Mediagazer: Gina Chua is named executive editor of Justin Smith and Ben Smith's media startup; Chua has been executive editor at Reuters since April (Katie Robertson/New York Times)

9:40 AM ET, March 15, 2022

Top News:

A woman interrupted an evening broadcast on Russian state TV network Channel One with an anti-war sign; some say she is Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova — She rushed into the Channel One Studio with a sign proclaiming, “Don't believe propaganda. They're lying to you."

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: a consortium of PE firms, including Elliott Management, is in advanced talks to buy TV-ratings company Nielsen for about $15B including debt — Deal could value Nielsen at around $15 billion including debt — A consortium of private-equity firms including Elliott Management Corp …

Discussion: Deadline, MediaPost, insideradio.com, @cararlombardo, Variety, Benzinga, Radio & Television …, Chicago Business, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, The Wrap, Next TV and Barrett Media, more at Techmeme »

The Hollywood Reporter:

Discovery's CFO says HBO Max and Discovery+ will be bundled early in the Discovery and WarnerMedia merger and will eventually be combined into one service — The streamers will be bundled early on as part of the merged media giant, before both services become a single direct-to-consumer platform.

Bloomberg:

Analysis: TV shows make up 75% of Netflix viewing, the average hit disappears after two weeks or less, and Asian hits have the least overlap with other markets — Nobody in Hollywood knows for sure what works on Netflix. — The company releases statistics like “26 million people watched this show in the first 28 days.”

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @nreviewed, @firstadopter, @business, @bbgvisualdata, @lucas_shaw, @kdragontwt, @lucas_shaw, @gerryfsmith, The Streamable and @alexselbyb, more at Techmeme »

Hollywood Reporter:

Filing: Discovery CEO David Zaslav's 2021 compensation package topped $246M, driven by stock options, vs $37.7M in 2020, making him one of the highest paid CEOs — The company disclosed latest annual compensation details for its top executives, with the calculation for Zaslav getting …

Discussion: @carolmassar, Los Angeles Times, Variety, @davidgura, @edmundlee, @lucas_shaw, Deadline, @pashulman, The Wrap, @alexweprin, Next TV, @jasonabbruzzese, Wall Street Journal and @mattbelloni

Tarpley Hitt / Gawker:

Sources: Insider's global managing editor told its departing staff to stop sending goodbye emails as many high-ranking employees left over the past few months — In early 2021, the Wall Street Journal ran a story titled: “Business Insider Did Nothing When the Pandemic Hit. It Worked."

Discussion: @stevekovach, @colombochar, @alex, @film_girl, @tomaxwell, @benkesslen, @jamesfdennin, @film_girl, @gawker, @leahfinnegan and @yoda

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Some First Amendment experts hope some libel suits against right-wing outlets will succeed, showing the value of “actual malice” or “reckless disregard” rules — Some legal experts say it is time to draw a sharp line between protected speech and harmful disinformation.

Discussion: Reason, @davidfolkenflik, @tomscocca, @tribelaw, @jkosseff, @daphnehk, @davidfolkenflik, @jkosseff, @rweingarten and @peterjblack

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott says the network's correspondent Benjamin Hall has been injured and hospitalized while reporting outside Kyiv — “We have a minimal level of details right now,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott wrote to staff Monday, adding that Hall had been hospitalized.

Discussion: Fox News, @oliverdarcy, Mediaite, Yahoo News, Raw Story, Insider, @brianstelter, @ericfoltz, The Sun, @w7voa, @dankeberhart, @nycsouthpaw, TVNewser and Deadline

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

Gina Chua is named executive editor of Justin Smith and Ben Smith's media startup; Chua has been executive editor at Reuters since April — Ms. Chua has been the executive editor of Reuters and in charge of its editorial operations. — Gina Chua, a top editor at Reuters …

Discussion: @benyt and @ginaskchua

Los Angeles Times:

Los Angeles Times names Sara Yasin as a managing editor, beginning April 18; Yasin is currently managing editor of BuzzFeed News — Sara Yasin has been named a managing editor for the Los Angeles Times. Yasin will oversee the daily news operation as part of The Times leadership team beginning April 18.

David Corn / Mother Jones:

Leaked Kremlin memo to state-friendly media outlets says “it is essential” to feature Tucker Carlson in their coverage of the Ukraine war “as much as possible” — On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion …

TIME:

Time Magazine confirms that Brent Renaud was on an assignment in Ukraine for a Time Studios project focused on the global refugee crisis when he was killed — From TIME Editor in Chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal and President and COO of TIME and TIME Studios Ian Orefice:

Stefan Becket / CBS News:
American journalist Brent Renaud was killed and another journalist was wounded by Russian forces in the town of Irpin outside the Ukraine capital on Sunday

