Mediagazer: Sources: Spotify was ready to launch HiFi as a premium tier by the end of 2021 but Apple and Amazon offering lossless audio at no extra charge spoiled its plans (The Verge)

2:15 PM ET, March 15, 2023

Top News:

BuzzFeed News EIC Karolina Waclawiak says the outlet plans to publish more stories to boost profits, focus on viral topics, and pursue long-form investigations — ‘What we can control is how many stories we publish each day,’ BuzzFeed News editor in chief tells newsroom

Discussion: @mikeisaac, @brianstelter, @davidmackau, @jasonnark, @danbeucke, @steveashleyplus, @tsuvik, @tianathefirst, @mikeisaac, @mediaevan, @alexbruell, @bsbonner and @mzhemingway

Tim Baysinger / Axios:

Sources: Diamond expects to lose some MLB rights after bankruptcy but could retain the sports rights for the 16 NBA and 12 NHL teams the company currently owns — Diamond Sports Group expects to come out of its bankruptcy process with fewer teams' rights, with the cuts coming from its baseball roster …

Discussion: Sportico, @jeremydstanley, @benverlander, The Streamable, @kerrymflynn, @kerrymflynn, UPI, Associated Press, Next TV and CNBC

Dietrich Knauth / Reuters:

Diamond Sports, which operates the Bally Sports channels, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas, listing both assets and liabilities between $1B and $10B — Diamond Sports Group, which provides local television broadcasts for nearly half of NBA, NHL and MLB games, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection …

Discussion: Business Wire, @ourand_sbj, Bloomberg, CBS News, Axios, MediaPost, @tvgrimreaper, @ourand_sbj, @adater, @ourand_sbj, @loudmouthjulia, @claylepard, @ourand_sbj, Barrett Media, Deadline, MarketWatch and Sportico

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Filing: Diamond Sports owes $1.8B to US Bank, $77.2M to Dolan Broadcast, $40.1M to DirecTV, $30.8M to Arizona Diamondbacks, $15M to Intelsat, and more

Discussion: Radio & Television …, @thedeskdotnet, @matthewkeyslive and Awful Announcing, Thanks:@thedeskdotnet

Michael J. Socolow / The Conversation:

While Americans across the political spectrum have a growing disdain for journalism, media criticism remains an essential component of a vibrant democracy — Everyone seems to hate what they call “the media.” — Attacking journalism - even accurate and verified reporting - provides a quick lift for politicians.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @reditlhabi, @risj_oxford, @michaelsocolow, @klerner, @jackshafer, @naomi_schalit, @niemanlab and Newhouse School …

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

The US charges exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, tied to GTV Media, with defrauding his online followers out of $1B+ and arrests him; DOJ seizes $634M — The U.S. government on Wednesday charged exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui with fraud, accusing him of orchestrating a conspiracy …

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Q&A with new Vice Media co-CEOs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala on Nancy Dubuc's exit, potential sale and buyers, divesting assets like Refinery29, and more — But despite the newness of their current roles, Lokhandwala and Dixon are already well versed in the inner workings …

Discussion: Adweek and @kerrymflynn

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Quora launches a $19.99/month tier for its chatbot app Poe, giving users access to bots powered by GPT-4 and Anthropic's Claude+ on iOS or Apple Silicon Macs — Yesterday, OpenAI unveiled its new GPT-4 model and competitor Anthropic unveiled its own ChatGPT competitor Claude.

Discussion: Axios, more at Techmeme »

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Fortune CEO told staff that Fortune.com pageviews grew 90% YoY in 2022 to around 427M, with syndication revenue up 87% and social referral traffic up 300% — Fortune magazine CEO Alan Murray sent out the following to the staff on Wednesday: — Hello Fortune team!

