Mediagazer: Bezos talks at conference about paywalls, micro-payments, The Washington Post's editorial independence, Trump and the media, and Peter Thiel (Lauren Johnson/Adweek)

4:55 AM ET, October 24, 2016

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AT&T:

AT&T announces a half-stock, half-cash deal to acquire Time Warner, valuing the company at $85.4B — - New company with complementary strengths to lead the next wave of innovation in converging media and communications industry. —Combination unlike any other …

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Kara Swisher / Recode:

Resistance from Time Warner execs like Jeff Bewkes, head of HBO at the time, doomed the AOL merger, which raises questions about the prospects of the AT&T deal — The 2000 merger with AOL made Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes nauseated, so what's different now? — In the end, I guess you could finally say Steve Case was right.

Discussion: CNNMoney, Business Insider, @reddy, @mcuban, New York Times, Quartz, @karaswisher, Forbes, Recode, Mashable, The Wrap and Variety

New York Times:

AT&T-Time Warner deal will likely face tougher regulatory scrutiny and higher political hurdles than earlier Comcast-NBCUniversal deal — A cable and internet provider decides to buy an entertainment conglomerate. — The merger is met with skepticism by industry analysts and outrage …

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Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Sources: Curt Schilling is joining Breitbart to host political daily online radio show — With it is looking increasingly unlikely Donald Trump will be heading to the White House, the prospect that he will partner with his campaign CEO, Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon …

Discussion: @maggienyt, Boston Herald, Esquire, The Daily Beast, Media Matters for America, @ddiamond, The Daily Beast, Salon, The Wrap, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

If Trump loses, news organizations should break their ratings-driven habit of giving him heavy coverage — In the final pages of Richard Ben Cramer's seminal book about presidential politics, “What It Takes,” Michael Dukakis looks around in wonderment at the scene outside his Massachusetts home less …

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Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Trump wins endorsement from Las Vegas Review-Journal, bought by Republican megadonor and casino owner Sheldon Adelson in late 2015 — Donald Trump has received a scant few newspaper endorsements in the 2016 race, but he's finally received one from a major city newspaper: The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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Tara West / The Inquisitr News:

Gavin MacFadyen, founder and director of London's Centre for Investigative Journalism and a supporter of WikiLeaks, has died — WikiLeaks Director and founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Gavin MacFadyen has died. WikiLeaks confirmed on their official Twitter account …

Discussion: Gavin MacFadyen, @wikileaks, @cijournalism, @wikileaks, @wikileaks and Empty Lighthouse Music …

Lauren Johnson / Adweek:

Bezos talks at conference about paywalls, micro-payments, The Washington Post's editorial independence, Trump and the media, and Peter Thiel — Jeff Bezos, Amazon chief and owner of the Washington Post, isn't sure that services like paywalls and tiered subscriptions can work for publishers.

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

Interview with Tim Wu about his new book The Attention Merchants, the origins of modern advertising, and the effects of ads on journalism — Harvesting was perhaps the original U.S. industrial activity. Economic growth relied on the reliable conversion of plants and animals into salable products, like cotton and beef.

Steven Perlberg / Wall Street Journal:

Fusion employees say executives held meetings in four offices discouraging unionization — Executives held meetings in four offices discouraging unionization, employees say — Earlier this month, a majority of editorial staffers at Fusion signed union cards to join the growing list …

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

The Information planning to add student subscriptions for $200/year and invite-only professional investor subscriptions for $10K/year — Technology site The Information plans to launch two new products — one for students and one for professional investors — in the next year.

Lily Hay Newman / Wired:

Dyn says Friday's DDoS attack on its DNS service came from tens of millions of IPs, and involved the Mirai botnet of IoT devices — Friday morning is prime time for some casual news reading, tweeting, and general Internet browsing, but you may have had some trouble accessing your usual sites …

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Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook plans to show more images and stories with graphic content, including violence and nudity, if they're “newsworthy, significant or of public interest” — Facebook will soon display more graphic content including violence and nudity that would normally violate its policies …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Engadget, @jason_kint, Washington Post, SocialTimes, CNNMoney, VentureBeat, Facebook, Mashable, Business Insider, Guardian and The Verge

Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Facebook staff wanted to block some Trump posts as hate speech, like one on banning Muslim immigrants; Zuckerberg chose to keep them