The news media thread

[Rewind]

Nobody seems to know exactly what NewTV's plans are. The Los Angeles Times quoted Whitman as saying the new company will apply Hollywood's high production values to "bite-sized digital videos" to attract younger smartphone users. I don't think she meant "bite-sized" to be a pun relating to "digital" -- but it turned out that way.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman will run Jeffrey Katzenberg's new mobile content production company NewTV

http://www.variety.com/2018/digital/...re-1202674576/

[Rewind]

Instead of asking the men to take a pay cut, why couldn't the BBC have raised the women's pay? Huh? Huh?

Several BBC male journalists agree to pay cut after revelations of a gender divide in salaries

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/entertai...ists-1.4505410

[Rewind]

Last week, Newsweek Media Group's chairman and finance manager both resigned. Today, two editors and two reporters were fired and a senior writer resigned in protest. The company released a statement saying they do not comment on "personnel changes." Oh, is that what you call it?

Newsweek fires its top two editors and two senior reporters

http://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverm...Vw#.dyb5mJWQZt

[Rewind]

The Times was owned by the same family from 1884 until 2000 when the paper was sold to the Tribune company in Chicago. Ownership will once again be local. Patrick Soon-Shiong, born in South Africa to Chinese parents, is a former doctor who now lives in Los Angeles and owns several medical research companies. Forbes estimates his wealth at $7.8 billion.

Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong reaches deal to buy Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...207-story.html

[Rewind]

Have you noticed that any time a company announces a "restructuring," they're eliminating jobs, never adding jobs? "Restructuring" is a euphemism for "firings" and "dismissals."

CNN to lay off dozens of employees in digital unit
The Wrap, Feb 13 2018 8:57 AM

Even CNN can’t escape the growing pains of online media, with the cable-news giant planning to cut several dozen digital jobs. CNN said the cuts are part of a "restructuring," with some of the employees being moved into new roles. The cuts are expected later this week. Despite enjoying a "Trump bump" in the last two years, CNN has still had a difficult time calibrating its digital strategy. Just last month, CNN pulled the plug on Beme, its video-sharing app it paid $25 million for in late 2016. Although CNN pulled in $370 million last year, the company still fell short of revenue projections.

https://www.aol.com/article/finance/...unit/23360324/

[Rewind]

Russian trolls and hackers meddled in the 2016 Presidential election and there is no reason to think they will not interfere in this year's midterm elections. By publicizing the details of the Russians' fake accounts, publishing their inflammatory rabble-rousing tweets and warning that it could happen again, NBC News is helping to preserve our democracy.

NBC News publishes 200,000 tweets tied to Russian trolls
The Hill, Feb 14 2018 9:08 AM

NBC News today published thousands of tweets created by Russian troll accounts during the 2016 presidential race that were deleted by Twitter after the company tied them to "malicious activity." A database published on NBC's website of more than 200,000 tweets shows Russian attempts to pose as political activists on both sides of the spectrum, with influential accounts masquerading as Black Lives Matter activists and even the Tennessee Republican Party. The hundreds of thousands of tweets ranged from inflammatory subjects such as allegations of Democrats practicing witchcraft and radical anti-police rhetoric to more benign messages, such as praise for former first lady Michelle Obama.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned that Russia would pursue similar tactics in the 2018 midterm elections if not confronted by the U.S. "There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations," Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. "We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false flag personas, sympathetic spokesmen and other means of influence to try to build on its wide range of operations and exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States. Frankly, the United States is under attack."

Last year, Twitter handed the usernames of thousands of Russian-linked accounts to Congress and deleted the accounts and their messages from the platform. NBC News subsequently recovered the deleted tweets with help from three sources "familiar with Twitter's data systems." The accounts are linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency, a "troll farm" that purchased $100,000 in political ads on Facebook through fake accounts during the 2016 race.

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecur...russian-trolls

[Rewind]

I predict the first customer will be Donald Trump.

Fox News to launch Fox Nation subscription-based streaming service targeted at 'superfans'

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ervice-1086472

[Rewind]

She succeeds John Dickerson, who now co-hosts CBS This Morning.

CBS News names Margaret Brennan anchor of Face The Nation

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...nation-1087356

[Rewind]

The new sports network is available on CBSsports.com and the CBS Sports app for Android, Roku, Apple TV and other platforms.......and it's free! Yay!

CBS launches CBS Sports HQ, a 24/7 streaming network for sports news, highlights and analysis

http://www.cbssports.com/general/new...-and-analysis/

[Rewind]

Mike Gerson and Amy Holmes will host. The goal of the program is to have people talking to each other, not shouting at each other. Good luck with that!

PBS to launch new conservative political talk show In Principle April 13

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/t...-13/381954002/