Top News:
The Information:
Sources: Meta is reducing payments to news outlets that fact-check potential WhatsApp misinformation, including on elections, and has cut CrowdTangle funding — Meta Platforms is reducing payments to news organizations that fact-check potential misinformation on WhatsApp, including around elections …
RELATED:
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Meta struggles to precisely define what political content is, offering only a vague statement, after saying Threads would not amplify political content — What constitutes “political” content? — It's an important question that Meta has conspicuously left unanswered …
Bloomberg:
Court filings show that Soros Fund Management could become the biggest shareholder of Audacy when the radio and podcast company emerges from bankruptcy — - Fund owns more than $400 million of Audacy's first-lien debt — Radio company's restructuring would hand ownership to lenders
Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:
David Leonhardt's views shaped NYT newsletter The Morning, which has 5M+ daily readers, leading to newsroom tension; others will share its lead column in 2024 — The New York Times' flagship newsletter is hugely popular with readers, a source of tension among some reporters, and …
Discussion:
@mlcalderone and @charlottetklein
BBC R&D:
The BBC plans to continue its Mastodon trial for at least six months and publish its work using ActivityPub, after gaining 60K followers on six trial accounts — In July 2023 we announced our plan to establish a BBC presence in the distributed collection of social networks known as the Fediverse …
RELATED:
Jonathan Heawood / The Guardian:
A look at new local UK newsrooms, like Manchester's The Mill, Glasgow's The Ferret, and The Bristol Cable, which are taking over as legacy local media declines — On tiny budgets, indie publishers from Manchester to Bristol are doing amazing things. The government must unlock their potential
Discussion:
Media Voices and American Press Institute
Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
As The Daily Beast put Confider on hiatus, weeks after editor at large Lachlan Cartwright left, sources say the media newsletter could instead be “dead” — “We decided to put Confider on hiatus after Lachlan Cartwright, who initiated it, departed The Daily Beast,” The Daily Beast editor in chief said in a statement
Discussion:
@danackerman
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Four owners of independent media talk about why they went independent, the boom-and-bust cycle of media funding, sustainability, co-op ownership, and more — “Blogging is the media. Blogging won.” — It's been a rough start to the new year for the news industry, between layoffs …
Discussion:
@hanaatameez and @mathewi
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Disney merges ABC News and local station operations under Debra OConnell; ABC News President Kim Godwin and Stations President Chad Matthews will report to her — Another major media company is merging its news division and its local stations in hopes of wringing new profits from two businesses …
Discussion:
The Wrap, The Walt Disney Company, New York Times, Deadline, Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter
Damilare Dosunmu / Rest of World:
Omdia: South African streaming company Showmax had 2.1M subscribers in Africa at the end of November 2023, ahead of Netflix's 1.8M and Amazon Prime Video's 300K — Showmax sits at the top of the market with a vast library of local content, partnerships with Comcast and HBO …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Walmart is in talks to buy smart TV manufacturer Vizio for $2B+, as the company looks to bolster its advertising business in its battle with Amazon — Retail giant discussing a more than $2 billion deal that would boost its advertising business in battle with Amazon
Discussion:
Oliver Pangborn on LinkedIn, @hiebertpaul, @anshelsag, Observer, Jeff Rauseo on LinkedIn, Next in Media, Engadget, Media Play News, Victor Elmann on LinkedIn, David J. Katz on LinkedIn, Christine Grammier on LinkedIn, Timothy Edwards on LinkedIn, Variety, The Streamable, MediaPost, Digiday, LightShed Partners, Bloomberg, The Desk, The Information, The Verge, 9to5Google, Reuters and Ad Age
Roger Cheng / Cord Cutters News:
Altice USA's Optimum lost 114,000 internet subscribers and 266,700 cable TV subscribers in 2023, including 62,200 cable subscribers in Q4 — Cable and internet provider Optimum continues to bleed customers at an alarming rate even as it lost money. — The company reported fourth-quarter results …
Discussion:
Altice USA, Inc. and Next TV
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