Discussion: @zelenskyyua, Axios, New York Times, @janeferguson5, Foundation Posts, @cliffordlevy, @amlwhere, Washington Post, @mgongadze, CNN, International Press Institute, @ap, Barrett Media, TheBlaze, Poynter, Дет …, @ryangrim, @senjeffmerkley, @pressfreedom, @repkinzinger, @kremlintrolls, @laurie_garrett, @louisemensch, @asluhn, @alyssafarah, @amlwhere, @maryellenklas, @sjtuohy, @susannareid100, @cliffordlevy, @ewong, @mariashriver, @jake_hanrahan, @heathergtv, @timkmak, @out5p0ken, @elizabethmaline, @coreypein, @vivian, @coreypein, @coreypein, @isik5, @revkin, @guyverhofstadt, @terrelljstarr, @kdurquiza, @columbiajourn, @dawnerscott, @eshynes, @cbsnews, @nickkristof, @jaketapper, @jsrailton, @davidenrich, @rsf_inter, @reneweurope, @paulachertok, @yamphoto, @paulrieckhoff, @mcharlesworth7, @iaponomarenko, @kevinrothrock, @christogrozev, @nicolelampert, @christopherjm, The Guardian, Florida Politics, The Week, Axios, New York Magazine, CBS Los Angeles, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, The Blast and The Wrap

Jane Croft / Financial Times:

Kazakh mining giant ENRC drops its libel suit against FT and journalist Tom Burgis, after a UK judge dismissed a separate claim against HarperCollins and Burgis — Kazakh mining group drop libel claim against newspaper and its reporter over book on ‘dirty money’

Discussion: @charlesarthur, @tomburgis, @tomburgis, @tomburgis, @martinpatience, @denismacshane, @pickardje, @kevin_maguire, @lionelbarber, @davidallengreen, @tomburgis and @tomburgis

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 9:40 AM ET, March 15, 2022.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Accounting Specialist Editor, Remote US — Reuters

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Asia Credit Reporter, Seoul — Bloomberg

Senior Editor, DC — National Geographic

Sr. Social Media Specialist, NC — espnW

Associate Editor - Aviation, TN — Firecrown

Assistant Editor - Digital, NC — SBJ

Video Producer - YouTube, NY — Morning Brew

Senior Managing Ed. - Daily Desk — The Athletic

Content Managing Editor — Freedom Forum

Editor, MA — Nieman Reports

Team Editor - Breaking News, ON — Toronto Star

Senior Reporter & Event Host, NY/CA — Newcomer

Associate Editor, Remote — Tech Policy Press

Retail Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Data Editor, DC — U.S. News

Managing Ed. - Berks County, PA — Spotlight PA

News Editor - UK, Remote — The Verge

Staff Writer, TX — Dallas Observer

Multimedia Journalist, PA — Observer-Reporter

Service Journalism Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Content Director, Remote — Campaigns & Elections

Sports Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Los Angeles Issues Reporter, CA — CalMatters

Reporter - Middle East — Rest of World

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

Senior Media Editor — Digiday

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Lexington County Reporter, SC — The State

Reporter - Offshore Wind — Canary Media

General Assignment Reporter, FL — County Record

Staff Reporter, CA — Daily Kos

Data Editor, NY — ProPublica

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More News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
MPA: streaming made up 72% of the $99.7B global streaming and theatrical movie market in 2021, up from 46% in 2019; streaming subscriptions hit 1.3B, up 14% YoY

Discussion: Variety, Deadline and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
A fundraising campaign organized by journalism groups for Ukrainian media raised $4M in a little over two weeks, including $1.5M for the Kyiv Independent

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Interview with CNN correspondent Matthew Chance on reporting live from Kyiv and leaving the battlefield: “You start making mistakes when you get tired”

Discussion: @amyargetsinger and @oliverdarcy

Rachel Leingang / Arizona Agenda:
Six months in to their year of Substack funding, the two founders of politics outlet Arizona Agenda say growth has plateaued and they were naïve about marketing

Discussion: @jenafifield, @rachelleingang, @rachelleingang and Cholla Express

Keith Stuart / The Guardian:
Nostalgia for magazines of the 1980s and 1990s and the rise of independent printing companies are fueling the return of video game magazines in print

Discussion: @harrymccracken, @amigamagazine, @alunlower, @moreelen, @nintyfreshmag, @cazwis, @retroravi and @keefstuart

Earlier Picks:

Al Jazeera:
Analysis: Meta let Jio Platforms subsidiary New Emerging World of Journalism run ads with misinfo promoting Modi's BJP but took down opposition's surrogate ads

Discussion: Quartz, @rupagulab, @30guptavivek, @pankajpachauri, @someshjha7 and @rohini_sgh

New York Times:
The New York Times launches its first Telegram channel, dedicated to reporting on the war in Ukraine

Discussion: @akbarjenkins, @vindugoel, @evanhill, @xeni and Insider

Rest of World:
Behind the rise of Kuaishou's short-form video app Kwai in Brazil, where it has amassed 45M+ monthly active users by appealing to people with blue collar jobs

Discussion: @restofworld, @alexgonzor, @restofworld, @decka227 and Music Ally

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Interviews with former employees of RT America, some of whom say they were given free rein and blame the “US government war machine” for its shutdown

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, @natesilver538, Plastic Society, @ccaryl, @kolga and @mike_eckel

From Techmeme:

Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Okta fixes a flaw present since July 23, 2024, that let users log in under specific circumstances with any password if the account's username had 52+ characters

David Pierce / The Verge:
Amazon's plan to rearchitect Alexa around LLMs could finally help Alexa understand what users actually want and reduce the awkward syntax needed to use Skills

Stephen Groves / Associated Press:
US House Speaker Mike Johnson says the GOP “probably will” try to repeal the CHIPS Act, but then walks it back, saying the GOP may “further streamline” the bill

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