Mediagazer: Machinima is now officially closed, two weeks after it went offline, with layoffs of 81 people but a “select number” remaining to work at AT&T's Otter Media (Owen S. Good/Polygon)

1:35 AM ET, February 6, 2019

Top News:

Jon Levine / The Wrap:

Leaked audio: Vice news chief Josh Tyrangiel says Vice is nearing a deal with Hulu for a new show, and revenue loss after end of HBO show contributed to layoffs — “We now have paper. We now have pens. The pens are not on paper," Vice executive Josh Tyrangiel says of the deal

Discussion: Digiday, @levinejonathan, @tomhbunting and @plbarghouty

Anjali Robins / CNBC:

Disney beats estimates with Q1 net income of $2.79B on revenue of $15.3B vs. $15.14B expected; media networks revenue increased 7% YoY to $5.9B — - Investors and analysts are looking for new details on the company's direct-to-consumer plans and an update on its pending $71.3 billion acquisition …

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Multichannel News, @stevekovach, MediaPost, Reuters, The Walt Disney Company, Awful Announcing and Yahoo! Finance

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Disney says ESPN+, its standalone subscription streaming service that launched in April, has 2M+ users, up from 1M in September

Discussion: CNBC, more at Techmeme »

Owen S. Good / Polygon:

Machinima is now officially closed, two weeks after it went offline, with layoffs of 81 people but a “select number” remaining to work at AT&T's Otter Media — Parent company confirms shutdown two weeks after everything went offline — Machinima is officially no more.

Discussion: MediaPost, Deadline, @matthewmercer, @robgabel, @xpangler and @utxjgthedon

Amanda Darrach / Columbia Journalism Review:

Amid buyouts and possible layoffs, McClatchy's board increased CEO Craig Forman's monthly stipend for travel, housing, and security from $5,000 to $35,000 — BuzzFeed, HuffPo, Gannett, Vice. This has already been a ruthless year for layoffs in digital journalism.

Discussion: @byrosenberg, Miami New Times, @levinecarrie, @aodespair, @chrispreperato, @byrosenberg, @moorehn, @aliciak2010, @sarahesmith23, @cmonstah, @ssuttell, @tess_novotny, @maryannetalbott, @scottleadingham, @alex_burness and @moorehn

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

YouTube CEO says the number of channels with 1M+ subs nearly doubled and the number of creators who earned five or six figures grew 40%+ in the last year — In a post on Tuesday about her 2019 goals, YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki touted several milestones Google's massive video site surpassed …

Discussion: YouTube Creator Blog, Variety, TechCrunch, Business Insider, MediaPost and @susanwojcicki, more at Techmeme »

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Sources: Reddit is raising $150M to $300M in a Series D led by Tencent at a $2.7B pre-money valuation — Reddit is raising $150 million to $300 million to keep the front page of the Internet running, multiple sources tell TechCrunch. The forthcoming Series D round is said to be led …

Discussion: @carnage4life, @dhh, @shiruken, @badlogicgames, @joshconstine and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Greg Dool / Folio:

American Media, publisher of National Enquirer, Us Weekly, and Men's Journal, has acquired TEN: Publishing's 14 brands in its Adventure Sports Network — National Enquirer publisher American Media has acquired TEN: Publishing's Adventure Sports Network, a group of 14 action sports brands …

Discussion: Forbes, MediaPost, SGB Online and Pinkbike.com

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Facebook bans 22 more Alex Jones-linked Pages as it implements a new policy update, after finding admins repurposing old Pages with content from banned Pages — The company says it's cracking down on people gaming the system — Facebook today removed 22 pages associated …

Discussion: Recode, The Hill, @oliverdarcy, CNN, Engadget and The Daily Caller, more at Techmeme »

Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times:

Around one-third of the content published by Bloomberg News uses some form of automated technology, with more news outlets beginning to rely on AI — As reporters and editors find themselves the victims of layoffs at digital publishers and traditional newspaper chains alike, journalism generated by machine is on the rise.

Discussion: @lisagibbs954, @ap_corpcomm, @amlwhere, @fpmarconi, @sigalsamuel and Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Thanks:@steverubel

Nick Martin / Splinter:

How Time Warner executive pay soared as staff was cut while William Barr, Trump's nominee to be attorney general, chaired the board compensation committee — When William Barr, Donald Trump's nominee to be the next attorney general, chaired the compensation committee on Time Warner's corporate board …

Discussion: @bridgeproject21 and @patdennis

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Researchers at Medill Local News Initiative analyzed 13TB of subscriber data from local papers, found high correlation between regular reading and sub retention — Hey, local newspapers: Want to try to predict which of your subscribers are going to stick with you — and keep paying — no matter what?

Discussion: Local News Initiative, @dabeard and @janebsinger

Columbia Journalism Review:

French investigative news site Mediapart faced an attempted raid without a warrant from prosecutors who work for Emmanuel Macron — On the morning of February 4, staff members at Mediapart, the French independent investigative website, were just finishing an editorial meeting when the bell to their office rang.

Discussion: Committee to Protect …

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Jon Levine / The Wrap:
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Kevin Draper / New York Times:
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From Techmeme:

Thomas Barrabi / New York Post:
Google fires 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the company's New York and Sunnyvale offices to protest its business ties with Israel

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Europol, law enforcement in 19 countries, Microsoft, and others disrupt phishing-as-a-service platform LabHost in a year-long operation and make 37 arrests

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
The US CFPB fines BloomTech, formerly Lambda School, and CEO Austen Allred $164K and bans BloomTech from lending for 10 years over deceiving students on loans

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