Mediagazer: Sources question The Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan's strategy, after top executives left in 2022, union distrust grew, and layoffs hit beside new job postings (Clare Malone/New Yorker)

1:10 PM ET, January 27, 2023

Top News:

BuzzFeed stock jumped 120% on Thursday, taking its market value to nearly $300M, its biggest gain since going public in December 2021, on its OpenAI news — BuzzFeed Inc. shares surged by a record on news that the digital-media company plans to use OpenAI to bolster some of its content creation.

Discussion: @grdecter, Insider, Reuters, @tomgara, @alexjc, @alistairmbarr, @timoruohomaki, @ianbremmer, @growing_daniel, @chrisjbakke, @tanayj, @thestalwart, @kerrymflynn, The Hollywood Reporter, Insider, Observer and CBS News

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Memo: BuzzFeed plans to rely on OpenAI to enhance quizzes and personalize content; a spokeswoman says the newsroom remains focused on human-generated journalism — CEO Jonah Peretti intends for artificial intelligence to play a larger role in the company this year — Cheating With ChatGPT: Can an AI Chatbot Pass AP Lit?

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Clare Malone / New Yorker:

Sources question The Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan's strategy, after top executives left in 2022, union distrust grew, and layoffs hit beside new job postings — After a decade of growth, the paper is laying off staff and was reportedly on track to lose money last year.

Discussion: Media Nation, @awprokop, Poynter, @dabeard, @kemettler, @mlcalderone, @newyorker, @brianmfloyd, @_cingraham, @claremalone, @michaelluo, @harrispolitico and @genepark

Josh Taylor / The Guardian:

Australia's competition authority announces an investigation into 100+ influencers after receiving tip-offs they weren't disclosing sponsored content — Consumer watchdog received over 150 tip-offs about influencers who reportedly failed to disclose affiliations with products they were promoting

Discussion: Glossy, Reuters, Mumbrella, Sydney Morning Herald and Bloomberg

Jennifer Schuessler / New York Times:

The New York Public Library acquires the joint personal literary archives of Joan Didion and John Dunne, which include manuscripts, notes, letters, and photos — The joint archive of Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, includes manuscripts, photographs, letters, dinner party guest lists and other personal items.

Discussion: @nypl, @meganeabbott and @crollyson

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:

Despite some big deals signed at the Sundance Film Festival, movie buyers are being much more selective in 2023, as theater audiences and content budgets shrink — The kind of independent movies that the festival showcases have struggled at the box office, spurring worries about what the market would be like this year.

Discussion: @nytimestech

Scott Lamb / Medium:

Medium updates its standards to welcome “the responsible use” of AI-assistive technology and to require stories created with AI assistance to be clearly labeled — Transparency, disclosure, and publication-level guidelines — Last month, we asked the Medium community …

Discussion: The Verge, @bmorrissey, @steipete and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

James Vincent / The Verge:

Springer Nature, the world's largest academic publisher, doesn't let LLMs like ChatGPT be credited as an author but allows AI to help write papers, if disclosed — Springer Nature, the world's largest academic publisher, has clarified its policies on the use of AI writing tools in scientific papers.

Discussion: @mkmasud_bd, @altustro, @altustro, @berci, @iethics, @mmitchell_ai, @jjvincent and @jcreswellbaez, more at Techmeme »

Anne Kauranen / Reuters:

A Finnish court finds two journalists at Finland's largest daily guilty of revealing classified intelligence in a 2017 report, sentencing one to pay a fine — A Finnish court on Friday said two journalists at Finland's largest daily Helsingin Sanomat were found guilty of revealing classified …

Discussion: Reuters, Reporters Without Borders, Fox News and Al Jazeera

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Charter reports a loss of 144K pay-TV subscribers in Q4 2022, compared with a 58K loss in the year prior, ending 2022 with a total of over 15.1M subscribers — The cable giant's mobile business continued to accelerate as the company added 615,000 mobile lines.

Discussion: Next TV, MediaPost, The Wrap, Light Reading, @tvgrimreaper, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News

Lachlan Markay / Axios:

Former employees of Russia-backed broadcaster RT America take over its former Washington, DC studios and ramp up GlobalTek, a media venture formed in April 2022 — Former employees of Russian propaganda broadcaster RT America have taken over its old studios in downtown D.C. and are ramping up a new media venture, Axios has learned.

Discussion: @annalecta, @lachlan, @sarafischer and @lachlan

Dessi Gomez / The Wrap:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences partners with Letterboxd, a film-focused social network that has 8M members, ahead of the Oscars on March 12 — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched a partnership with Letterboxd, the growing social network …

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Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen's most-streamed titles on US TVs in 2022: Stranger Things, followed by NCIS, CoComelon, Ozark, and Encanto; streaming content consumption rose ~27% YoY

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
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Kareem Shaheen / New Lines Magazine:
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Washington Post:
After layoffs, The Washington Post adds seven contributors to its opinion section and two visual team members to present content in “new and compelling formats”

Discussion: @ggreeneva, @mattyglesias, @froomkin, @speechboy71, @csymrl, @mcbyrne, @will_bunch, @jonahdispatch, @aghamilton29, @bradfordpearson and @rameshponnuru

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Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Comcast and NBCUniversal executives expect Peacock's EBITDA losses to peak in 2023 at “around $3B” and “improve steadily from there”; Peacock lost $2.5B in 2022

Discussion: The Wrap, @tvgrimreaper, @loudmouthjulia, @richlightshed, CBR, The Information, Awful Announcing, Next TV, Adweek, TVNewsCheck, TechCrunch, Deadline, Media Play News and The Hollywood Reporter

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Lucia Moses / Insider:
Bloomberg plans to hire 1,000 staff in 2023, some for its news arm, and form a team to improve the Bloomberg Terminal's user experience and news discoverability

Discussion: @lmoses and @mediaevan

Sara Fischer / Axios:
In a memo to staff, Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel announces layoffs affecting 274 people, or ~7% of the outlet's workforce, across nearly all departments

Discussion: American Press Institute, Insider, Press Gazette, @parkermolloy, @elieraine, @simonowens, @jeffjarvis, @petersterne, Quartz, The Hollywood Reporter, MediaPost, CNN, The Wrap, New York Times, Variety and Observer, Thanks:@petersterne

Axios:
Meta plans to reinstate Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks with “new guardrails to deter repeat offenses”, after a two-year ban

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