Top 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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Bloomberg:
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:
Reuters, @grdecter, @timoruohomaki, @alistairmbarr, @ianbremmer, @tanayj, @chrisjbakke, @tomgara, @alexjc, @growing_daniel, @thestalwart, Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, @kerrymflynn and CBS News
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:
@michaelluo, @dabeard, @harrispolitico, @claremalone, @newyorker, @genepark, @brianmfloyd and @_cingraham
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 …
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, @steipete, @bmorrissey and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »
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 — Dotdash Meredith, one of the largest print and digital publishers in the country, is laying off 274 people, roughly 7% of its staff …
Discussion:
@parkermolloy, @elieraine, Quartz, @simonowens, @jeffjarvis, @petersterne, The Hollywood Reporter, MediaPost, CNN, The Wrap, New York Times, Variety and Observer, Thanks:@petersterne
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:
@sarafischer, @lachlan, @lachlan and @annalecta
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
NBCU reports Q4 revenue rose 5.9% YoY to $9.89B as EBITDA fell 36.3% YoY to $817M; Peacock had 20M+ paid subscribers and its EBITDA loss grew 75% YoY to $978M — Parent company Comcast reported its broadband and pay TV subscriber figures for the latest period.
Discussion:
Variety, Seeking Alpha, MediaPost, The Desk, @carlquintanilla, @tvgrimreaper, @thr, CBR, IndieWire, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, The Streamable, Deadline and Media Play News
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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, The Information, Next TV, Awful Announcing, Adweek and TVNewsCheck
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:
@berci, @jcreswellbaez, @mmitchell_ai, @jjvincent, @mkmasud_bd, @altustro, @altustro and @iethics
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 …
Meduza.io:
Russia designates Meduza an illegal, “undesirable organization”, meaning anyone who “cooperates” with the outlet, including sources, can face felony prosecution — The Russian Prosecutor General's Office designated Meduza as an illegal, “undesirable organization” on Thursday, January 26.
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 — Nielsen's year-end rankings put the Netflix hit head and shoulders above every other title. — One of Netflix's biggest shows ever is …
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
The New York Times launched its flagship TikTok account on January 24, after creating specialized accounts including for NYT Cooking and the Hard Fork podcast — On March 21, 2007, The New York Times announced itself on Twitter: “Word up! It is I, the Gray Lady, with a ‘shoutout’ to all my hip young friends.
Discussion:
@ylichterman and @arjunbasu
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