Mediagazer: Lobbyists for major companies and trade groups covered by DC-based Punchbowl News attended a Washington Football Team game as guests in the outlet's skybox (Alexander Sammon/American Prospect)

12:15 PM ET, December 16, 2021

Top News:

Andy Greene / Rolling Stone:

Billboard report: Bruce Springsteen sells his publishing catalog to Sony Music and Sony Music Publishing for $500M — Bruce Springsteen has sold his publishing catalog to Sony for a reported $500 million, as Billboard reports. — The musician has sold his masters to Sony Music …

Washington Post:

NYT has now been restrained for 28 days in its Project Veritas reporting, 14 more than for Pentagon Papers, despite judge's clarification giving it more leeway — Stephen J. Adler, who recently retired as editor in chief of Reuters, is chairman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press …

Discussion: New York Times, @nytimesbusiness, @bgrueskin, @joannelipman, @frates and Raw Story

Han Zhang / The Guardian:

Profile of Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid dubbed “China's Fox News”, as he becomes China's most famous propagandist on Twitter — Hu Xijin is China's most famous propagandist. At the Global Times, he helped establish a chest-thumping new tone …

Discussion: Fortune, @tknoll209k, Agence France-Presse, @jgriffiths, @amonck and @williamyang120

David Stanway / Reuters:

Hu Xijin announces his retirement as editor-in-chief of Global Times, which is published by CCP outlet People's Daily, but will stay on as a commentator — Hu Xijin, a prolific commentator who is China's best-known propagandist on the global stage, has announced his retirement as editor …

Discussion: New York Times and Techdirt

Reddit:

Reddit confidentially files its S-1 with the SEC for an IPO; the number of shares to be offered and the price range have yet to be determined — Reddit, Inc. today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission …

Discussion: Adweek, MediaPost, @reddit, Variety, @mathowie, The Register, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Fast Company, @mikeisaac, @hoctopi, @jebus911, @noondlyt, @carnage4life, Insider, Protocol, iMore, CoinDesk, The Verge and Futureprotech, more at Techmeme »

Garett Sloane / Ad Age:

Ad exchange OpenX agrees to pay $2M to settle FTC claims it collected data from children and users who chose not to be tracked; OpenX says it was unintentional — Regulatory action puts spotlight on real-time internet ad markets, data sharing and children's privacy

Discussion: MediaPost, TechCrunch, TheXchange, Federal Trade Commission, @lmoses and @garettsloane

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Spotify rolls out a five-star ratings system for podcasts that will only let users rate a show after listening — Spotify is borrowing a page from rival Apple with the addition of a five-star user ratings system for podcasts — a new tool for sorting through the more than 3.2 million podcast titles …

Discussion: CNET, Spotify, Word of Mouth, The Verge, Engadget, Futureprotech, Spotify for Podcasters, @ashleyrcarman, @anchor and Tubefilter, more at Techmeme »

Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:

Talent agency UTA says it has acquired marketing and media consulting firm MediaLink, whose clients include NBCU, AT&T, and Unilever, for $125M — The Hollywood talent firm is buying the influential media consulting company as UTA seeks to grow its burgeoning marketing practice

Discussion: Ad Age, The Wrap, MediaPost, Variety, @megancgraham, @joshsternberg, Deadline and Los Angeles Times

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Alden sues Lee Enterprises, arguing Lee's board infringed company bylaws by denying Alden's request to nominate three board members due to paperwork issues — Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund known for consolidating local news companies for profit, is suing local newspaper company Lee Enterprises …

Discussion: Washington Post, Poynter and Pew Research Center

Alistair Gray / Financial Times:

Lord Rothermere secures enough shareholder votes to take Daily Mail and General Trust private at an £885M valuation — Great grandson of newspaper's founder wins enough shareholder support for takeover bid — Lord Rothermere has succeeded in his attempt to put the publisher …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Alexander Sammon / American Prospect:

Lobbyists for major companies and trade groups covered by DC-based Punchbowl News attended a Washington Football Team game as guests in the outlet's skybox — Where hosting a confab for lobbyists meets journalistic ethics — On Sunday afternoon, the Washington Football Team lost to the Dallas Cowboys …

Discussion: @drvolts, @bendreyfuss, @coreyhutchins, @theprospect, @alex_sammon, @davidsirota, @ddayen, @andrewperezdc, @theprospect, @ddayen and @froomkin

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:

TikTok is testing TikTok Live Studio, a Windows app that lets users stream directly to TikTok Live from their computer — What if instead of watching your favorite TikTok star stream on Twitch, you could watch them play video games live on TikTok? For the last few days, according to the platform …

Discussion: BetaNews, Futureprotech, @joshconstine, @bdsams, The Verge, PCMag UK and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

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Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
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Joe Easton / Bloomberg:
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Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
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Politico:
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Exploring the scaling challenges of transformer-based LLMs in efficiently processing large amounts of text, as well as potential solutions, such as RAG systems

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