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GQ EIC Will Welch, who sources say made the call to pull a piece critical of WBD CEO David Zaslav, is producing a Warner Bros. movie, a likely ethical conflict — On July 3, GQ.com rolled out a hot-take story titled “How Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Became Public Enemy Number One in Hollywood.”
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GQ pulls an article criticizing David Zaslav; sources say a Zaslav spokesman complained, causing extensive edits and the author asking GQ to remove his byline — The writer said he asked to have his byline removed after GQ made extensive changes after publication. The magazine removed the story instead.
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Meta launches Instagram's Threads, now available on the App Store and Google Play in over 100 countries — - Threads is a text-based messaging app that looks very similar to Twitter. — People will be able to use their Instagram usernames on Threads and follow the same accounts on Threads as they do on Meta's photo-sharing app.
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Hands-on with Threads: fairly basic text-based messaging app, log in via Instagram, no hashtags, can't search for anything other than user handles, and more — Instagram chief Adam Mosseri on the company's big new swing at Twitter … I. — In early December, when word first leaked …
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G/O Media sites start posting AI-generated content despite staff pushback; a Gizmodo editor calls an AI-generated Star Wars list with errors “embarrassing” — A few weeks back, we wrote about the seemingly never-ending drama at G/O Media, wondering why writers would want to continue working …
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Twitter quietly backtracks on requiring users to log in to see individual tweets, ending Elon Musk's “temporary emergency measure”; profiles remain blocked — The platform is becoming slightly more usable just as Meta opens up its Twitter competitor.


Canada's government, media company Quebecor, and cable TV operator Cogeco suspend advertising on Facebook and Instagram in response to Meta's move to drop news — The Canadian government is suspending its advertisements on Facebook and Instagram in response to Meta Platforms Inc.'s plan …
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California and Canada should call Google's and Facebook's bluff, given the success of Australia's 2021 media law, as the companies threaten to remove news links — In June, Canada passed a law that will require major tech platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay a small fee when they host news …


Sources: Andy Jassy asked Amazon's Hollywood studio for detailed budgets to scrutinize ballooning costs; Amazon spent $7B on originals, sports, and more in 2022 — Good afternoon from Orient, New York, wherever you may be. I am spending the next month on the East Coast, so please reach out if you are around.
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Paramount, Comcast, Disney, and Netflix's total market value has dropped $280B+ since the end of 2020; WBD lost ~50% of its value since its 2022 trading debut — Streaming losses and layoffs were already leading to an industry retrenchment. Then the writers' strike hit.
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A UK journalist details the DOJ's and the FBI's efforts to pressure him and three other UK journalists to cooperate with the US' prosecution of Julian Assange — The prosecution of the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is already a threat to a free media — the justice department's campaign …


Spotify no longer lets subscribers still paying via the App Store use it as a payment method; new subscribers were barred from using Apple's service in May 2016 — Spotify hasn't let new Premium subscribers pay for service using in-app purchases via Apple's App Store since May 2016 …
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