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BuzzFeed laid off its Director of Quizzes because lots of people are willing to make quizzes for free — “This post has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone create a post. Learn more or post your buzz!”
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Fluxblog, @niemanlab, @jeff__benjamin, @johnastoehr, @karaschlegl, @conroyforreal, @robferdman, @kwameopam and @kateotherkate
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BuzzFeed proposes cutting 17 of BuzzFeed UK's 37 editorial staff, with most losses to the Buzz section covering pop culture — Buzzfeed UK's editorial team will be cut by nearly half, its own media reporter has claimed, down from 37 to 20 journalists based in London.

BuzzFeed says it will pay laid off employees for paid time off they had earned but not used, after current and former staff demanded it in an open letter — New York (CNN)BuzzFeed will pay laid off employees for the paid time off they had earned but not used, it said Monday …
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@peretti, Slate, @dylanmatt, @jane__bradley, @daveyalba, @jeremymbarr, @hshaban, @verambergen and BuzzFeed News Staff Council

Facebook shares draft proposal describing how its new content review board could work, suggesting it have 40 diverse members, none of whom are Facebook staff — In November, Facebook announced a new plan that would revamp how the company makes content policy decisions on its social network …
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Facebook, The Verge, @zittrain, @davidakaye, @jjmacnab, @imillhiser, Adweek, Gizmodo, Fortune, MediaPost, Engadget and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »
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Internal docs and sources describe how Facebook educates moderators about political issues and potential “PR fires” that are particular to different elections — Internal Facebook documents obtained by Motherboard show specific steps and strategies taken by the company …
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Facebook, @tonyajoriley, The Hill and Fortune, more at Techmeme »

Changes to Facebook's site break plugins created by ProPublica and others to track and report on exactly how Facebook users are being targeted by advertisers — Our tool had let the public see exactly how users were being targeted by advertisers. The social media giant urged us to shut it down last year.

Study finds major US newspapers hiked home delivery prices more than 2x between 2008 and 2016, but about two-thirds of print readers remained loyal — Once print advertising collapsed, newspapers hiked prices to get more money from readers. If they hadn't, they'd employ even fewer journalists and be in even worse shape today.
Discussion:
@emilybell, @irischyi, @irischyi, @irischyi, Journalism Studies and Editor & Publisher

Even as companies like Digital First Media strip-mine local newspapers for profit, their journalists continue doing important work and deserve support — Jeffrey Miller might be the ideal news consumer: He's well-informed, thoughtful and understands the role good journalism plays in American democracy.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @ehernandez, @alanmillernlp, @dangillmor, @thomas_peele, @sulliview and The Rural Blog
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Steve Cavendish / Washington Post:
How Gannett hollowed out newspapers in Tennessee over decades, leaving stories like hospital mergers and local elections now under-covered
How Gannett hollowed out newspapers in Tennessee over decades, leaving stories like hospital mergers and local elections now under-covered
Discussion:
@ralstonreports, @mattdpearce, @kensands, @jmartnyt, @rpetty, @carlyewisel, @jrovner, @alecmacgillis, @jayrosen_nyu and @charlesornstein
Reuters:
Verizon Q4: misses expectations with revenue up 1% YoY to $34.3B, a 46K Fios video subscriber loss, and revenue for Verizon Media Group at $2.1B, down 5.8% YoY — rollout@ (Adds details on capital spending, subscribers) — Verizon Communications Inc beat Wall Street estimates …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and Verizon Fios & Custom TV

Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith says the company grew revenue by 16% YoY in 2018, and that its Twitter show TicToc is already profitable — Welcome to the first installment of Keynote, a weekly Q&A series where top media executives discuss their businesses as well as a hot-button issue facing publishers.

After crowdfunding $2.4M and raising $3.5M from investors, Swiss investigative news startup Republik gets scrappy, asks initial backers to renew subscriptions — Republik, a Swiss news startup, raised $2.4 million in less than two weeks in 2017, when a crowdfunding campaign that promised …

Despite Facebook spending ~$1B last year on Watch, its would-be YouTube killer is a jumble of ads with no hit shows and a tiny slice of overall video revenue — Three long years ago, when the world knew little about Cambridge Analytica and laughed off the specter of fake news, Mark Zuckerberg had a very different kind of problem.
Discussion:
@shiraovide, @reckless and @simonowens, more at Techmeme »