Mediagazer: Senegalese police attacked, harassed, and tear gassed or detained over 25 journalists reporting on February 9 protests over the delayed presidential election (Committee to Protect Journalists)

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 …

Discussion: @kalleyhuang, @aginnt, @campuscodi@mastodon.social, @brooklynmarie and @mattnavarra@threads.net, more at Techmeme »

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 …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @crumbler@threads.net, @shiraovide@threads.net, @katieharbath@threads.net, @jayfarrellarnold@threads.net, @bostonjoan@threads.net, @doniecnn@threads.net and @oliverdarcy@threads.net, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: New York Post, Inside Radio, @ashleyrcarman, @buythecryptodip, Radio & Television …, Barrett News Media, Boston Herald, The Desk and @ashleycarman@threads.net

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

TelevisaUnivision reports Q4 revenue fell 7% YoY to $1.36B and adjusted OIBDA fell 7% YoY to $468.1M; streamer ViX had 7M+ subscribers at the end of 2023 — About 2024, the Spanish-language media giant's CEO Wade Davis says, “we are poised to capture a massive U.S. political opportunity …

Discussion: Variety and WORLD SCREEN

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Senegalese police attacked, harassed, and tear gassed or detained over 25 journalists reporting on February 9 protests over the delayed presidential election — Senegalese authorities must identify and hold accountable police officers who attacked, harassed, and tear gassed or detained …

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: Johny Cassidy on LinkedIn, Jonathan Heawood on LinkedIn and Media Voices

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

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

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 …

Discussion: The Information, Marie Lora-Mungai on LinkedIn and @restofworld@restof.social

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, New York Times, The Walt Disney Company, Los Angeles Times, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

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: The Desk, Altice USA, Inc. and Next TV

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