Top News:
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 — The New York Times sports department sent a pointed letter to the newspaper's leadership Sunday asking for answers about the future …
Discussion:
@marcatracy, Semafor, @dcsportsbog, @kevinmdraper, @bdomenech, @ericjackson, @mrwaltershapiro and @benjstrauss
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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:
Barrett Media and @alexbruell
Sam Hancock / BBC:
The BBC suspends a presenter accused of paying a teen £35K for sexually explicit photos, contacted the police, and is working quickly “to establish the facts” — Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has held urgent talks with the BBC's director general after a presenter was accused …
Discussion:
The Guardian, BBC, Deadline, Press Gazette, Sky News, The Sun, Press Association, @jake_kanter, @lucyfrazermp, Bloomberg, Associated Press, @tomgara@threads.net, Financial Times, Mumbrella, @lucyfrazermp, The Indian Express, @aarmstrong_says, inews.co.uk, Metro, Breitbart, The Week, The Wrap, The Daily Beast, Sydney Morning Herald, Newser, Washington Post, The Guardian, New York Daily News, New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Channel 4 News
Pranshu Verma / Washington Post:
How an AI-generated, error-filled Star Wars story created internal chaos at Gizmodo, an incident that speaks to a larger debate about the role of AI in the news — The error-filled story about Star Wars movies and TV shows demonstrates why artificial intelligence shouldn't be involved in news-gathering, reporters said
Discussion:
@jayrosen_nyu, @nickturse, The Verge, @grady_booch, @missanabeem, @dmandl@mastodon.social, @washingtonpost, @sokane1, @malwarejake, @toley88, @scott_tobias, @jbenton, @ericgeller, @libbycwatson, @scottnover, @cydharrell, @scalzi, @bigmeaninternet, @michaelroston, @oneunderscore__ and @drewharwell@mastodon.social, more at Techmeme »
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:
Fortune, The Register, Music Ally, Insider, The Information, The Daily Beast, Fox Business, MediaPost and Observer, more at Techmeme »
Giacomo Tognini / Forbes:
Marina Berlusconi and Pier Silvio Berlusconi each inherit ~26.5% in Fininvest, which owns 53% of publisher Mondadori and 49% of broadcaster MediaForEurope — The former prime minister and media mogul died at age 86 in June. The unsealing of his will revealed how much his five children …
Laura Oliver / Global Investigative Journalism Network:
A look at Daraj, an independent, pan-Arab investigative news site launched in 2017; ~80% of its income comes from grants and ~20% from services for companies — In 2017, veteran Lebanese journalist Diana Moukalled co-founded Daraj with two colleagues. Six years later, Daraj is an independent …
Discussion:
@drewoccrp, @gijn, @gijn and Bloomberg
Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:
Coverage of SCOTUS and Congress should be about the wielding of power, presented less as a game for insiders and more as an instrument affecting everyday people — In September 2016, Lorie Smith, a web designer in Colorado, and attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom …
The Guardian:
Colleagues of Cameroonian radio host Martinez Zogo investigate whether a dossier that brought media tycoon Jean-Pierre Belinga's downfall led to Zogo's murder — A dossier of bank slips detailing suspect payments of millions of dollars handed to the journalist brought the downfall of a political upstart in Cameroon.
Discussion:
@globaljusticeen, @mbeatowe and @angelaquintal
Dan Froomkin / Press Watch:
The Washington Post hasn't had a full-time daily cartoonist since Tom Toles retired in October 2020, and largely demoted political cartoons on its opinion pages — The Washington Post's opinion pages were never particularly good, so the fact that they have devolved into a sad …
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:
@alexweprin and Front Office Sports
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Twitch plans to launch ephemeral Stories in October 2023 and a Discovery Feed featuring a personalized mix of streamers' clips this fall, both in its mobile app — The features will arrive this fall. — It's probably safe to say no one could have predicted that LinkedIn would add Stories before Twitch, but here we are.
Discussion:
Music Ally, more at Techmeme »