Top News:
Publishers Weekly:
Scholastic apologizes for asking a children's book author to remove language about racism in the US, saying teachers may decline to use the book — Concerns about censorship at Scholastic's Rising Voices Library, a diversity-focused provider of educational materials, arose on Wednesday …
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
Parlement Technologies sells Parler to digital media company Starboard, which plans to temporarily shut down the right-wing social network ahead of a relaunch — Social network popular with conservatives will be sold for an undisclosed amount and overhauled for a relaunch
Discussion:
Reuters, Variety, The Desk, The Wrap, Engadget, The Hill, Deadline, TheBlaze, Forbes, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, Ars Technica, Fortune, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, @digiphile, The Verge, Recurrent, @starboardllc and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »
Patrick Frater / Variety:
Comcast invests $200M in James Murdoch and Uday Shankar's Bodhi Tree Systems, which will use the money to buy a minority stake in Indian media group Viacom18 — Comcast, the conglomerate behind NBCUniversal and the Sky European TV giant, is to invest $200 million in Bodhi Tree Systems …
Discussion:
Reuters, Observer, The Hindu, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and TechCrunch
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Instagram updates Reels with a section for trending audio and hashtags, expands gifts to more countries, enhances its editing tools, adds new metrics, and more — As governments around the world express growing concerns about TikTok, its rival Instagram Reels is getting a series of new updates aimed at creators.
Discussion:
Instagram for Creators, MediaPost, Tubefilter, Social Media Today, Meta, The Verge and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Ryan Barwick / Marketing Brew:
Since cutting Taboola and open-market programmatic ads, Bloomberg has replaced those advertisers with in-house promos worth ~$7.4M over the past few months — Spring cleaning came early for Bloomberg Media. Last fall, the publisher said it would cut ties with the programmatic open marketplace …
Discussion:
@ckrewson, @outlandishjosh, @marketingbrew and Media Voices
Zac Ntim / Deadline:
French fashion house Saint Laurent is launching a production banner headed by its creative director Anthony Vaccarello and debuting two short films at Cannes — French fashion house Saint Laurent is moving into the world of cinema with an official production banner headed by house creative director Anthony Vaccarello.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, WWD, @wwd, The Wrap and Variety
Pete Pachal / CoinDesk:
CoinDesk says it'll stop using generative images and spells out its rules for AI use in different contexts, requiring disclosure for articles but not headlines — Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are changing the way we work - especially the media. Here are the rules of the road for CoinDesk.
Discussion:
@petepachal and @bmorrissey
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A study of 33 UK media companies: the average median gender pay gap fell from 15.7% in 2017 to 12.1% in 2022 and the average mean gap fell from 17.7% to 13.7% — There are more men than women in the top-paid quartile at 91% of major UK media companies. — Men were paid more on average …
Discussion:
@chartbeat, The Hill, @annieeaves, @dcnorg, @mattnavarra, @pressgazette and @pressgazette
Financial Times:
Sources: the European parliament is close to finalizing tough new measures on AI, including forcing chatbot makers to reveal if they use copyrighted material — Proposals include requiring chatbot makers to reveal if they are using copyrighted material — The European parliament …
Discussion:
@tonyajoriley, @pt and @alexwitzleben, more at Techmeme »
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Sensor Tower: Twitter's top 50 advertisers spent $83M over the past two months, down from $102M YoY; Mars, AT&T, Volkswagen, and Stellantis haven't returned — Twitter-owner Elon Musk has said advertisers are returning to the social media platform, but statements from several companies …
Discussion:
@reuters and Media Matters for America, more at Techmeme »
Freya Drohan / Daily Front Row:
Dotdash Meredith names Sally Holmes editor-in-chief and general manager of InStyle, effective May 1; Holmes has been Marie Claire's editor-in-chief since 2020 — Dotdash Meredith has announced that Sally Holmes will assume the role of editor in chief and general manager of InStyle, effective May 1.
Discussion:
MediaPost
John Boudreau / Bloomberg:
The US tells Vietnam to release blogger and Radio Free Asia contributor Nguyen Lan Thang, sentenced on April 12 to six years in prison for anti-state activities — The US called on Vietnam to release blogger Nguyen Lan Thang who was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday …
Discussion:
Reuters, @southeastasiadc, @radiofreeasia, Radio Free Asia, Committee to Protect …, Agence France-Presse and USAGM
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