Top News:
Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:
Some publishers say they have seen a sharp drop in Facebook traffic since May 2023; Echobox: the share of traffic to publisher sites from Facebook fell ~50% YoY — With no communication from the company, publishers relying on Facebook traffic are at the mercy of the inscrutable algorithm, and they say it's punishing them.
Podnews:
Spotify executive Bill Simmons calls Harry and Meghan “grifters” after their $20M deal ends with 12 episodes; sources say some interviews were done by staffers — Archewell, the podcast company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, will not have its contract renewed with Spotify.
Discussion:
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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
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
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Mark Caro / Local News Initiative:
An interview with Stephanie Lulay, one of three co-founders of Block Club Chicago, as the nonprofit outlet hits its fifth anniversary with 29 full-time staffers — Exceeding its DNAinfo origins, Block Club Chicago hits 5th anniversary doubling down on the power of neighborhood reporting
Discussion:
@alexanderrusso, @journogeoffz, @danielkayhertz, @timafranklin, @poynter, @markjacob16 and @poynter
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Source: Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tells investors that no major ad holding firms now recommends an ad pause and says Twitter's focus is video and partnerships — Twitter plans to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships to revitalize the social media company's business beyond digital advertising …
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Marah Eakin / Wired:
How Pixar used neural style transfer, a type of AI used to make photos look like popular artworks, to animate Ember, a lead character in its movie Elemental — It's harder to make fire than you might think. But the Pixar team was determined to do the impossible. — Pixar had a problem.
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Ben Smith / Semafor:
Internal presentation: around 70% of the Los Angeles Times' projected $232.5M in revenue in 2023 comes from print, helping explain the recent cuts to 70 jobs — Progressive media activists, rattled by the collapse of a generation of youth-oriented digital news outlets like Vice and BuzzFeed News …
Discussion:
@maxwelltani
Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
Duolingo says the company significantly scaled back TV ads and its DAUs growing 62% YoY to 20.3M in Q1 2023 is due in part to efficient social media marketing — The language-learning app now relies more on memes—helping it climb to 20 million daily active users
Discussion:
@trengriffin, more at Techmeme »
Jo Ellison / Financial Times:
A look at Vogue Ukraine, which is published under license from Condé Nast by Vanguard Media and has focused on Ukraine's war effort since Russia's invasion — How Vogue Ukraine became an unlikely voice of defiance — There was a huge kerfuffle surrounding the news earlier this month …
Discussion:
@ifmparis
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Podcasting company Acast launches Acast+ Access to let publishers integrate their pre-existing paywalls into Apple Podcasts and other platforms — The technology means paywalled news outlets may more easily offer podcasts as a members-only benefit. — Podcasting business Acast has launched …
Financial Times:
Sources: media companies like News Corp and The Guardian have discussed LLM copyright issues and a subscription fee with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, or Adobe — Google and OpenAI are discussing agreements to pay publishers over using content to train generative AI models
Discussion:
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Helen Coster / Reuters:
Gannett plans to launch an AI tool to create bulleted summaries of USA Today articles in Q4 and is developing a tool to break stories into various formats
Gannett plans to launch an AI tool to create bulleted summaries of USA Today articles in Q4 and is developing a tool to break stories into various formats
Discussion:
MediaPost, @martinpatience and @iatalkspace
Rebecca Rubin / Variety:
Imax says its North American market share is up 50% from 2019, as studios fight over access amid growing demand to watch certain movies on premium large formats — There's been a battle brewing between two of Hollywood's blockbuster talents. — In one corner, Tom Cruise is gearing …
Discussion:
Numlock News, @variety, IndieWire, Screen Rant and SlashFilm
Washington Post:
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers that led to a landmark press freedoms SCOTUS ruling and founded the Freedom of the Press Foundation, dies at 92 — Disillusioned by the Vietnam War, he leaked a top-secret history of the conflict, leading to a landmark Supreme Court case
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Lucy Westcott / Committee to Protect Journalists:
CPJ helped journalists in exile, via immigration support letters and grants for necessities like rent and food, 206 times in 2022 vs. 63 times in 2020, up 227% — Keep closely connected to your homeland and don't despair: that is advice Syrian journalist Okba Mohammad said he would offer …
Discussion:
@pressfreedom