Top News:
New York Times:
The NYT announces plans to disband its sports desk and rely on coverage from The Athletic online and in print; NYT sports journalists will move to other roles — Coverage of games, players and leagues will now primarily come from The Athletic, the sports website that the company bought last year.
Discussion:
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Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of The Athletic's publisher, David Perpich, who helped the NYT grow into games, cooking, and more, as he tries to make The Athletic profitable by 2025 — David Perpich, cousin of publisher A.G. Sulzberger, was an architect of the subscriber bundle of games, a cooking app, the Wirecutter and sports-media site the Athletic
Discussion:
@beachwoodreport, @mathewi, Front Office Sports, @danpfeiffer, @goodmanharrison, @alexbruell and Barrett Media
Ben Strauss / Washington Post:
In a letter, the New York Times sports staff asks leadership about their future amid concerns of closing the section and merging The Athletic into the newspaper
In a letter, the New York Times sports staff asks leadership about their future amid concerns of closing the section and merging The Athletic into the newspaper
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, Front Office Sports, Los Angeles Times, Sports Media Watch, @marcatracy, @weareyourfek, The Wrap, New York Post, @ernie@writing.exchange, The Daily Beast, Fox News, Awful Announcing, @ethangach, Media Nation, HuffPost, @mrwaltershapiro, Semafor, @kevinmdraper, @ericjackson, @bdomenech, @dcsportsbog and @benjstrauss
Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family sell the San Diego Union-Tribune to an affiliate of MediaNews Group, the newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital — Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family have sold the San Diego Union-Tribune to competing publisher MediaNews Group …
Discussion:
@maxwelltani, Voice of San Diego, Orange County Register, The Wrap, @maxwelltani, Los Angeles Times …, @megjameslat, Bloomberg, @cmarinucci, @silasallen1, Axios, @mediaevan, Times of San Diego, San Diego Union-Tribune, @tyska, @dickyoungsghost, @froomkin, @cbellantoni, Variety, @margotroosevelt, @jbenton, Associated Press and @jbenton
James Gregory / BBC:
In a letter to the BBC, a lawyer for the teen allegedly paid £35K by a BBC presenter for sexually explicit photos says the claims made in The Sun are “rubbish” — Claims made by the mother at the heart of the BBC presenter scandal are “rubbish”, a lawyer representing the young person has said.
Discussion:
BBC, New York Post, @krishgm, NPR, @anna_soubry, @oldenoughtosay, @stevenicksmith, @stehoare, @fisseha_tegegn, Deadline, @semaforben, @elliemaeohagan, @charl_h79, @paoloiskandar64, The Guardian, @tomdunn26, @owenjones84, @marcsettle, @edwinhayward, @jomichaels17, New York Times, Press Association and The Hollywood Reporter
Rachel Ohm / Press Herald:
The National Trust for Local News, a US nonprofit, plans to acquire all Masthead Maine's assets, including five of Maine's six daily newspapers and 17 weeklies — The National Trust for Local News has agreed to purchase 5 of the state's 6 daily papers and 17 of its weeklies in an effort to preserve local journalism.
New York Times:
A look at a planned Fox News defamation case by Ray Epps, a Trump voter who attended January 6 and Tucker Carlson named in a conspiracy theory in ~20 episodes — Tucker Carlson, before he was sidelined by Fox, repeatedly endorsed a conspiracy theory about an Arizona man, who may sue for defamation.
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Following similar lawsuits, Sarah Silverman and two other authors sue OpenAI and Meta, claiming LLaMA and ChatGPT were trained on copyright-infringing material — Comedian and author Sarah Silverman, as well as authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey — are suing OpenAI and Meta each …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Reuters, Salon, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, Music Business Worldwide, @rachaelmyrow, CBS News, Ars Technica, Plagiarism Today, Digital Music News, @iambgtea, Rolling Stone, Engadget, Semafor, CNN, @talanhorne, New York Post, @marshacollier, @dennisconsorte, Shelly Palmer, Breitbart, @eddiesheerr, @pat_bryant, The Register, Deadline, Fortune, Music Ally, The Information, Fox Business, The Daily Beast, MediaPost and Insider
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
The chief content officer role has become increasingly important in entertainment companies, helping smooth over issues when adapting IP across series and films — NBCUniversal's elevation of Donna Langley heralds a corporate leadership era that signals a top exec is needed …
Discussion:
@phillipcovell, @martinlieberman, @dcnorg, @alexweprin, The Wrap and @alexweprin
John Ourand / Sports Business Journal:
To fight back against cord-cutting, Charter plans to offer a lower-cost programming tier without RSNs and league-owned networks in Q3, likely for $10/month less — The nation's second-largest cable operator has developed a new programming model to deal with the regional sports network crisis.
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, The Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, The Streamable, Deadline, Sportico, Next TV, @ourand_sbj and Cord Cutters News
Clarrie Feinstein / Toronto Star:
Postmedia Network, the publisher of the National Post and Toronto Sun, and Nordstar Capital, which owns Toronto Star and Metroland Media, call off merger talks — Talks called off due to regulatory and financial uncertainty around the deal and because parties were unable to agree on terms.
Discussion:
@jeffjarvis, Reuters, @rickanderson, @richardwarnica and @drjacobsrad
Reuters:
Meta told an Australian inquiry on foreign interference that it plans to build “state-affiliated media” and “fact-checking” labels on Threads “expeditiously” — Social media giant Meta Platforms (META.O), owner of Facebook and Instagram …
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
The Los Angeles Times debuts De Los, a free, standalone vertical to reach English-dominant Latinos on its website and young news readers on Instagram and TikTok — “There is no future for the L.A. Times without Latino subscribers, because that's who lives here.”
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, @sarahscire and MediaPost