Top News:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Memo: BDG Media suspends Gawker operations and CEO Bryan Goldberg says the company will cut 8% of its full-time staff after “a surprisingly difficult” Q1 2023 — BDG Media is suspending Gawker and will lay off 8% of full-time staff, according to an internal memo from CEO Bryan Goldberg that was obtained by Axios.
Discussion:
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Max Tani / Semafor:
The US DOJ charges former ABC News foreign correspondent James Gordon Meek over the alleged transportation of CSAM; the FBI raided Meek's home in April 2022 — The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced the arrest of an award-winning investigative reporter on charges related to child pornography.
Discussion:
Department of Justice, Variety, Washington Post, Mediaite, @awprokop, Fox News, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, @tomaxwell, @awprokop, @mattwolking, New York Post, Deadline, Rolling Stone, @noahshachtman, @calebjhull, @maxwelltani, @arlnowdotcom, @semaforben and The Daily Beast
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
Bloomberg renames its Quicktake streaming channel to Bloomberg Originals and adds more documentaries and talk shows, after seeing growth in ad-supported video — News publisher to launch climate, science and sports shows on rebranded streaming platform — Bloomberg Media is adding …
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Bloomberg:
TikTok is limiting the number of songs that some users in Australia can post on its app, an experiment meant to assess how much they value music in their videos — TikTok is limiting the number of songs that users can post on its app, an experiment to assess how much they value music in their videos.
Discussion:
Social Media Today, Fox News and Newsday
Sahil Patel / The Information:
Sources: Netflix told advertisers that sign-ups for its ad tier doubled in January 2023 over December 2022; Netflix predicted 1.75M ad tier subscribers in Q1 — Netflix is making progress in its plunge into advertising—slowly. — The streaming firm told advertisers in the past 10 days …
Discussion:
@amir, @richlightshed, IndieWire, Deadline, @sizpatel and Cord Cutters News
Patrick Coffee / Wall Street Journal:
A look at ad industry meme accounts, often run by anonymous industry veterans to share news, create a sense of community among junior staff and CMOs, and more — Ad industry meme creators have begun breaking news, earning revenue and attracting attention from industry leaders
David Robb / Deadline:
HuffPost and its union reach an agreement on a new three-year contract, after 98% of the union's 91 members had pledged to strike if a deal wasn't reached — The WGA East and HuffPost have reached an agreement on a new three-year contract, averting a threatened strike.
Discussion:
@davecullen, @marinafang and @wgaeast
Brian Veseling / WAN-IFRA:
The Seattle Times President Alan Fisco says 70% of the paper's revenue now comes from readers, and 70% of that is still from print; ads represent 24% of revenue — 2023-01-25. “You can have the most sophisticated funnel, the best retention tools on the planet, spend a fortune on your tech stack …
Discussion:
@coreyhutchins, @anthony, What's New in Publishing, Media Voices and American Press Institute
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix adds spatial audio to its $20 per month Premium plan, available on 700+ of its most-watched titles; Standard and Basic plans will get limited support — Listen to this: Netflix is hoping audiophiles will upgrade to the $20-per-month Premium tier to gain access to the streamer's full collection …
Discussion:
LostRemote, IGN, 9to5Mac, The Verge, The Streamable, TechCrunch and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Sources: Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone's ad joint venture meant to rival Meta and Google is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval — Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Orange (ORAN.PA), Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Vodafone's (VOD.L) plan to take on Big Tech …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Pakistan “degrades” Wikipedia in the country for 48 hours for not removing “sacrilegious contents” and warns of a full block if the nonprofit fails to comply — Pakistan has “degraded” Wikipedia in the country for 48 hours for not removing “sacrilegious contents” …
Discussion:
@ptaofficialpk, Poynter, @usamakhilji, @anayankhan and @usmanahmad_iam, more at Techmeme »
Karl Brauer / Forbes:
Cars & Bids, a car auction site founded by Doug DeMuro, an automotive YouTuber who has amassed 4.5M+ subscribers since 2013, raised $37M from The Chernin Group — Doug DeMuro is arguably the most successful automotive YouTuber in the relatively short history of that young medium.
Discussion:
@rochoy, @gregbettinelli, @dougdemuro, The Drive and Robb Report, more at Techmeme »