Top News:
Chris Thompson / Defector:
Vice leadership failed to act as responsible stewards of a good product, and instead paid themselves lavish salaries and burned through hundreds of millions — Vice was a good website. On Thursday it was killed by its private equity owners, in a characteristically cruel and sudden maneuver …
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Wall Street Journal:
Internal memo: Vice Media “will no longer publish content on vice.com” and may partner with established media companies to distribute its content — Cuts follow failed effort by owner Fortress to sell embattled digital publisher and its brands — Vice Media said it would stop …
Discussion:
One Man & His Blog, @janusrose, Slate, CNN, @maxwelltani, @annamerlan, Dylan Harari on LinkedIn, OrissaPOST, TVNewsCheck, @maxwelltani@threads.net, @neuwaves, @broderick, Nicholas Yanes on LinkedIn, Press Gazette, Nieman Lab, @tati_wm, @scottnover, Media Voices, @elaheizadi, @ameliargh, @felixsalmon, @lorenzofb, @bcmerchant, @katiedrumm, @katiedrumm, @bcmerchant, @motherboard, @benmullin, @maxwelltani, @timmarchman, @rumpfshaker, @theloniusly, @leximcmenamin, Variety, Awful Announcing, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, @stefthepef@mastodon.social, Deadline, @karlbode.bsky.social, Talking Biz News, @BenjaminHCCarr@hachyderm.io, Bloomberg and Mediaite
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Internal memo: Vice Media executives plan to lay off hundreds of its 900+ employees over the next week, and the company is in advanced talks to sell Refinery29
Discussion:
CBS News, @jason_koebler, The Verge, CNN, @chronotope, @karenkho, @megreenwell, CMU, @scottnover, @adamm0rgan, Raw Story, Newser, @misstessowen, @daithaigilbert, @maxwellstrachan, UPI, Washington Post, hellgatenyc, Sydney Morning Herald, Rachel White on LinkedIn, HuffPost, Advanced Television, The Desk, @soupsoup@threads.net, @emilybellnyc@threads.net, @dkiesow@threads.net, @emilybellnyc@threads.net, New York Daily News, The Hill, The Information, @blogdiva@mastodon.social, The Wrap, @skullwizard.bsky.social, MediaPost and Hollywood Reporter
Sara Fischer / Axios:
NPR affiliate WAMU is shutting down local news site Dcist and laying off 15 employees to focus on audio and plans to add 10 new positions — - “We're making the choice to invest in what we're better at than anyone else in this town, and that's audio,” Pulley-Hayes said.
Discussion:
Washington Post, @wemakewamu, Inside Radio, @wemakewamu, The Hill, @maustermuhle, Current, @jasonshevrin, @jenhoward.bsky.social, @digiphile, @ckrewson, @jeffjarvis@threads.net, @jbenton, @jfkucinich, @digiphile, @emmasarappo, @elaheizadi, @emma_a_whitford, @maustermuhle, Sara Fischer on LinkedIn, @abeaujon@threads.net, @nicdawes, @maustermuhle, Andi McDaniel on LinkedIn, @elaheizadi, Benjamin Freed on LinkedIn and The Wrap
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
WBD reports Q4 revenue down 7% YoY to $10.3B, adjusted EBITDA down 5% YoY to $2.5B, 97.7M global streaming subscribers, and a $103M streaming profit for 2023 — The owner of the TNT and TBS cable networks,. the Warner Bros. studio and the Max streaming service reported a loss of $400 million …
Discussion:
Forbes, The Desk, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, @lucas_shaw, @jbflint, @lmoses, Warner Bros. Discovery, The Streamable, @richlightshed, @jbflint and @picklemaddierix
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Eileen AJ Connelly / The Wrap:
WBD's David Zaslav says the joint venture sports app in development with Fox and Disney will include the ability to bundle with Max — Warner Bros. Discovery CEO confirms that joint venture app with Fox and Disney will access non-sports content — Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed Friday …
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, Front Office Sports, The Streamable and Deadline
Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
An interview with studio owner Tyler Perry, who says he's putting an $800M studio expansion in Atlanta on hold after seeing the capabilities of OpenAI's Sora — The actor, filmmaker and studio owner is raising the alarm about the impact of the tech, saying, “I feel like everybody in the industry …
Discussion:
Variety, TMZ.com, Eric Wagliardo on LinkedIn, Ars Technica, Conrad Curtis on LinkedIn, Colin McAuliffe on LinkedIn, Peter Csathy on LinkedIn, Aaron Wilkerson on LinkedIn, The Ankler, The Guardian, Paul O'Brien on LinkedIn, @jonbjohns.bsky.social, Vibe, @katiekilkenny7, @discussingfilm, @thr, @saverio825, Advanced Television, IndieWire, The A.V. Club, @jessefuchs.bsky.social, @scumbelievable.bsky.social, @oldmatecans.bsky.social, @cousins.bsky.social, @hypercubexl.bsky.social, @stopsatgreen@threads.net, @talentagencyguide@threads.net, @lkimmasters@threads.net, Deadline and The Wrap
