Mediagazer: Marketing tech company Zeta Global acquires commenting service Disqus, whose clients include TMZ and The Atlantic; deal was for ~$90M, says source (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)

4:30 PM ET, December 5, 2017

Top News:

David Faber / CNBC:

Sources: 21st Century Fox is close to a deal with Walt Disney Co to sell its studio and TV production assets and it could come as early as next week — - Fox would sell movie and television production assets and keep its news, sports and broadcast network.

Financial Times:

Sources: James Murdoch has been suggested as a potential successor to Disney CEO Bob Iger, due to retire in 2019, if Disney acquires 21st Century Fox assets — Matthew Garrahan in London, Arash Massoudi in London and James Fontanella-Khan in New York — James Murdoch has been suggested …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Guardian and Financial Times

BuzzFeed:

YouTube says moderation team will have 10K+ people by end of 2018, up 25% according to sources, and pledges new ads approach to curb child exploitation problem — The company plans to have over 10,000 content moderators on staff by the end of 2018, YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki said.

Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed:
Trolls got a reporter's account locked over an old joke, revealing how Twitter's rules can be exploited and how high-profile users get better customer support

Discussion: @katienotopoulos, @davidklion, @feministajones, @eff and @jwherrman

Taylor Lorenz / The Daily Beast:
Facebook removes posts, suspends users for phrases like “men are scum”; ~500 female comedians staged Nov. protest using the terms, most were suspended

Discussion: @thedailybeast, @mathewi, Ad Age, The Guardian, @radfemfatale, @adamserwer, Hit & Run, The A.V. Club, @mattwalshblog, @rocza, @jilliancyork, The Daily Caller, @taylorlorenz, @matt_cagle, @oneunderscore__ and New York Magazine, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Sources: Ziff Davis has bought Mashable for less than $50M; source: about 50 people will likely be laid off and founder Pete Cashmore will stay at the company — Founder Pete Cashmore is staying. — Mashable, once a fast-growing digital publisher with big ambitions, has been sold at a fire sale price.

Discussion: @maxwelltani, Fast Company, TechCrunch, @tvgrimreaper, @heysamantha, @maxwelltani, @karaswisher, @rlytle, @daviduberti, Nxtbook Media, @stevekovach, @pkafka and @sfiegerman

Jon Christian / The Outline:

Contributing writers to publications including Mashable, Inc, Business Insider, and Fast Co say they accepted payments in exchange for promoting companies — An Outline investigation found that contributors to prominent publications have taken payments in exchange for positive coverage.

Discussion: @joshuatopolsky, @kemc, @jank0, @fmanjoo, @benjihyam and Talking Biz News

Associated Press:

12 American Media ex-employees share details of complaints about Dylan Howard's behavior and an ensuing probe, after which he left before returning a year later — https://apnews.com/61ec808965414abb810a 6e2d84f06a79 — NEW YORK (AP) — The top editor for the National Enquirer …

Discussion: Mediawire, @hollykmichels, @drogon_dracarys and The Week

Rebecca Carroll / Esquire:

Former Charlie Rose producer Rebecca Carroll writes about her experience as the only black journalist working on the show in the late 1990s — As one powerful man after another faces allegations of sexual misconduct, we're still not talking about the ramifications for black women.

Discussion: The Wrap, @bencasselman, @deggans, @tylercoates, @monaeltahawy, @schemaly, @kmcdonovgh, @itsmeadria, @gbahadur and EW.com

Nicholas Quah / Nieman Lab:

Sources: Apple has acquired Oakland-based Pop Up Archive, an online platform that builds tools to transcribe, organize, and search audio files — Plus: Public radio deals with a new wave of harassment allegations, Reddit and WBUR team up, et l'industrie du podcast au Québec.

Discussion: Fast Company, Financial Times, TechCrunch, RAIN News, MacRumors, @roybahat, Business Insider, www.wnyc.org and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: daily email newsletter theSkimm is exploring a potential sale after being approached by an interested buyer — Daily email newsletter reaches more than 6 million subscribers, who are mostly women — TheSkimm, the daily news digest that has taken off with younger women …

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Brian Ross' Michael Flynn error is one among several high-profile blunders over his career — In 2006, ace ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross went on the air with a big scoop: Pakistani officials, he reported, had arrested Matiur Rehman, an al-Qaeda explosives expert who kept an “official” list of terrorist recruits.

