Mediagazer: X posts with link previews now display titles or headlines in the bottom left corner of the image, but the text size is small and long headlines get cut off (Ben Schoon/9to5Google)

Top News:

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Richard Beckman, president of The Messenger, announces his resignation, citing health problems, and says January 31 will be his last day — The troubled “non partisan” news startup has seen a staff exodus over the last few months. — Richard Beckman, hard-charging president of the news site The Messenger, has resigned.

Discussion: Richard Beckman on LinkedIn

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Source: The Messenger is expected to lay off roughly two dozen out of ~300 employees this week; the company says it is “in the midst of a second-round raise”

Discussion: @benmullin, New York Post, The Information, @benmullin and The Wrap

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

In an email, Cheddar furloughs at least some employees, effective immediately, and bars them from further work, blaming unforeseen internal and external factors — The “post-cable” news network said “unforeseen internal and external factors” caused the sudden work stoppage.

Discussion: New York Post, @sherman4949, The Desk, Adweek and Variety

Kelly Garrity / Politico:

Donald Trump plans to forgo the CNN's GOP primary debate in favor of a town hall on Fox moderated by Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum — The former president has yet to debate other Republican primary candidates. — Former President Donald Trump will participate …

Discussion: CNN, Axios, Washington Post, Breitbart, CBS News, Newser, Mediaite, @brianstelter, Bloomberg, The Desk, The Hill, New York Post, Adweek, Forbes and Fox News

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

BPI: UK consumers streamed 179.6B audio tracks in 2023, up 12.8% YoY; women artists topped the UK's official singles chart for a record 31 of the 52 chart-weeks — British labels body the BPI has published its annual report on music consumption in the UK. — That means figures covering …

Discussion: BPI, Financial Times, Music Ally, The Guardian, BPI and Music Week

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:

X posts with link previews now display titles or headlines in the bottom left corner of the image, but the text size is small and long headlines get cut off — X, the platform better known as Twitter, removed headlines from posts with links a few months ago, but is now bringing them back in a new format.

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Verge, New York Post, The Register, The Hill, @crumbler@threads.net and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Adam Chitwood / The Wrap:

USC study: women directed 12.1% of 2023's top films, up from 2022's 9%; Universal led with four top films directed by women, followed by Lionsgate and Disney — A USC Annenberg report finds that only 12.1% of the year's top films were directed by women — While Greta Gerwig's “Barbie” …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, @Lilith111@mastodon.social, ScreenRant and Variety

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Roku plans to launch its first high-end TVs in spring 2024, including the 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch Pro Series for up to $1,500 — Roku Inc., the maker of TV streaming boxes and software, is debuting its first high-end televisions in a bid to continue sales momentum for the company's devices.

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Casey Newton says Platformer will meet with Substack, hoping Substack will remove pro-Nazi content, and Platformer plans to leave if Substack fails to do so — A New York Times lawsuit won't be the last challenge to LLMs' free-riding. PLUS: A note on Substack and Nazis — ∙ Paid

Discussion: @mmasnick.bsky.social, @reporterzoe@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @jacaranda7@threads.net, @johnbattelle@threads.net, @crumbler@threads.net, @marisakabas.bsky.social, @marc.e.elias@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @brianforrester8@threads.net and @nopipbutcpip.bsky.social

Jay Peters / The Verge:

X launches a Basic tier for Verified Organizations at $200/month or $2,000/year, in addition to Full Access at $1,000/month and $50/month for each US affiliate — X (formerly Twitter) now has a “basic” tier for Verified Organizations, which gets you a gold checkmark badge (and a few other benefits) …

Discussion: @verified and X, more at Techmeme »

Ray Schultz / MediaPost:

Quebec City's Le Soleil newspaper, founded in 1896, ends its print edition, going fully digital; the newspaper started printing on Saturdays only in March 2020 — Le Soleil, a newspaper based in Quebec City, has published its last print edition and is now going entirely digital.

Discussion: CBC News

Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:

Antenna: US customer cancellations at major streamers rose to 6.3% in November, up from 5.1% YoY; 24% of users canceled 3+ subscriptions over the past two years — Hulu, Netflix and other streamers are turning to bundles, discounts and ad-supported plans as customer defections rise

Discussion: MediaPost, @tvgrimreaper, The Hill, @trengriffin, Digiday, @danilo@hachyderm.io, Dan Goman on LinkedIn, Breitbart, New York Post and The Streamable, more at Techmeme »

Ben Scent / Bloomberg:

Disney signs a confidentiality agreement to share information with shareholder ValueAct, which will support Disney's board nominees, and consult with the firm — ValueAct Chief Investment Officer Mason Morfit said in the statement that Disney has the best intellectual property …

Discussion: Variety, Variety, Reuters, Deadline, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Walt Disney Company and The Hollywood Reporter