Mediagazer: BuzzFeed CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Baesler are leaving as part of the company's cuts, following advertisers pulling back; BZFD closes down 19.71% (Gerry Smith/Bloomberg)

5:15 PM ET, April 20, 2023

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Memo: BuzzFeed shuts down News and cuts ~180 jobs, or ~15% of its staff; Jonah Peretti: “we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable” — BuzzFeed News, which won a Pulitzer Prize but never made money, is “beginning the process of closing,” the company's founder …

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, Nieman Lab, The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, WWD, Vanity Fair, @benmullin, Axios, @gamoid, @davidmackau, @genepark, The Verge, @addysbaird, PenguinRandomhouse.com, @maxseddon, The Wrap, Press Gazette, Ad Age, @maxseddon, NPR, Fox News, CNN, The Guardian, @liamstack, @paldhous, The Information, @tomgara, @katenocera, @jgrebes, @thebrianpenny, @bcmerchant, @petersterne, @simonateba, @sizpatel, Mediaite, @katienotopoulos, Talking Biz News, @panzer, @atrupar, @tess_townsend, @rahawahaile, @matthewsitman, @iansherr, @rdrv3, CNBC, @michaelrcaputo, Poynter, Variety, CBS News, Gizmodo, New York Post, @shannon_liao, The Information, @chelseacirruzzo, @kevincollier@mastodon.social, @edmundlee, @daveyalba, @freeblackgirl, @lwalubengo, @caseynewton@mastodon.social, @ncksmmrs, @bernstein, @kpfallon, @benmullin, @chaykak, @rdrv3, @mnshap, @fortesalatifi, @karlbode, @johnpaczkowski, Newser, @papapishu, @kelsaywhat, @oliverdarcy, @ericnewcomer, @oneunderscore__, @benmullin, @harry1t6, @bcmerchant, @haleaziz, @tomnamako, @alexckaufman, @sarahw, @tomgara, @calebjhull, @kateaurthur, @lucas_shaw, @jeffjarvis, @stephaniemlee, @sarahkendzior, @lolacoaster, @mediumsizemeech, @pfpicardi, @film_girl@mastodon.social, @hansmahncke, @lucas_shaw, @markseibel, @medinamora, @euamiri, @katienotopoulos, @cbellantoni, @kenbensinger, @craftingmystyle, @skbaer, @davidmackau, @supermathskid, @vv1lder, @film_girl, @marcusgilmer, @jon_christian, @mcbyrne, @sarafischer, @jowrotethis, @niketa, @kantrowitz, @pdmcleod, @film_girl@mastodon.social, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @micsolana, @sarayasin, @film_girl@mastodon.social, @kemc, @1followernodad, @oliverdarcy, @oliviasolon, @jbenton, @howelloneill@infosec.exchange, @radbrowndads, @awolfeful, @oliverdarcy, @johnpaczkowski, @jason, @pt, @reichlinmelnick, @mikeduncan, @abgutman, @jayasax, @byjoelanderson, @gregbensinger, @apbenven, @selviano, @kfile, @russbengtson, @ericnewcomer, @sapna, @silvermanjacob, @mikeisaac, @rvawonk, @nycsouthpaw, @wesyang, @valeriereports, @edzitron, @katie_robertson, @waouwwaouw, @cfarivar, @lucas_shaw, @sapna, @harrymccracken, @film_girl, @annabroges, @tomgara, @charliekirk11, @maxseddon, @jane__bradley, @hardin, @film_girl, @brandyzadrozny, @sdkstl, @agraybee and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

Ben Smith / Semafor:
The end of BuzzFeed News signals a vast shift in digital media: the old way of thinking about news as text distributed primarily on social media has passed

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
BuzzFeed CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Baesler are leaving as part of the company's cuts, following advertisers pulling back; BZFD closes down 19.71%

Discussion: Insider, @angelanfu, @tomgara, @matthewfoldi, @poynter and @petersterne

Nate Saunders / ESPN.com:

The family of former F1 racer Michael Schumacher plans to take legal action against German magazine Die Aktuelle for a fake interview generated by an AI chatbot — Michael Schumacher's family plans to take legal action against a German magazine that ran an AI-generated interview with the Formula One legend.

Discussion: Reuters, Newser, Fox News, The Verge, CBS News, Engadget, The Daily Beast, @edspencer99, @marybschneider, @lavosaurus and Fortune

Angela Fu / Poynter:

A deep look at the changes at The Buffalo News: print and design outsourcing, staff furloughs, insurance snafus, fewer reporters, and higher-paid Lee executives — Lee cut budgets, pushed out veterans and outsourced design and print production at a paper that had been spared the worst of the industry's decline.

