Mediagazer: Universal Music Group sues Triller, alleging the short-form video app has not paid its invoices for the past nine months, violating their licensing agreement (Gene Maddaus/Variety)

8:00 PM ET, January 5, 2023

Top News:

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

Pop-Up Magazine shuts down after hosting live storytelling shows since its 2009 launch, citing the pandemic and economic downturn and affecting 18+ employees — The live events publisher explored a sale or investment prior to closing — The live performance publisher Pop-Up Magazine …

Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal:

Vince McMahon plans to return to WWE to pursue a sale of the business, after retiring as CEO and chairman in July 2022 amid sexual misconduct claims against him — Vince McMahon, the majority owner and former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., WWE 2.26%increase …

Dave Biscobing / ABC15:

After The Wall Street Journal asked for a review, Phoenix police investigate an officer handcuffing and detaining WSJ reporter Dion Rabouin in November 2022 — PHOENIX — The Wall Street Journal is demanding the Phoenix Police Department conduct an internal review and take action …

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Facebook dropped plans to heavily demote content on politics and sensitive topics, after views for “high quality news publishers” fell, and more — Hitting mute button on political content recommendations brought unintended consequences

Discussion: @keachhagey, @jason_kint, @emilyglazer, @mattzeitlin, @wexler, @justinhendrix, @reaganbrad, @mattnavarra and @jeffhorwitz, more at Techmeme »

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Universal Music Group sues Triller, alleging the short-form video app has not paid its invoices for the past nine months, violating their licensing agreement — Universal Music Group sued Triller on Thursday, alleging that the video-sharing app has failed to make payments for the last nine months …

Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:

The New York Times has yet to hire a media columnist, a year after Ben Smith left; sources: the NYT has talked to Sarah Ellison, Brian Stelter, and Dylan Byers — One of the highest perches in the industry has been vacant for a year, leaving journalists inside and outside the paper puzzled about management's lack of urgency.

Discussion: @charlottetklein, @spj_tweets, @nbj914, @joshgerstein and @vanityfair

Leyland Cecco / The Guardian:

Apple quietly launches a catalog of books narrated by AI on its Books app, in a move that publishers, authors, and agents warn may upend the audiobook market — Exclusive: tech firm quietly launches new audiobook catalogue narrated by AI - but move expected to spark backlash

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:

Google says Android TV OS, the underlying platform for Google TV and Android TV, now has 150M monthly active devices, up 36%+ YoY — At CES 2023 this week Google is sharing an update on how many devices are now using Google TV and Android TV, with 150 million devices in the hands of users.

Wayne Friedman / MediaPost:

iSpot.tv: in 2022, US TV ad impressions fell 3.5% YoY to 8T and TV ad spend grew 6.1% YoY to $45.36B; CBS had the greatest share of TV ad impressions at 14.55% — Total TV advertising impressions in 2022 from linear, streaming and local programming were down 3.5% versus the year before to 8.0 trillion, according to iSpot.tv.

Discussion: Next TV and TVNewsCheck

Erin Woo / The Information:

Source: Twitter laid off ~40 ad optimization data scientists and engineers, as the company targets areas that leadership considers to be failing or unimportant — Twitter laid off about 40 data scientists and engineers working on advertising late Wednesday night in what amounted to at least …

Discussion: Fortune, Adweek, Gizmodo, @amir, @jason_kint, @willoremus, @erinkwoo, @jeffnesbit, The Wrap and Insider, more at Techmeme »

J. Clara Chan / The Hollywood Reporter:

TikTok plans to license IMDb data to let US and UK users tag movies and TV shows and access an in-app page with more information, like the cast and release date — Users will be able to tag a specific work and have access to a dedicated in-app page with relevant information about the title …

Discussion: Amazon, Engadget, Adweek, TechCrunch, Tubefilter, @tiktokcomms, @discussingfilm, @manofbeskar, BGR and IndieWire

Financial Times:

The UK government confirms dropping its privatization plans for Channel 4, opting instead for reforms to preserve the broadcaster's financial sustainability — Whitehall rejects privatisation in favour of reforms to preserve broadcaster's financial sustainability

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