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Comcast offers about £22B for Sky, a 16% premium on the offer from Murdoch's 21st Century Fox — US cable TV group outbids 21st Century Fox's existing offer for broadcasting group … Comcast is attempting to gatecrash Rupert Murdoch's takeover of Sky, submitting a rival offer …


Publishers are pivoting to subscriptions, as they did to video, but industry execs warn that reader revenue is a difficult business model to implement — Publishers are pivoting hard to subscriptions. In the past few months alone, publishers including CNN, The Atlantic and Wired have made moves …
Discussion:
@craigsilverman, @digiday, @raju, @janebsinger, @lpolgreen and @heytimgriggs


Facebook to launch Local News Subscriptions Accelerator, a $3M three-month pilot program to help metro papers boost digital subscription efforts — Facebook Journalism Project will announce today the launch of its Local News Subscriptions Accelerator, a $3 million, three-month pilot program …
Discussion:
Facebook Media, Nieman Lab, TechCrunch, Adweek, Engadget, @thewilderthings, @michellemanafy, @nathanbomey, @onecolleen, @nkulw, @jason_w_white, @underoak and The Verge, more at Techmeme »


The New York Times is in talks with streaming services and cable channels about launching a weekly ~30-minute TV show — The New York Times has conquered the podcasting world with “The Daily.” Now it wants to crack television with a weekly news program. — The Times is seeking …
Discussion:
The New York Observer, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter


Transcript of a Q&A with the New York Times' Editorial Page Editor James Bennet which happened during a meeting with NYT staffers in December — “The world needs this from us right now.” … James Bennet: So the op-ed page was created to do a bunch of different things.
Discussion:
Splinter and Editor & Publisher
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NYT editorial-page editor James Bennet defends op-ed page controversy, saying it publishes a variety of voices; newsroom sources voice concern and embarrassment
Discussion:
HuffPost, @blakehounshell, The Wrap, The Daily Caller, bookforum.com, @wolfrum, @joshuahol, @jeffjarvis, @mathewi, @page88, @xeni, @gregmitch, @morlockp, Splinter, @glennf, Splinter, @maxboot, @rickyrawls, @vanityfair, @corgizhukov, @awinston and @paleofuture


Discovery Communications had a net loss of $1.14B in Q4, says it expects to close $14.6B acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive by end of Q1 2018 — (Reuters) - Discovery Communications Inc's (DISCA.O) revenue topped analysts' forecasts in the fourth quarter as the owner of Discovery Channel …
Discussion:
NASDAQ.com and PR Newswire
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Germany's highest court rules that Google is not obligated to ensure websites are free from defamatory content before displaying links to them in search results — FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Google (GOOGL.O) is not obligated to ensure websites are free from defamatory content before displaying links …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Search Engine Land and Engadget, more at Techmeme »


Logan Paul is rejoining YouTube's monetization program after a two-week suspension but is ineligible for its Preferred Ads, its platform for premium advertisers — A 90-day probation is still in effect — Logan Paul's YouTube channel is getting advertising again, but his probation isn't entirely over yet.
Discussion:
Tubefilter, Business Insider, @shadypenguinn and The Verge


How social media created and attacked a version of myself that lacked context after The New York Times hired, and then fired, me for its editorial board — The day before Valentine's Day, social media created a bizarro-world version of me. I have seen strange ideas about me online before …
Discussion:
emptywheel, Mediaite, @digidave, @katierogers, @astepanovich, @nickstatt, @willsommer, @bafeldman, @aherman2006, @_cingraham, @lesterfreamon, @drewbeck, @kevin2kelly, @timothynoah1, @alexnazaryan, @ckummer, @aglasgowgirl, @sjgrunewald, @jessesingal, @vivian, @jason_pontin, @futureboy and @jayrosen_nyu


Internal email: Howard Saltz, editor and publisher of Tronc's The Sun Sentinel in Broward County, is leaving effective Wednesday — Just after noon today, in the midst of covering what is arguably the biggest story in the nation right now — the Parkland high-school shooting spree …
Discussion:
@miaminewtimes, @rosemaryohara14, @buddynevins, @marcacaputo, miamiherald, @rosemaryohara14 and @marcacaputo


Fox News wins appeal against TVEyes, a service that enabled searching, watching, and sharing of TV clips, in a fair use case at Second Circuit Court of Appeals — The 2nd Circuit rejects copyright fair use arguments made by the media monitoring service TVEyes.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Bloomberg, Associated Press and The Daily Caller


Michael Wolff has floated unsubstantiated rumors about Trump having an affair but has now backtracked and canceled interviews after tough questioning — Christian Fraser, a host with the BBC program “Beyond 100 Days,” has tweeted that Michael Wolff, author of “Fire and Fury …
Discussion:
@escarry, @viacristiano, @realfacelessman, @erikwemple and Mediaite


Liberty Media offers $1.16B for a 40% stake in restructured iHeartMedia and will finance working capital if iHeart files bankruptcy according to term sheet — (Reuters) - Certain lenders and noteholders of iHeartMediaInc (IHRT.PK) on Monday said John Malone's Liberty Media Corp (FWONA.O) …
Discussion:
Variety, New York Post, Radio Ink, PR Newswire, Wall Street Journal, @patricialclark, Radio Ink, Seeking Alpha, Media Star and Hits Daily Double


Vanity Fair Editor Radhika Jones has made a series of new hires, naming Claire Howorth as deputy editor and Caryn Prime as director of editorial operations — Ten days after Vanity Fair's new editor, Radhika Jones, took an ax to the staff she inherited from Graydon Carter, she is slowly filling some of the positions.