Top News:
New York Times:
Katty Kay, a former BBC anchor who recently joined Ozy, resigns, citing NYT's reporting on the company — The embattled digital media company Ozy lost one of its biggest stars on Wednesday, when Katty Kay, a former BBC anchor, announced on Twitter that she had resigned.
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Axios:
Sources: in an extremely rare move, SV Angel, led by VC Ron Conway, informed Ozy that it will give up stock acquired in 2012 — One of OZY Media's earliest investors has surrendered its shares in the beleaguered company, Axios has learned. — Driving the news: SV Angel …
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Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Ozy brands itself as identifying people who will be famous and influential ahead of other outlets, but a close examination shows the claim is untrue — Does the site's “signature ahead-of-the-curve coverage” really uncover “the new, the next, rising stars, new trends, that kind of stuff”?
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Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Ozy Media's board of directors has hired a law firm to review the company's business practices and has asked COO Samir Rao to take a leave of absence — Board said it asked COO Samir Rao to take leave of absence during investigation — The board of directors of online news magazine Ozy Media …
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Jemima McEvoy / Forbes:
Sources detail how 2019's Ozy Fest would have exposed Ozy's untruths, before it was canceled due to a heatwave and gave the company a large insurance windfall
Sources detail how 2019's Ozy Fest would have exposed Ozy's untruths, before it was canceled due to a heatwave and gave the company a large insurance windfall
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Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
CNN restricts access to its Facebook Pages in Australia after a ruling that makes news organizations legally liable for comments on their Facebook posts — Company said it wants to avoid liability for user comments following Australian court ruling — CNN said it has restricted access …
K.J. Yossman / Variety:
Amazon launches its ad-supported IMDb TV streaming service in the UK, three years after launching in the US — Amazon has launched ad-based streaming service IMDb TV in the U.K. with a selection of original and licensed content. — IMDb TV — a spin-off from the entertainment industry database IMDb …
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Sportico, The Streamable, FierceVideo, Cord Cutters News and VideoWeek
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Netflix acquires its first game studio, Night School Studio, which was founded by Sean Krankel and Adam Hines in 2014 and is best known for the game Oxenfree — A new GamesBeat event is around the corner! Learn more about what comes next. — Netflix has acquired its first game studio …
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Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
YouTube says it is banning prominent anti-vaccine activists, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and blocking all anti-vax content, not just about COVID-19 vaccines — The Google-owned video site previously only banned misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Facebook made the same change months ago.
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Rachel Pannett / Washington Post:
Russia threatens to block YouTube unless it restores two RT German-language channels banned for COVID-19 misinformation — Russia has threatened to block YouTube unless the Google-owned video service restores two German-language channels managed by Russia's state media company RT that were deleted …
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Deadline:
CNN leads the News & Documentary Emmys with seven awards, as Vice News wins for outstanding newscast and Jonathan Swan wins for his Trump interview — CNN led winners on Night 1 of The News and Documentary Emmy Awards, as it did last year—nabbing seven statuettes, as Vice News Tonight claimed a new award for outstanding newscast.
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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook is rolling out Reels to all US mobile users, after launching a beta last month, and announces a Reels Play bonus program for creators — After launching into beta tests just last month, Facebook today is rolling out Reels to all Facebook users in the U.S. on both iOS and Android.
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Robert Feder:
Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Public Media confirm talks to “become a combined entity” — Top executives of the Chicago Sun-Times and the parent company of public radio station WBEZ 91.5-FM confirmed a report here Wednesday that talks are underway on a partnership agreement between the two organizations.
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