The Verge:

Sources: Spotify was ready to launch HiFi as a premium tier by the end of 2021 but Apple and Amazon offering lossless audio at no extra charge spoiled its plans — Even though Spotify HiFi still hasn't launched after being announced more than two years ago, some kind of lossless experience …

Discussion: Gizmodo, Music Ally, @chriswelch, 9to5Mac and The Desk, more at Techmeme »

Colin Mann / Advanced Television:

Aluma Insights: 50%+ of US subscribers to the top 16 SVODs view Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ as essential and Epix Now, Apple TV+, and Peacock as least essential — New research from Aluma Insights finds two-thirds of US Netflix buyers view the service as indispensable to meeting household video needs.

Discussion: The Streamable and MediaPost

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Snap plans to begin publishing its guidelines for serving personalized Snapchat content after previously sharing them with publishing partners and some creators — Snapchat on Wednesday said it will begin publishing guidelines that detail what types of content gets algorithmically distributed in its app to users.

Discussion: TechCrunch and Snap Inc., more at Techmeme »

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

The UK government increases the film and TV expenditure credit from 25% to as much as 34%, with the qualifying threshold for high-end TV shows held at £1M — The British government has provided a boost for the UK film and TV industry by announcing that it is increasing tax breaks and maintaining the qualifying threshold.

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter and @jake_kanter

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More News:

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn announces AI-powered writing suggestions, initially for writing profiles, using OpenAI's GTP-4, and for recruiters writing job ads, using GPT-3.5

Discussion: The Verge and Wired, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Mythical, a studio built on YouTube by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, launches a 24-hour free channel on Roku, showing Good Mythical Morning and more

Discussion: @rhettmc

RFE / Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
A Russian court declares RFE/RL bankrupt, after it refused to pay $14M+ for noncompliance with a “foreign agents” law; RFE/RL calls the law political censorship

Discussion: The Desk, Voice of America and scussion

The Guardian:
Internal chats: BBC editors asked reporters to appease UK government concerns, including avoiding saying “lockdown”; BBC says the messages are “out of context”

Daniel Frankel / Next TV:
DirecTV sues Nexstar, Mission Broadcasting, and White Knight Broadcasting, alleging they conspired to raise DirecTV's retransmission fees in some local markets

Discussion: The Streamable, DIRECTV Insider, MediaPost, The Desk and Cord Cutters News

Earlier Picks:

Jason Kottke / kottke.org:
Kottke.org turns 25: the weblog with around 40K posts was started by Jason Kottke when he was 24 and has been his full-time job supporting his family since 2005

Discussion: @jeansnow, @bwjones, @antonioortiz, @hemeon, @om, @abnormalreturns, @dvg, @conroyforreal, @ftrain, @beforesmag, @salimismail, @waxy, @davewiner, @tveskov, @austinkleon, @anildash and @kottke

Francesco Zaffarano / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Bellingcat Senior Investigator and Trainer Giancarlo Fiorella, who runs the outlet's Discord server, on its sudden growth, benefits, purpose, and more

Discussion: @frazaffarano and @velile_mnyandu

Gretel Kahn / Reuters Institute:
A look at the digital outlets in Venezuela that have survived despite legislation and internet blockages; between 2013 and 2022, 60+ legacy outlets have closed

Discussion: @miremara, @risj_oxford, @rasmus_kleis, @mariaramirezny and @eduardosuarez

Daniel De / The Hill:
Study: Congress' seven most partisan members got over four times more media coverage than their seven most bipartisan colleagues from October to December 2022

From Techmeme:

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Cisco details a hacking campaign that penetrated multiple governments' networks using two zero-day flaws in its VPN and firewall Adaptive Security Appliances

Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:
IBM agrees to buy HashiCorp, which helps companies manage cloud infrastructure, in a deal valuing HashiCorp at $6.4B and expected to close by the end of 2024

Joanna Nelius / The Verge:
Qualcomm details its Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite chips; benchmarks from a demo suggest the chips match Apple's M3, Intel's Core Ultra 9, and AMD's Ryzen 9

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