Top News:
Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
New Mexico prosecutors charge Alec Baldwin and the armorer of the movie “Rust” with involuntary manslaughter for cinematographer Halyna Hutchins's on-set death — New Mexico prosecutors said they are filing felony criminal charges against actor Alec Baldwin and the armorer …
Discussion:
Variety, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC, Mediaite, The Hill, Forbes, The Wrap, Deadline, Bloomberg, Screen Rant, Albuquerque Journal, Washington Post, New York Daily News, New York Post, TMZ.com, Vanity Fair, Insider, Fox News, NPR, CNBC, Daily Mail, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, @latimes, Semafor, Page Six, CBR, The A.V. Club, abc7NY, Boing Boing and Associated Press
Wall Street Journal:
Nexstar reaches a multiyear deal to broadcast the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour on The CW Network; so far, LIV events have been available online free — Partnership will determine the Saudi-funded golf tour's financial viability — LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-funded golf tour that launched …
Discussion:
Screen Rant, Awful Announcing, MediaPost, The Hill, The Streamable, Nexstar Media Group, Inc., Forbes, TVLine, Bloomberg, UPI, Front Office Sports, @tvgrimreaper, Deadline, @jbflint, Radio & Television …, @joshacarpenter, Los Angeles Times, @rynedennis, @brendon_wm, @jyarow, The Hollywood Reporter, Sports Illustrated and Mediaite
Financial Times:
Patreon, Substack, and other “passion economy” startups are laying off staff and abandoning fundraising plans; Dealroom: investment fell 75% to $801M in 2022 — Once high-flying start-ups that serve online creators and influencers have been forced into a painful retrenchment …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Wikimedia launches an updated Wikipedia design, including improved search and accessibility, a refreshed table of contents, and easier language switching — Wikipedia, one of the world's top 10 most visited websites, and a resource used by billions every month, is getting its first makeover on the desktop in over a decade.
Discussion:
Wikimedia Foundation, OnlyTech, Fast Company, Slate and The Indian Express, more at Techmeme »
Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap:
FilmLA: Los Angeles film, TV, and commercial shooting days fell 19.5% from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022; commercials for the year were 24.5% below their five-year average — The newest quarterly report on Los Angeles on-location shooting from FilmLA shows a sharp downturn in shoot days in the final quarter of 2022 …
Discussion:
Variety, FilmLA, Los Angeles Times, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Filing: Dish has 9.75M pay-TV subscribers in total in Q4 2022 and 2.33M Sling TV subscribers, down from 2.41M in Q3 and the same as its 2018 subscriber level — Sling TV, the DISH-owned streaming service, finished the year off with a substantial drop in subscribers, ending Q4 2022 with a loss of 77,000 subs.
Discussion:
The Streamable
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
The BBC's US head of digital journalism, Saeed Ahmed, quits after four months, raising concerns about the BBC's international and domestic news channels merger — EXCLUSIVE: The BBC's head of digital journalism has quit after just four months, prompting further anxiety about the UK broadcaster's plans …
Discussion:
@jake_kanter
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Amazon and DAZN sign a global distribution partnership which will make DAZN available as a Prime Video Channel for an additional fee for Prime Video customers — Amazon and DAZN have signed a global distribution partnership that will see DAZN's direct-to-consumer sports streaming service available as a Prime Video Channel.
Discussion:
Broadband TV News
Wall Street Journal:
Antenna: Amazon's music subscription market share fell from 21% in January 2022 to 17% in November 2022, when it introduced restrictions to listening on demand — Bigger song catalog brings less choice for some; ‘a lot of cussing’ — Dustin Bingham loves to play music when he cooks.
Discussion:
@shiraovide and @sebasaherrera
Rich Johnston / Bleeding Cool:
Amazon's layoffs are heavily impacting digital comic book publisher and distributor ComiXology, acquired in 2014, with reports of up to 50% of staff leaving — ComiXology staffers are reporting widescale redundancies today across the digital comics publisher and distributor, as well as its parent company, Amazon.
Discussion:
@uzionmain, @stuartmwilke, @robertsecundus, @henereyg, @johnnystorm0, @bclevinger, @cocktailsandink, @jrome58, @chasemagnett, @stonemtn, @cocktailsandink, @popversesays, CBR, @zackdavisson and @jongraywb
William Turvill / Press Gazette:
The UK's Sunday Times promotes deputy editor Ben Taylor to editor, replacing Emma Tucker, who was named editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal — Ben Taylor has been named as the new editor of The Sunday Times, stepping up to replace Wall Street Journal-bound Emma Tucker.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News, @jamesrbuk, News UK and FIPP
Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal:
CoinDesk retains Lazard investment bankers to help the outlet explore its options, including a partial or full sale, after “numerous” indications of interest — The company has ‘received numerous inbound indications of interest,’ CEO Kevin Worth said. — 1x
Discussion:
CNBC, Observer, @wublockchain, Cointelegraph, @ap_abacus, Insider, MediaPost, Talking Biz News and The Block, more at Techmeme »