Top News:
Tatiana Siegel / Variety:
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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Will Sommer / Washington Post:
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.
Discussion:
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Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
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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Adrian Weckler / Independent.ie:
Sources: Meta is refraining from launching Threads in the EU because of what the company believes is a lack of clarity contained in the EU's Digital Markets Act — Meta's new Twitter rival wants to suck Instagram users' data, including health, location, search history and sensitive information, into the new Threads service.
Discussion:
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Sean Keeley / Awful Announcing:
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 …
Discussion:
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Randy Thanthong-Knight / Bloomberg:
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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Brian Merchant / Los Angeles Times:
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 …
Discussion:
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Kris Holt / Engadget:
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.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
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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Wall Street Journal:
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.
Discussion:
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James Ball / Rolling Stone:
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 …
Takashi Kawakami / Nikkei Asia:
A look at Chinese streaming service Mango TV, run by state-owned Hunan Broadcasting System; QuestMobile: Mango TV had 280M MAUs in April 2023, vs. ~100M in 2019 — ‘Ride the Wind,’ other homegrown programs draw 280m users to streaming app — The latest season of the “Ride the Wind” …
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@nikkeiasia