Mediagazer: T-Mobile agrees to acquire Vistar Media, which focuses on programmatic digital out of home advertising, for $600M in cash; the deal is expected to close in Q1 (Kerry Flynn/Axios)

2:40 PM ET, January 13, 2025

Top News:

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin leaves WaPo to launch The Contrarian on Substack, to combat the “authoritarian threat” with the tagline “Not owned by anybody” — New York CNN — — Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list …

Ben Smith / Semafor:

Tech reporter Ashlee Vance has left Bloomberg to start a media company called Core Memory, with documentaries, a YouTube show, podcast, and newsletter planned — The Scoop — The prolific Bloomberg tech journalist Ashlee Vance has left to start a new media company around his curious …

Discussion: Core Memory, CNN, @ashleevance, @ashleevance, @alanjeffries, @jamescham, @davidramli, @nearcyan, @johncoogan, @bznotes, @markmilian, @gaurabc, @ashleevance, @urbanistvc, @dadiomov, @fleetwood___ and Talking Biz News

Dominic Preston / The Verge:

Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko plans to transfer Mastodon's ownership to a new non-profit, saying it “should not be owned or controlled by a single individual” — Mastodon says the decentralized network ‘should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.’

Discussion: Mastodon Blog, TechCrunch, @zeldman@threads.net, Magdalena Hai on LinkedIn, Anil Dash on LinkedIn, Hannah Aubry on LinkedIn, @jeffgreco.com, @icesheetmike.bsky.social, Esra'a Al Shafei on LinkedIn, @aardrian.bsky.social, @kissane@mas.to, @nevillehobson.xyz, @GuyNamedBrian@mastodon.social, BetaNews, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @webology@mastodon.social and @tilvids@mstdn.social, more at Techmeme »

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

UK's Daily Mirror gives journalists individual online page-view targets; some print reporters covering more serious news fear the targets will affect quality — Mirror journalists have been given individual targets for online page views in a move that has raised concerns for some about the potential impact …

Discussion: @glenngabe@mas.to, Mark Desmond Thompson on LinkedIn, @jim.londoncentric.media and David Alexander on LinkedIn

Richard Nieva / Forbes:

Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky — Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure …

Bloomberg:

Amid LA's fires, studios halted work on over a dozen projects, including shows like Wheel of Fortune; IATSE union: 8K+ of its members live in evacuation zones — First came the pandemic. Then came the strikes. Now, the fires. — Every Angeleno has experienced an earthquake, but the threat of fire has often felt more distant.

Discussion: Screen Rant, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn and @carlquintanilla.bsky.social

Michael Schneider / Variety:
How LA reporters have been personally affected by the wildfires after several days of non-stop, commercial-free news coverage: “fatigue is setting in”

Discussion: @dannygroner.bsky.social, @variety and Los Angeles Times

Financial Times:

Some advertisers raise brand safety concerns over Meta's content moderation changes, fearing a surge in harmful content and misinformation on its platforms — Mark Zuckerberg's unexpected ‘free speech’ overhaul of Meta's content moderation has sparked concerns among advertisers that it will lead …

Discussion: Gizmodo, @petertl.bsky.social, @claradoodle.bsky.social, Axios and @aaron.rupar@threads.net

David Allen Green / Financial Times:
How aligning with Trump's new administration lets Meta and X pivot from futile cooperation with the EU and other jurisdictions to confrontation and coercion

Discussion: ZeroHedge News, Lauri Rechardt on LinkedIn, @diegocastaneda, @gideonrachman, @shaneliamconway, @reichenstein@mastodon.social, Stuart Lambert on LinkedIn, @danielagabor.bsky.social, @jwsidders.bsky.social, Hürriyet Daily News, @davidallengreen …, @henrymance.bsky.social, @ianfraser.bsky.social, Bloomberg and New York Times

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg faces less friction in making broad policy changes after Meta's layoffs in 2022 and 2023, which hit much of its civic integrity teams

Discussion: notes from all fours, Quartz, Benzinga, @sbyrnes.bsky.social, @justiceleague00.bsky.social and Daring Fireball

Renée DiResta:
Meta's changes to its content policies will appease vocal political critics only for the short term, and they signal a retreat from responsibility to users

Discussion: Reason, @ben.werdmuller@threads.net, Business Insider, @renee.diresta@threads.net, @noupside.bsky.social, @dwillner.bsky.social, @dwillner.bsky.social and @dwillner.bsky.social

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is leaving following a botched app revamp that upset customers and stymied growth; Sonos names board member Tom Conrad as interim CEO — - 'We've let far too many‬‭ people down,' company tells staffers — Former Snap and Pandora executive Tom Conrad named interim CEO

