Top News:
Hamish Morrison / The National:
Report: BBC chairman Richard Sharp helped Boris Johnson secure an £800,000 loan in 2020, just weeks before the then-prime minister recommended Sharp for the job — BBC chairman Richard Sharp reportedly helped Boris Johnson secure a loan of £800,000 just weeks before he was recommended …
Discussion:
The Sunday Times, @gabriel_pogrund, BBC, @samcoatessky, Broadband TV News, @adamrutherford, @kevin_maguire, @rorystewartuk, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, @gabriel_pogrund, @albagubrath1966, The Guardian, @marcusjball, @charliebeckett, Bloomberg, @gabriel_pogrund, @snellarthur, @gabriel_pogrund, @simonmccoytv, @shonamurray_, @gabriel_pogrund, @sangitamyska, @pickardje, @anna_soubry, @mikegalsworthy, @peterjukes, @greenrupertread, @annettedittert, @brucemcd23, @evansthecrime, @peterjukes, @campbellclaret, @martinsfp, @arusbridger, @pippacrerar, @mrjamesob, @maitlis, @dianecoyle1859 and @harryyorke1
Ben Smith / Semafor:
The unprofitable Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, and Time rely on their billionaire owners' goodwill to survive while trying new business models — Starting a decade ago, a generation of new-money billionaires rode to the rescue of American journalism:
Discussion:
@tvgrimreaper and GeekWire
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Q&A with Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos about shared leadership, what role Reed Hastings may play, adding FAST channels, the ad tier, and more — So that's what an orderly transfer of power looks like. — While Disney chief Bob Iger ousted every potential threat …
Jocelyn Noveck / Associated Press:
Anti-harassment organization Time's Up, often accused of aligning with Hollywood's rich and powerful, halts its operations and shifts its ~$1.7M to a legal fund — The Golden Globes carpet typically glitters with crystal-studded gowns in pastel hues, but it looked different in January 2018 …
Discussion:
National Women's Law Center, The Wrap, @wandapulsifer, @ap, Rolling Stone, Variety, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter
Mia Galuppo / The Hollywood Reporter:
An interview with “Justice” director Doug Liman on making the Brett Kavanaugh documentary in secret for over a year, its surprise Sundance screening, and more — The filmmaker kept his project under wraps with the help of NDAs and a commitment to self-financing …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, @wagatwe, Associated Press, @lizgarbus, @yashar, @byronyork, Washington Post, The Guardian, Variety, Los Angeles Times, The Playlist, IndieWire, Insider, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, Deadline, Fox News, Mediaite, Bloomberg and The A.V. Club
Shira Stein / San Francisco Chronicle:
A look at the San Francisco Inquirer, launched by a New York consultant to look like a local news site and pressure lawmakers to support a Bay Area-based tribe — WASHINGTON — A New York consultant who reportedly published false news articles about political figures has created a website called …
Discussion:
@shiramstein, @sfchronicle, @lhfang, @ddiamond, @armanddoma and @demianbulwa
Janko Roettgers / Lowpass:
Sources: Samsung is considering launching its free TV Plus streaming service on third-party smart TVs and is approaching some rival manufacturers about the idea — Move FAST and make money … To grow the audience of its free TV Plus streaming service, Samsung is considering a move …
Discussion:
@jank0@sfba.social and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World:
Creators from India's hinterland are going viral on YouTube Shorts and running into copyright issues for “fact channels” that add context to other users' videos — A new generation of creators found success on YouTube Shorts. Now, YouTube is after them for violating its community guidelines.
Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:
A year in, Axios Pro has 3,000+ paid subscribers who generated ~$2M in revenue; Axios publisher Nick Johnston says total 2022 revenue was in the $50M-$60M range — Axios launched its subscription business, Axios Pro, in January 2022 and within that first calendar year …
Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
Comscore: Variety averaged 28.5M unique monthly users in 2022, beating all other trade news sites and eclipsing Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly audiences — Variety.com, the online home of entertainment business magazine Variety, scored record-breaking traffic in 2022.
Discussion:
Variety
Ariel Shapiro / The Verge:
Listen Notes: ~219K podcasts were created in 2022, down nearly 80% from a peak of ~1M in 2020 and lower than the pre-pandemic high of ~337K in 2019 — Hope you all had a great weekend! We've got some big Hot Pod Summit updates for you all, as well as the latest in audio news.
Discussion:
@bombur, @trengriffin, @glenngabe, @mattnavarra, Listen Notes, Jason Shaw and Blubrry Podcasting, more at Techmeme »
Nieman Lab:
In interviews with 16 US whistleblowers who contacted journalists between the 1970s and 2010s, about half say the media is antagonistic and not a good partner — There is perhaps no more studied — or worried-about — dimension of news over the past five to ten years than the decline of media trust.
Discussion:
@markcoddington, @sethclewis, @spj_tweets, @mayerjoy and @janebsinger