Top News:
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Memo: Guardian Media Group CEO Anna Bateson tells staff to keep working from home until at least January 23, after a “serious disruption” to its IT systems — Staff have been told to work remotely since the incident began on 20 December. — The Guardian is continuing …
Discussion:
Semafor, @semafor, @alexmartin, @semafor, @malwarebytes, @jamesrbuk, @dannyjpalmer, @brianhonan, The Record and New York Post
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
Leaked letter: UK Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan recommends dropping plans to privatize Channel 4, saying there are better ways to secure its sustainability — Channel 4 privatization is off the cards. — UK Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak …
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Twitter plans to relax its longstanding ban on cause-based ads in the US and will expand the political advertising the company permits in the coming weeks — Elon Musk's social media service said it would begin to permit cause-based advertising to “facilitate public conversation around important topics.”
Discussion:
The Hill, MediaPost, The Guardian, Reuters, Politico, Washington Post, @twittersafety, @twittersafety, Associated Press, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, MediaNama, The Verge, Quartz, TechCrunch, Insider, @patricklenton, @_zeets, @grogsgamut, @yoda, Wall Street Journal, @lmatsakis, @evelyndouek, @chanian, @brerva, @z3dster, @brettpransky, @davezatz, @hoverbird and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Punchbowl News plans to launch text-based breaking news alerts for its paid subscribers in mid-January 2023, adopting Subtext to lessen its reliance on Twitter — Punchbowl News, the two-year-old Congress-focused media startup, will launch a text-based breaking news service this month …
Discussion:
What's New in Publishing, @axios, @digidave, Media Voices, @apalmerdc, @sarafischer and @alex
Todd Spangler / Variety:
To cut more costs, HBO Max removes the original Looney Tunes seasons 16 to 31 and The Flintstones seasons 4 to 6, letting Warner Bros. licensing deals expire — Warner Bros. Discovery's content purge of HBO Max continued with a year-end culling of a bucket of classic “Looney Tunes” shorts and “The Flintstones” episodes.
Rebecca Sun / The Hollywood Reporter:
USC and SDSU studies on Hollywood diversity behind the camera: women remained significantly underrepresented among directors of the top 100 movies in 2022 — “We get distracted by the incremental movement of the numbers from year to year, but often fail to notice the lack of substantial gains …
Axios:
Source: Donald Trump Jr. signs a seven-figure multiyear podcast deal with Rumble, where he has 1M+ subscribers; Rumble reported 71M global MAUs for Q3 2022 — - Rumble went public via a blank check company merger in September that valued the platform at over $2 billion at the time.
Discussion:
Radio Ink, Vanity Fair, @capitolhunters, @jonathanchait, @jessespector, @jonahdispatch, @bill_tpa, @sarafischer, @ronfilipkowski, MediaPost, The Wrap, Reclaim The Net, The Hill, Newser and Mediaite
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Roku plans to launch its own TVs in spring 2023 across two brands, Roku Select and Roku Plus, ranging from 24-inches for $119 to 75-inches for $999 — Roku is making big news at CES 2023: the company long known for its streaming players and easy-to-use software plans to release its own lineup of TVs this year.
Discussion:
The Streamable, Variety, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo and Engadget
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Warner Bros. Discovery signs a deal with VideoAmp to measure its audience as an advertising data alternative to Nielsen, which the company will continue to use — - Warner Bros. Discovery signed a deal with VideoAmp, a significant moment for the startup audience measurement platform as an alternative option to legacy firm Nielsen.
Discussion:
AdExchanger, Deadline, Axios, @tvgrimreaper, Ad Age, Yahoo Finance, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Adweek and MediaPost
New York Times:
SDNY email: Filippo Bernardini, arrested by the FBI in 2022 over allegedly stealing book manuscripts, is expected to plead guilty to wire fraud on Friday — Filippo Bernardini was arrested by the F.B.I. last year. He is expected to enter his plea on Friday, ending a yearslong saga that captivated the industry.
Discussion:
The Bookseller
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Similarweb: monthly visits to the top five news sites globally grew 1.8% YoY in 2022, after falling 8% YoY in 2021; Nielsen: cable news viewership fell ~14% YoY — News engagement continued to mostly slow in 2022 relative to 2021, but the drops across various platforms were less precipitous compared …
Discussion:
@axios, @kenvogel and @sarafischer
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen plans to launch its cross-platform measurement product One Ads on January 11, offering measurement of content and ads at the second-by-second level — The cross-platform measurement product has been hotly anticipated by marketers. … The company says that the cross-platform measurement product …
Discussion:
Ad Age, Adweek, MediaPost and @tvgrimreaper
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