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Rachel Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties to Mondays in 2022, will return to five nights a week as part of MSNBC's plans for Trump's first 100 days — Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties after the spring of 2022, holding forth only on Mondays, will return to five nights a week …

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, The Hill, The Wrap, USA Today, Mediaite, Deadline, Adweek, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, TV Insider, Raw Story, @micheil.bsky.social, @brianstelter and @garymlevin

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain will replace Neil Cavuto on Fox News, aiming to bring his “signature podcast style” to the 4pm slot — The ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ co-host will take over the 4 p.m. time slot with ‘The Will Cain Show’ on Jan. 21.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, The Desk, Adweek, Awful Announcing, Mediaite, TVNewsCheck, TVLine, The Wrap, The Hill, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, RedState, TV Insider, The Independent, The Daily Caller, @jeremymbarr and Deadline

Matthew Martin / Bloomberg:

Sources: SURJ Sports, the sports investment arm of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, is in advanced talks to invest $1B+ in sports streaming platform Dazn — The deal between SURJ Sports Investment, a unit of the $925 billion Public Investment Fund, and Dazn could be announced as soon as this month …

Discussion: The Streamable and @kennysmith.bsky.social

Toby Helm / The Guardian:

Sources: the UK considers tightening rules on MPs' contracts with media outlets, as some MPs doubled their parliamentary salaries as presenters on TV channels — Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage are among those who have earned large sums from broadcasters, but a tightening of rules on MPs' outside interests is being considered

Discussion: @lucympowell, GB News, @stutay.bsky.social, The Mirror and @harryeccles.bsky.social

James Hale / Tubefilter:

Streams Charts: Twitch watch time fell to 1.58B hours in December, its lowest monthly total since July 2020, as the number of channels live at any one time rose — Something interesting may have happened on Twitch in December. — Over the course of the month, the platform accumulated 1.58 billion hours …

Discussion: Passionfruit

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More News:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
SCOTUS declines to hear Meta's bid to avoid a class action by advertisers that accused the company of overcharging them by inflating their potential ad reach

Discussion: Supreme Court of the United States, MediaPost, Daily Caller News Foundation, Axios, Salt Lake Tribune and @kint.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Politico:
Jack Blanchard, who is currently Politico's UK editor, will move to Washington DC to become managing editor and author of its flagship Playbook newsletter

Discussion: @ryanlizza, Politico and Hugo Bebbington on LinkedIn

Kerry Flynn / Axios:
T-Mobile agrees to acquire Vistar Media, which focuses on programmatic digital out of home advertising, for $600M in cash; the deal is expected to close in Q1

Discussion: Adweek, Reuters, Light Reading, @martyswant, MediaPost, Digiday, @kerrymflynn, T-Mobile US, Inc. and Ben Billingsley on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Ormax Media: the Indian box office shrank 3% YoY to $1.37B in 2024, the second-highest-grossing year in the history of Indian cinema despite the dip

Discussion: Deadline

Earlier Picks:

Riley MacLeod / Aftermath:
The Washington Post's renaming of its PR team to Star Talent Unit, focusing on “personalities and creators”, promotes false ideas about how journalism gets done

Discussion: @dannygroner.bsky.social, @matthewkeys.net and r/Journalism

Kipp Jones / Mediaite:
Fortune retracts a story claiming Elon Musk plans to remove timestamps from X posts and charge an $8 signup fee, apologizing for being “intentionally misled”

Discussion: @spacesudoer, @lindayax, @timcast, @amasad, Fortune, @mediaite, @fortune_exposed, @elonmusk, @fortune_exposed, @tomaxwell and ZeroHedge News

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Matt Mullenweg deactivates the accounts of several WordPress.org members, some of whom have been leading a push to create a new fork of the open-source project

John Micklethwait / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait predicts AI's impact on journalism: jobs will change, not vanish, reporting and breaking news will remain valuable, and more

Discussion: @katie_roof, TVNewsCheck, @sotweets, Nicholas Thompson on LinkedIn, New Yorker and @leokelion

From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
Sources: Databricks secures $5B+ in its largest debt raise to date, from lenders including Blackstone and Apollo, after raising $10B in equity in December 2024

Vince Dioquino / Decrypt:
Sony launches Soneium Ethereum L2 platform for creators, after a four-month test that drew 14M+ users; Blockscout: Soneium testnet processed ~47M transactions

Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Texas sues Allstate and its subsidiary Arity, accusing the insurer of illegally collecting and selling data about people's driving behavior through mobile apps

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