Discussion: Politico

CNNMoney:
ABC News president excoriates staff over Brian Ross' Michael Flynn error, announces that Ross will no longer cover stories related to Trump

Discussion: Poynter, The Daily Beast, RealClearPolitics, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, @ericboehlert and Mediaite

Ben Terris / Washington Post:

Profile: Armstrong Williams, who wants to buy the Washington City Paper, says he won't impose conservative views, but current and former staffers raise doubts — Armstrong Williams sat in his Capitol Hill office with a pistol on his hip and a plan for buying the Washington City Paper on his desk.

Discussion: @wplyndarobinson, @joshtpm and @mrtimregan

Selina Wang / Bloomberg:

Kremlin-backed Russian IRA operated dozens of Twitter accounts, part of the suspended 2,752 list, posing as local US news sources, amassing 500K+ followers — Twitter has suspended dozens of accounts masquerading as U.S. news sources that had more than 500,000 followers.

more at Techmeme »

Jethro Mullen / CNNMoney:

Russia has designated nine US government-backed news outlets, including Voice of America, as foreign agents, after US forced RT to register as a foreign agent — Russia is labeling nine U.S. government-backed news outlets — including Voice of America — as foreign agents.

The New York Times Company:

New York Times promotes Monica Drake to assistant managing editor, overseeing new digital features and projects — The New York Times announced today that Monica Drake will join the masthead as an assistant managing editor, overseeing new digital features and projects.

Discussion: @samdolnick

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More News:

The Daily Beast:
During an interview, Roy Moore's spokesperson, Janet Porter, told CNN host Poppy Harlow that Moore's political opponent “supports killing” her unborn child

Discussion: The Wrap, TVNewser, The Week and Mediaite

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Steve Bannon has returned to the Sirius XM radio program he hosted before joining Trump's election campaign

Discussion: The Week

Mitchel Broussard / MacRumors:
AT&T says its OTT streaming service DirecTV Now has surpassed 1M subscribers, just over a year after its launch

Discussion: Variety, more at Techmeme »

Max Willens / Digiday:
TheStreet is pivoting to consumer revenue in 2018, after failed forays into video and branded content; the site laid off 10 editorial staffers last Thursday

Discussion: @allisonprang

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Marketing tech company Zeta Global acquires commenting service Disqus, whose clients include TMZ and The Atlantic; deal was for ~$90M, says source

Discussion: @ow, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:
News Corp has launched a data-driven online advertising network, News IQ, to help buyers place ads directly on properties like The Wall Street Journal

Discussion: @sarafischer and @jarroddicker

Vidhi Choudhary / Livemint:
Q&A: HuffPost editor in chief Lydia Polgreen on the company's India strategy, split with Times Group, the deterioration of trust in media, and focus on mobile

Discussion: Nieman Lab

Earlier Picks:

Erin Carson / CNET:
A look at how hate groups have built their own financing platforms, after being largely pushed off mainstream crowdfunding sites

Discussion: The Guardian

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
Alabama Media Group, publisher of AL.com and the state's three largest papers, creates Reckon, which is focused on local news and made for a social audience

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Vanity Fair, @petersterne, AOL, The Week, VICE, Business Insider, New York Times, UPROXX, The Guardian, Splinter, New York Magazine, Refinery29, Boing Boing, CNN, Axios, Mediaite, Mother Jones, NPR and @johnarchibald

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
PBS to air CNN International's Amanpour on an interim basis to replace Charlie Rose, is finalizing plans for a public affairs program to follow Amanpour's slot

Discussion: TVNewser, Newser, The Week, Mediaite, Los Angeles Times, Politico, @ali_gharib, Variety, UPROXX, HuffPost, Newsday, TVLine and Deadline

Jon Levine / The Wrap:
MSNBC won't renew contributor Sam Seder's contract over 2009 rape joke tweet; on his podcast Seder claimed tweet was satire, accused Cernovich of smear campaign

Todd Spangler / Variety:
‘House of Cards’ Sixth and Final Season Shooting to Resume in Early 2018, Without Kevin Spacey

Yashar Ali / HuffPost:
Netflix's Dir. of Global Kids Content Andy Yeatman told an alleged victim of actor Danny Masterson that senior execs don't believe the claims against the actor

From Techmeme:

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Cisco details a hacking campaign that penetrated multiple governments' networks using two zero-day flaws in its VPN and firewall Adaptive Security Appliances

Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:
IBM agrees to buy HashiCorp, which helps companies manage cloud infrastructure, in a deal valuing HashiCorp at $6.4B and expected to close by the end of 2024

Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
US prosecutors charge two founders of Samourai Wallet, saying the crypto mixing service facilitated more than $100M in money laundering transactions

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