Discussion: @byjonharris, @tompreciousalb, @willcleveland13, @sulliview, @ckrewson, @poynter, @poynter, @byjonharris, @buffaloscribe and @zachreports

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

Insider lays off ~10% of its US-based staff to stay “healthy and competitive”, affecting editorial and commercial roles; the company employs ~950 staff globally — The company president emailed staff to inform them at 7am Eastern time on Thursday.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Gizmodo, @corbinbolies, @lmoses, The Information, @david_slotnick, Talking Biz News, @litcapital, @pressgazette, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and @tomaxwell

Mariella Moon / Engadget:

Imgur plans to delete “old, unused, and inactive content” that's not tied to a user account, starting on May 15, potentially erasing years of internet history — For years, Imgur has made sharing photos and GIFs on the internet as easy as uploading a file — you don't even need an account to use it.

Discussion: @sophaskins, Mashable and @tomgara, more at Techmeme »

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Imgur plans to ban explicit images, but permit artistic nudity, from May 15, and expects issues as the service adopts a mix of automatic and human moderation

Discussion: The Verge, Gizmodo and Windows Central, more at Techmeme »

Katherine Le Ruez / The Guardian:

The Guardian signs a commercial licensing deal to let London-based tech startup Illuma use The Guardian's API to categorize articles for contextual ad purposes — The Guardian has signed an agreement with a British technology company, Illuma, to categorise article pages for contextual advertising purposes …

Discussion: Digiday, @vivaldibrowser, @accountabletech, @missig_geek, @mattrogerson and @digiday

Mark Joyella / Forbes:

Fox News host Dan Bongino says he is leaving after unsuccessful contract extension talks, ending his shows Unfiltered with Dan Bongino and Canceled in the USA — Fox News has ended its relationship with Dan Bongino, who hosted the Saturday night show Unfiltered with Dan Bongino.

Discussion: Mediaite, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, @parkermolloy, @helenkennedy, Deadline, @jennaellisesq, @mattgertz, @justinbaragona, The Daily Beast, @bradmossesq and @jeremymbarr

Jef Feeley / Bloomberg:

Sources: the prospect of fired Fox News producer Abby Grossberg's secret recordings being played during trial pushed Fox News to its $787.5M Dominion settlement — The prospect of a fired Fox News producer's secret recordings being played during trial helped push the conservative network …

Discussion: Gizmodo and @timobrien

CNN:
Sources and the mediator detail how Fox and Dominion settled, after Dominion notified Fox that Rupert Murdoch and Tucker Carlson were among its first witnesses

Julia Rock / The Lever:

Fox says the company can deduct the cost of its $787.5M settlement with Dominion; writing off the full payment would amount to an estimated $213M in tax savings — Fox's massive settlement with private equity-backed voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems didn't just spare …

Discussion: @davidsirota, Vanity Fair, The Wrap, New Republic, @davidwbrown, @halmarshall2309, @halmarshall2309, @halmarshall2309, @halmarshall2309, New York Times and @halmarshall2309

Washington Post:
The Fox-Dominion settlement is the largest publicly disclosed one in a US defamation case yet; sources: Fox doesn't have to make an on-air correction or apology

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Jack Shafer / Politico:
For Fox Corp., which ended 2022 with $4.1B in “cash and cash equivalents” on hand, $787.5M is a bargain to avoid more embarrassment and continue its sleazy ways

David Pierce / The Verge:

A look at ActivityPub, the open, decentralized social network protocol finalized in 2018 that is gaining prominence powering Twitter alternatives like Mastodon — The tech industry is abuzz about a new standard for social networking that is more open, more user-centric, and potentially more powerful than Twitter and Facebook.

Discussion: @anildash and @shoq, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:

Internal slides: in the coming months, Google plans to let advertisers supply “creative” content for generative AI to “remix” for more sophisticated campaigns — Big tech groups are racing to incorporate the groundbreaking new technology into their products

Discussion: Engadget, Fortune, Mashable, Gizmodo, The Verge, @johnreedwrites, @ruslantrad, @bigmeaninternet, MarTech, @cristinacriddle and @lukolejnik, more at Techmeme »

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:

Alec Baldwin's lawyers reveal that involuntary manslaughter charges against him will be dropped in the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins — Baldwin faced two counts of involuntary manslaughter.