Top News:
Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
New Mexico prosecutors charge Alec Baldwin and the armorer of the movie “Rust” with involuntary manslaughter for cinematographer Halyna Hutchins' on-set death — New Mexico prosecutors said they are filing felony criminal charges against actor Alec Baldwin and the armorer …
Discussion:
Variety, Wall Street Journal, CNET, SlashFilm, New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, BBC, Mediaite, The Hill, Deadline, New York Post, Insider, CNBC, NME, The Sun, Screen Rant, SheKnows, Axios, The Indian Express, Vanity Fair, Fox News, Albuquerque Journal, Washington Post, Daily Mail, The Guardian, CBS News, UPI, @lionelmedia, @moviessilently, @rkylesmith, @therecount, Semafor, @lisaannwalter, @latimes, The Daily Beast, Forbes, Rolling Stone, abc7NY, CBR and The A.V. Club
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder, who has 5.94M subscribers on the platform, feuds with Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire, which offered him a $50M four-year deal — Right-wing blowhard Steven Crowder is accusing Ben Shapiro's media empire of being in bed with Big Tech—fighting words that have ignited a heated public dispute.
Discussion:
@willsommer, @willsommer, @willsommer, @johnlray, @femme_thoughts, @bigmeaninternet, @harikunzru, @jasonscampbell, @bernybelvedere, @melissaryan, @donmoyn, @moiradonegan, @yc, @jbouie and @rschooley
Financial Times:
Patreon, Substack, and other “passion economy” startups are cutting staff and abandoning fundraising plans; Dealroom: investments fell 75% YoY to $801M in 2022 — Once high-flying start-ups that serve online creators and influencers have been forced into a painful retrenchment …
Wall Street Journal:
Nexstar reaches a multiyear deal to broadcast the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf tour on The CW Network; until now, LIV events have been available online for free — Partnership will determine the Saudi-funded golf tour's financial viability — LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-funded golf tour …
Discussion:
Sportico, TVLine, MediaPost, Awful Announcing, The Hill, TVNewsCheck, Nexstar Media Group, Inc., The Streamable, Deadline, Bloomberg, The A.V. Club, Barrett Media, New York Post, @jbflint, Financial Times, Forbes, UPI, @rynedennis, @jyarow, @brendon_wm, @tvgrimreaper, Front Office Sports, @joshacarpenter, The Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles Times
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Wikimedia updates Wikipedia's design for the first time in over a decade, improving search, accessibility, the table of contents section, and language switching — Wikipedia, one of the world's top 10 most visited websites, and a resource used by billions every month, is getting its first makeover on the desktop in over a decade.
Discussion:
Insider, @raju, Wikimedia Foundation, OnlyTech and Slate, more at Techmeme »
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Amazon and DAZN sign a global distribution partnership that will make DAZN available as a Prime Video Channel for an extra monthly fee for Prime Video customers — Amazon and DAZN have signed a global distribution partnership that will see DAZN's direct-to-consumer sports streaming service available as a Prime Video Channel.
Discussion:
The Streamable, The Information and Broadband TV News
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
The BBC's US head of digital journalism, Saeed Ahmed, quits after four months, raising more concerns about its international and domestic news channels merger — EXCLUSIVE: The BBC's head of digital journalism has quit after just four months, prompting further anxiety about the UK broadcaster's plans …
Discussion:
TVNewser and @jake_kanter
Parker Molloy / The Present Age:
News media should have sent a signal to Twitter by halting tweets after some journalists' accounts were suspended; Fox News once boycotted Twitter for 16 months — Fox once abandoned Twitter for 16 months in a vague, nonsensical protest. News outlets with legitimate grievances …
Discussion:
@parkermolloy, @mattnavarra, @Ciantic@twit.social, @parkermolloy and @froomkin
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Ad revenue now makes up 15% of total revenue for INN members, up from 3% in 2018; ~430 nonprofit outlets generated $66M in ad revenue in 2021 vs. $500M for NYT — The business now represents nearly a third of total revenue for many — Although historically funded primarily by a mix …
Discussion:
The Keyword
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon agrees to a multimillion-dollar settlement with a former wrestling referee who accused him of raping her in 1986 — Multimillion-dollar settlement averts a public legal fight as executive chairman pursues possible WWE sale
Discussion:
The Sun, The Comeback and @rebeccaballhaus
Wall Street Journal:
Antenna: Amazon's music subscription market share fell from 21% in January 2022 to 17% in November 2022, when it introduced restrictions to listening on demand — Bigger song catalog brings less choice for some; ‘a lot of cussing’ — Dustin Bingham loves to play music when he cooks.
Discussion:
@shiraovide and @sebasaherrera
Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap:
FilmLA: Los Angeles film, TV, and commercial shooting days fell 19.5% from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022; commercials for the year were 24.5% below their five-year average — The newest quarterly report on Los Angeles on-location shooting from FilmLA shows a sharp downturn in shoot days in the final quarter of 2022 …
Discussion:
FilmLA, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter