Top News:
Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Comcast plans to announce Wednesday that it will be spinning off its NBCUniversal cable TV networks including MSNBC and CNBC, with Mark Lazarus as CEO — New venture will house channels like E!, USA and MSNBC; company to announce several leadership changes
Discussion:
Axios, Bloomberg, Status, Awful Announcing, Financial Times, Benzinga, Reuters, Ad Age, NBC News, @brianstelter, The Information, CNBC, @great_katzby, @amolsharma.bsky.social, The Desk, Matthew Keys on LinkedIn, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn, @sallyshin, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, Variety, @asharma, @tvgrimreaper, @asharma, CNN, @amolsharma.bsky.social, Cord Cutters News, The Hollywood Reporter, @asharma, Deadline, Business Insider, The Hill, Media Play News and TVNewsCheck
Kanis Leung / Associated Press:
Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai testifies for the first time in his years-long national security trial; he is already serving a jail term for a fraud conviction — Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai began testifying Wednesday in his landmark national security trial that is widely seen …
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
The Economist, The Week, ITV News, and others have joined Bluesky in the past week, while Politico, Semafor, Tortoise have resumed their activity on the site — A wave of news publishers have arrived on Bluesky in recent days, following audiences and journalists departing X/Twitter.
Discussion:
@johnspurlock.com
RELATED:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bluesky has 20M+ users after hitting 15M on November 13, and according to Appfigures, has been #1 in the US App Store since November 13 — Bluesky, the social network and X competitor has been benefiting from a surge of departures from the Elon Musk-owned app formerly known as Twitter.
Discussion:
Engadget, The Hollywood Reporter, Similarweb, @randfish.bsky.social, @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social, Washington Times, @tkaz99.bsky.social, @gordonshorten.bsky.social, @Tibor@mastodon.social, @jaz.bsky.social, @aarnegranlund.bsky.social, @bryanruby.com, @mosseri@threads.net, @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social, @willoremus@threads.net, @lif3asmaj.bsky.social, @henrymance.bsky.social, @timboard.bsky.social, @nachristakis.bsky.social, @evankirstel.bsky.social, @johnspurlock.com, @conorsen.bsky.social, @jay.bsky.team, @o.simardcasanova.net, @keithedwards.bsky.social, @oremus.bsky.social, theJasmineBRAND, @paleofuture.bsky.social, The Irish Times, Business Insider, Forbes and CNET, more at Techmeme »
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Brendan Carr says Trump's complaint over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris is “likely to arise” in the FCC's review of the Skydance-Paramount deal — In an interview with Fox News' America's Newsroom, Carr said, “Broadcasters are differently situated to other speakers.
Discussion:
Fox News, The Daily Beast, New York Post, Bloomberg, Mediaite, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, TVNewsCheck and Radio & Television …
Sean Burch / The Wrap:
In a statement, Jay Penske says The Hollywood Reporter has replaced co-EIC Nekesa Mumbi Moody with Shirley Halperin, following staff cuts in June and August — Halperin recently resigned as editor of Los Angeles Magazine — The Hollywood Reporter replaced co-editor in chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody …
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters and Talking Biz News
New York Times:
Filings: The Onion's Infowars bid was $7M, including backing from Sandy Hook families and $1.75M in cash; Alex Jones-linked First United's bid was $3.5M in cash — A hearing is scheduled for Monday to review the auction process, which is being contested by a losing bidder associated with Alex Jones, the Infowars founder.
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Breitbart, @benmullin.bsky.social, Politico and Business Insider
RELATED:
Aaron Katersky / ABC News:
Filing: Alex Jones asks a judge to halt the sale of Infowars; a company affiliated with him, which was the losing bidder, seeks to disqualify The Onion's bid
Filing: Alex Jones asks a judge to halt the sale of Infowars; a company affiliated with him, which was the losing bidder, seeks to disqualify The Onion's bid
Discussion:
@benmullin, NPR, Raw Story, Austin American-Statesman, The Desk, @passantino@threads.net, CNN, Bloomberg Law, Associated Press, Reuters and New Republic
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Trump Media has a ~$7B market cap despite struggling to build a profitable revenue stream; Similarweb: Truth Social site visits fell 20% MoM to 10M in October — Trump Media & Technology Group's revenue and share price have sagged as its losses have piled up.
Discussion:
@meyer_hm, @coffeephilosoph, @washingtonpost, @drewharwell, @drewharwell, @drewharwell, Mediaite and Lawyers, Guns & Money, more at Techmeme »
Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
A profile of The Green Line, a Toronto-based local news site that combines traditional reporting, community events, and solutions and action — The Green Line combines events, explainers, and solutions to appeal to young Torontonians. — Toronto-based local news site The Green Line …
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
A lawsuit against Netflix and Meta claims the two made a deal where Meta scaled back original video programming in trade for Netflix data and ad spending — The proposed class action points to Meta's streaming ambitions with Facebook Watch, whose original programming division shuttered last year.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Spines, an AI-powered self-publishing service for book authors that provides suggestions on edits, cover design, more, raised a $16M Series A after a $6.5M seed — Generative AI has upended how we write things, or even if we write at all. Now a startup wants to be the main character …
Discussion:
Michael Eisenberg on LinkedIn, Oren Zeev on LinkedIn and Spines
Bloomberg:
Source: Microsoft signs a deal with News Corp's HarperCollins to use nonfiction titles to train an unannounced AI model; HarperCollins says authors can opt out — - Nonfiction books will be used for training AI models — AI companies and publishers have butted heads in lawsuits
Discussion:
MEDIANAMA, The Information, @tylerking.bsky.social, @uwestenderphd.bsky.social, The Bookseller, @felixgillette.bsky.social, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, @samleecole.bsky.social, @kagan@wandering.shop, Music Ally, @nicolap.bsky.social, @amykristinsanders.bsky.social, The Verge, @tylerking.bsky.social, @adrienneleigh.bsky.social, @parodius.bsky.social, Library Journal infoDOCKET and BGR, more at Techmeme »