Mediagazer: Sources: News Corp's HarperCollins and private-equity giant KKR are among the bidders for Simon & Schuster; second-round bids are due in mid-July (Wall Street Journal)

Derrick Bryson Taylor / New York Times:

Spotify and Prince Harry and Meghan's production company Archewell Audio end their partnership less than a year after Meghan's podcast debuted on the platform — The couple's production company and the streaming service announced an end to their relationship, less than a year after Meghan's podcast debuted on the platform.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Forbes, ET Canada, @wireracing, Complete Music Update, CNN, New York Post, Insider, Rolling Stone, @patriciatreble, Agence France-Presse, Page Six, The Wrap, Variety, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

The Daily Beast:

Sources: Alex McCaskill, the Fox News producer who wrote the chyron labeling President Joe Biden a “wannabe dictator”, has left the company — Sources identified the culprit to The Daily Beast as Alex McCaskill, a longtime producer on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Discussion: CNN, Mediaite, @badfoxgraphics, FTVLive, New York Daily News and UPROXX

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:

With the future of RSN increasingly dire, a look at how the MLB's EVP of local media Billy Chambers and his team have prepared to take over game broadcasts — MLB executive Billy Chambers and his three person team took over Padres games in a day. What teams are next?

Discussion: Sportico, Next TV, Dallas Morning News, Awful Announcing and Front Office Sports

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

In the year to September 2022, the UK's Independent reports revenue up 12% YoY to £46.3M, of which 57% was non-ad, and operating profit down 65% YoY to £1.9M — Operating profit was down 65% due to investment in areas such as e-commerce, Independent TV and the US.

Discussion: VideoWeek

Thomas Seal / Bloomberg: The UK's Independent plans to eventually have the same number of workers in the US as in Britain; the outlet has 300 staff, of which 65 are outside the UK

CNBC:

Christine McCarthy, Disney's CFO since 2015, is stepping down; Kevin Lansberry, finance chief for parks business, will work as interim CFO starting July 1 — - Christine McCarthy will step down as Disney's chief financial officer. — She is taking family medical leave and will advise the company as it seeks a successor.

Financial Times:

Sources: OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe have met News Corp, the NYT, and others to discuss copyright issues over LLMs and a possible subscription fee — Google and OpenAI are discussing agreements to pay publishers over using content to train generative AI models

Discussion: Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: News Corp's HarperCollins and private-equity giant KKR are among the bidders for Simon & Schuster; second-round bids are due in mid-July — Simon & Schuster is pursuing a sale once again after the U.S. government blocked its attempted merger with Penguin Random House

Discussion: @heybonanos, Publishers Weekly and The Bookseller

Alanna Vagianos / HuffPost:

Email: Twitter blocks paid promotion of a campaign video by North Carolina Sen. Rachel Hunt, who is running for lieutenant governor, due to “abortion advocacy” — “The mention of abortion advocacy is the issue here,” a Twitter employee told North Carolina candidate Rachel Hunt, according to emails HuffPost reviewed.

Discussion: @huntfornc, @womensmarch, @rootedinresist1, @0liviajulianna, @huntfornc, @peterhimler, @huntfornc, @huntfornc, @huntfornc, @alannavagianos, The Hill and New Republic

Dana Priest / Washington Post:

Hanan Elatr, the widow of Jamal Khashoggi, sues the NSO Group in Virginia, claiming Saudi Arabia used the Israeli company's Pegasus tool to track them both — In the lawsuit, Hanan Elatr says Saudi Arabia used NSO's Pegasus spyware to track her and her husband's whereabouts before he was murdered

Discussion: MIT Technology Review, @runasand and @washingtonpost, more at Techmeme »

Simon Owens / Simon Owens's Media Newsletter:

The argument that paywalls are blocking access to quality news is flawed because paid content is not a new phenomenon and there is plenty of quality free news — PLUS: CNN is in denial — Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my media newsletter. You can subscribe by clicking on this handy little button:

Discussion: Media Voices, @simonowens and @rafat

Jules Roscoe / VICE:

Invidious, an open-source “alternative front-end” for YouTube that removes tracking and ads, says YouTube sent a cease-and-desist letter over API violations — Invidious lets users browse YouTube without being tracked. Its developers say they won't make changes until they have to.

Discussion: @julesaroscoe and @motherboard, more at Techmeme »

Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:

How a local news site founder and an ex-Microsoft engineer created an AI to listen to meetings and write usable summary articles, and how human nuance gets lost — “Is it ready for primetime, ready to be released to the masses? Absolutely not...But can it be done?

Discussion: @laurahazardowen, @niemanlab, @ndiakopoulos, @janebsinger, @maxresnik, @localnewsini, @niemanlab and @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org