Mediagazer: In an email, Cheddar furloughs at least some employees, effective immediately, and bars them from further work, blaming unforeseen internal and external factors (Benjamin Mullin/New York Times)

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” — The company, an aggressive entrant to the digital news space, is expected to cut roughly two-dozen employees later this week.

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, The Desk, @sherman4949, 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, The Desk, Breitbart, CBS News, Newser, Mediaite, @brianstelter, Bloomberg, The Hill, New York Post, Forbes, Adweek 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

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

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 »

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: @tvgrimreaper, The Hill, @trengriffin, Digiday, @danilo@hachyderm.io, New York Post, Dan Goman on LinkedIn, Breitbart and The Streamable, 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

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

Joe Mandese / MediaPost:

Omnicom closes its $900M acquisition of Flywheel Digital from Ascential; ex-Ascential CEO Duncan Painter will lead Flywheel as a practice area within Omnicom — Omnicom this morning confirmed it has closed on its $900 million acquisition of Flywheel Digital from Ascential plc …

Discussion: Omnicom Group Inc. and Digiday