Bloomberg:
Bill Ackman hires a law firm, which demands “immediate retractions and corrections” from Business Insider in a “final attempt to avoid litigation” — - Law firm issues demand letter on behalf of Ackman's wife — News outlet published stories saying wife committed plagiarism
Discussion:
The Wrap, @billackman, Talking Biz News, @aidnmclaughlin, New York Post, @dylanbyers, @maxwelltani and Observer
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Reddit files to list its IPO on the NYSE, reporting revenue up 20% YoY to $804M in 2023, net loss down 43% YoY to $90.8M, 73M DAUs, and a $3.42 global ARPU — - Reddit on Thursday filed to go public. — Its market debut will mark the first major tech initial public offering of the year …
Discussion:
Securities and Exchange Commission, AdExchanger, Observer, The Verge, Raw Story, KNSD-TV, Fast Company, Tubefilter, 9to5Mac, TechStartups, Quartz, MobileSyrup, Mashable India, City A.M., @alexeheath, The Guardian, @mikeisaac, MediaPost, TweakTown, New York Times, The Information, Wired, Deadline, NPR, NBC Bay Area, @carnage4life@mas.to, Variety, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
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Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google strikes a deal with Reddit, reportedly for $60M/year, giving Google access to the Reddit Data API to surface more Reddit content and train AI models
Discussion:
The Hill, CBS News, @jonbjohns.bsky.social, @edmundlee@threads.net, The Verge, @rustybrick, @glenngabe, @mmitchell_ai, @cherthedev, WinBuzzer, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Reddit Upvoted, @annatonger, @reuters, @chirag_mehta, @reuters, @toddlombardo, @mrjnowlin, @basedtorba, @brij, 404 Media, @mattnavarra@threads.net, @documentingmeta@threads.net, MobileSyrup, Benzinga, Emil Protalinski on LinkedIn, The Decoder, KnowYourMobile, TechStartups, @crumbler@threads.net, MSPoweruser, Quartz, CoinXposure, The Keyword, David Callahan on LinkedIn, The Wrap, Search Engine Land, New York Post, One Man & His Blog, Gizmodo, The Verge, @carnage4life@mas.to, Reuters, r/news, r/privacy, r/singularity and r/google, more at Techmeme »
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
S-1: the Newhouse family's Advance owns 30.1% of Reddit, Tencent owns 11%, and Sam Altman owns 8.7%; post-IPO, the Newhouse family will hold two board seats
Discussion:
Fast Company, Business Today, WinBuzzer, CNBC, Business Insider, The Information, @kevinrns@mstdn.social and Bloomberg
Rani Molla / Sherwood Media:
In response to a query for news stories about Putin's comments on Navalny's death, Microsoft's AI-assisted search Copilot invented Putin quotes — Microsoft really wants you to use its new Copilot AI-assisted search. Not only was the service featured in an expensive Super Bowl spot …
Discussion:
@joshuatopolsky@mastodon … and @ranimolla
Check My Ads Institute:
Paste co-founder and EIC Josh Jackson, whose company bought Jezebel in November 2023, says that overly broad brand safety efforts are hurting journalism — Josh Jackson was shocked when he found out what term, if used in the music publication he co-founded, could automatically strip an article of ad revenue.
Nicholas Quah / Vulture:
A look at Matthew Belloni's What I'm Hearing newsletter, which covers the structures of Hollywood's business and has become a must-read among the power elite — How Matthew Belloni became the must-read columnist for Hollywood's executive class. — The Hollywood journalist Matthew Belloni …
Discussion:
@mikeisaac, @jacobrubashkin, @loudmouthjulia and @mattbelloni@threads.net
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Editor of Vogue China to leave in latest senior Condé Nast exit — Rising star Margaret Zhang targeted by ‘toxic’ online campaign for ‘not being Chinese enough’ — The editor in chief of Vogue China, Margaret Zhang, has left the publishing group in the latest senior departure …
Discussion:
Vogue
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Google says there are no plans to remove the News tab on search results pages, after testing temporarily removing the filter for “a small subset of users” — News publishers are worried — with good reason — about changes coming to Google Search.
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