a plot behind the murder of the Haitian president and for investigations on the toll of America's air war in the Middle East.

Associated Press:

NBC's decision to spend $7.75B on Olympics rights through 2032 looks shaky after Beijing, a buzz-free, hermetically sealed event, saw viewers staying away — NEW YORK (AP) — There were many reasons to think NBC made a savvy business deal in 2014 when it locked up the American media rights …

Helen Davidson / The Guardian:
Foreign Correspondents' Club of China criticizes reporting conditions at the Winter Olympics, saying reporters were tailed and manhandled despite IOC assurances

Discussion: @johnsimpsonnews, @glynmoody, @sharrond62 and The Hill

Andrew Kersley / Press Gazette:

ABC report: The Economist's digital subscribers grew 14% YoY to 995,228 in 2021, accounting for nearly half of all digital magazine subscriptions in the UK — The Economist retained its spot as the UK magazine with the largest digital edition circulation, reaching nearly one million subscribers in 2021 …

Discussion: abc.org.uk

James Fallows / Breaking the News:

After Dean Baquet dismissed criticism from “unnuanced voices on Twitter”, The New York Times urgently needs to re-hire a public editor to avoid future missteps — For the New York Times, that means a public editor. — This post started out several days ago as a follow-up to …

Andrew Kersley / Press Gazette:

Two leading BBC journalists, Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, are leaving and joining radio giant Global to launch a podcast and an LBC show — Two of the BBC's leading journalists, Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis, are leaving the public broadcaster to join LBC and its owner Global.

Discussion: Variety, The Guardian, @maitlis, BBC, The Independent, Deadline, @jake_kanter, @lewis_goodall, @afneil, @maitlis, Global, @dinosofos and @jonsopel

Timothy McLaughlin / The Atlantic:

Profile of Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association and an editor of Stand News, which closed after two editors were charged with sedition — In the summer of 2019, Ronson Chan, then an editor for the independent news outlet Stand News, took a delayed honeymoon to Germany with his wife.

Discussion: @tmclaughlin3, @stand_with_hk, @jeffreygoldberg, @tmclaughlin3 and @theatlantic

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Swiss outlets were excluded from an investigation, involving 47 publications, into Credit Suisse to protect them from the vague wording of a banking secrecy law — Switzerland-based news organisations were excluded from the Suisse Secrets investigation into Credit Suisse's banking practices over fears of punitive legal punishment.

Discussion: The Guardian, Euractiv and OCCRP

Bloomberg:

Sources: Reliance and Viacom are in talks to add Lupa and Comcast to a consortium bid for Indian Premier League TV telecast, expected to cross $5.3B — Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate is bringing together a consortium aiming to outbid entertainment giants Amazon.com Inc. …

Discussion: @unnique and @pranavmukul

Elsa Keslassy / Variety:

Netflix signs a three-year deal to invest 4% of its annual French revenue, at least €40M, in French and European films that will be released in French theaters — Netflix has signed a three-year agreement with French film guilds to invest a minimum of €40 million ($45 million) …

Discussion: Media Play News, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter

Ben Quinn / The Guardian:

After an acrimonious departure from GB News, Andrew Neil will host a 10-week show on Channel 4; Neil once described C4 as the “broadcasting arm of the Guardian” — Live programme is Neil's first major return to broadcasting following departure from GB News

Discussion: @jujuliagrace, @pressgazette, @writesbright, @mehdirhasan, @carolecadwalla, @themichaelmoran, @louisa_compton, @mr_considerate, @hkesvani, @kevin_maguire, The i Paper, Daily Mail, London Evening Standard, The Independent, Broadcast and Telegraph

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

Spotify says Car Thing is now on sale for $90, after being announced in April 2021; a future software update will add Audible support and more — Two million raced onto a waitlist for Spotify's first hardware. Now that it's on sale, Spotify's real road test must prove Car Thing's more than a goofy name.

Discussion: TechCrunch, CNET News and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

Interview with Luca Sofri, founder of Italy's Il Post, an outlet that is member- and ad-funded like the Guardian, with 50K members and a €400K profit in 2020 — Luca Sofri, the founder of Italy's Il Post news website, told Press Gazette how, 12 years after launch …

Discussion: @pressgazette, @gpaccardo, @pressgazette and @pressgazette