Top News:
CNN:
The White House says Biden's pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox is still off, after Fox said its streaming service Fox Soul would interview him, in an about-face — Hours after the White House said Fox had called off its pre-Super Bowl interview with President Joe Biden, the network said the president was still welcome.
Discussion:
@presssec, Variety, Politico, The Daily Beast, The Week, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, The Comeback, New York Times, @grynbaum, Washington Post, Deadline, Next TV, @variety, @tommyxtopher, @zigmanfreud, TVNewser, @oliverdarcy, @anniekarni, @megynkelly, @reploudermilk, The Sussex County Informer, Newser, @oliverdarcy, The Hill, @jeremymbarr, @vincecoglianese, @nycsouthpaw, @tommyxtopher, @isaiah_bb, @claytravis, @tommyxtopher, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy, @geoffpilkington, @blanchardjrb, @ltthompso, @pettylupone, @rossalincoln, ABC News, @variety, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, SheKnows, TVLine, The Hill, New York Daily News, Forbes, IndieWire, Mediaite, Bloomberg, New York Post, Insider, The Wrap, Awful Announcing and CNN
Charlotte Van Campenhout / Reuters:
An advertising joint venture by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone to rival Meta and Google wins unconditional EU antitrust approval — Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Orange (ORAN.PA), Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Vodafone (VOD.L) on Friday secured unconditional EU antitrust approval …
Discussion:
European Commission, @astaniscia86, @robertjbateman, @wolfiechristl, Newsroom Orange Groupe and Adweek, more at Techmeme »
Louise Matsakis / Semafor:
Sources: TikTok's Internal Audit team that spied on journalists had wide investigative powers with little oversight; ByteDance says it's restructuring the team — TikTok's hyper-aggressive internal security team drew a wave of complaints from employees before its conduct exploded …
Discussion:
@dlberes, @jason_koebler, WUFT News, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @semafor, @semafor, @reedalbergotti, Tubefilter, Bloomberg and Observer
John Herrman / New York Magazine:
How Rumble, which claims to have 71M MAUs, became the only success story in right-wing social media by letting creators who are banned elsewhere monetize video — For a moment, the right's longtime dream of an alternative social media seemed within reach. Various companies had been trying …
Discussion:
@ben_kew and @ggreenwald, more at Techmeme »
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Report: ads next to tweets from 10 extremist Twitter accounts restored by Musk generate enough engagement to likely bring in $19M in ad revenue annually — Ads from major brands are running alongside hateful content and dangerous conspiracy theories from far right Twitter users, group claims
Alex Williams / New York Times:
Marianne Mantell, who co-founded Caedmon, a groundbreaking label that issued recordings of writers reading their words, the precursors to audiobooks, dies at 93 — In her early 20s she co-founded the groundbreaking spoken-word record label Caedmon, which had a hit with Dylan Thomas's “A Child's Christmas in Wales.”
Discussion:
@susannahfox, @edoballerini, @libraryamerica and @penamerica
Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Sources: Fox turned down $2B+ unsolicited offers for Tubi, which the company acquired for $440M in 2020; Tubi lost ~$50M in Q4 and grew sales 25% YoY to $200M+ — Fox Corp. has turned down unsolicited offers of more than $2 billion for its Tubi streaming service, over four times …
Discussion:
@tvgrimreaper, @carlquintanilla, @tsoh_investing, The Streamable, Insider, The Wrap and Media Play News
Reuters:
News Corp Q2: revenue down 7% YoY to $2.52B, vs. $2.55B est., net income down 64% YoY to $94M, book publishing revenue down 14%, and news media revenue down 9% — Media conglomerate News Corp (NWSA.O) said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due …
Discussion:
News Corp, @pressgazette, The Wrap and The Guardian
RELATED:
New York Times:
After a three-month strike, the HarperCollins union and the company reach a tentative deal that includes increasing minimum salaries and a one-time $1,500 bonus — After a three-month strike, the two parties reached a tentative deal that includes wage increases and a one-time bonus.
Pluralistic:
Creators tend to see copyright as a strong defense, including against generative AI, but it won't protect them from odious contracts imposed by monopolists — The media spectacle of generative AI (in which AI companies' breathless claims of their software's sorcerous powers are endlessly repeated) …
Discussion:
@doctorow, @anniezaidi and @jbaert
Jenna Burrell / Poynter:
Journalists must challenge the notion that AI will replace humans; ChatGPT proves that finding the truth is trickier than pairing data with the right algorithm — Don't let these tools dazzle you beyond reason. Don't anthropomorphize them. Ask hard questions about what they're purported to do.
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Indian Express, @jennaburrell, Insider, Boing Boing, MediaPost, @mike_salter, @spj_tweets, @poynter and @datasociety
New York Times:
An excerpt from an upcoming book on the Redstone family and its media empire: how Shari Redstone took control of Paramount, which emerged from CBS and Viacom — Her father doubted her much of her career. Les Moonves launched a bid at CBS to overrule her. That was before sexual misconduct allegations came to light.
Discussion:
@jamesstewartnyt, @craigsilverman, @nytimes, @benmullin, Air Mail and Bloomberg
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Sources: Amazon is in talks with Times Internet to acquire MX Player, a top VOD streaming service in India; Times Internet acquired MX Player for $140M in 2018 — Amazon is engaging with Times Internet to explore the acquisition of MX Player, one of the largest on-demand video streaming services in India …
Discussion:
@digitallybones, The Information and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »
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