Mediagazer: Q&A with CPJ's Yeganeh Rezaian on jailed female Iranian journalists Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamedi and how Iran handles high-profile political prisoners (Michael Lipin/Voice of America)

6:05 PM ET, July 11, 2023

Top News:

Texas A&M weakened its offer to a University of Texas professor to lead its journalism program, after backlash about DEI and her NYT past; she's staying at UT — The university celebrated its decision to hire Kathleen McElroy to revive its journalism program.

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Disney is exploring strategic options for its Star India business; Media Partners Asia estimates Disney+ Hotstar could lose 15M subscribers in FY 2023 — Talks are a sign of how Star India's fortunes have changed since Disney's purchase of Fox entertainment assets

Discussion: @jtoonkel, @scottgustin and @rwhelanwsj

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Tim Davie says police asked the BBC to pause its investigation into a suspended presenter as officers decide if there are grounds for a criminal investigation — Corporation's director general reveals request as officers consider if there is reason for a criminal inquiry

Discussion: Press Gazette, Deadline, @adambienkov, The Week, @snowleopardess, The Hollywood Reporter, BBC and BBC

BBC:

A young person says the BBC presenter at the center of the scandal sent them threatening texts after they alluded online to having contact with a BBC presenter — A young person has told BBC News they felt threatened by the BBC presenter at the centre of a row over payment for sexually explicit photos.

Discussion: The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun, Daily Mail, @therealmissjo, @notwaving, @piersmorgan, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg.com, @stigabell, @rationalpanic, @owenjones84, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and New York Post

Variety:

Top Hollywood executives are working on a plan to call in federal mediators to try to avert a SAG-AFTRA strike, which could happen as early as July 13 — A group of CEOs and senior executives, including Disney chief Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav and Netflix's Ted Sarandos …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, New York Times, SlashFilm, Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, @slashfilm, @dealbook, @lamardcheraime, @johndellaporta, @variety, @erichaywood, @variety, @christinastrain, Vanity Fair, Cord Cutters News, @notcapnamerica and @aaronserna

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

The BBC reports record BBC Studios revenue up 28% YoY to £2.09B in 2022-2023, EBITDA rose 6% YoY to £240M, and returns to the BBC reached a record £362M — Thanks to hit content, such as ‘Happy Valley,’ 'Bluey, and ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ the commercial arm …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Deadline, Broadband TV News, Variety and WORLD SCREEN

Jake Kanter / Deadline:
The BBC says total talent pay rose by £10M to £139.8M in 2022-2023, the highest since 2020; salaries for presenters earning £150K+ totaled £23.4M, up 15% YoY

Discussion: BBC and The Guardian

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
The BBC reports a £120M deficit and record income of £5.7B in 2022-2023, with license fee payments making up £3.74B, down £60M YoY

Discussion: BBC and BBC

Charlie Nash / Mediaite:

Filings show Vice executives' $700K+ salaries and collective bonuses totaling $1M+ on April 28, one day after layoffs and two weeks before the bankruptcy filing — Vice senior staff writer Joseph Cox shared the eye-popping payments made to Vice Media executives who “led VICE to bankruptcy” on Monday.

Discussion: @josephfcox, @annacod, @sanasaeed, New York Post, @macwbishop, @janusrose, @brooklynmarie, @viceunion, @michaelmalice and @lindsaykatai

Nitish Pahwa / Slate:

A volunteer contributor for Twitter's Community Notes details checking rampant spam and disinformation across the site and says the tool is far from sufficient — Twitter's “Community Notes” volunteers are supposed to make the platform “the most accurate source of information about the world.”

Discussion: @alphabetworkers, @ikepigott.com, @iethics, @shepgo@mastodon.social, @sharylattkisson, @nitishpahwa.bsky.social and @pahwa_nitish

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

The Financial Times leans into its B2B business with an FT Professional rebranding, citing that its B2B subscriptions account for 75% of its paying readers — B2B subscriptions account for 75% of the FT's paying readers. — The Financial Times is targeting growth in its B2B division …

Discussion: @mediaevan, @nsmgmedia, @danfaggella, @seangriffey, Media Voices, @pressgazette, @pressgazette, City A.M. and Talking Biz News

Reuters:

Syria cancels the media accreditation of two local journalists working for the BBC over what the information ministry calls “false” and “politicized” coverage — Syria's information ministry said on Saturday it had cancelled the accreditation of two local journalists working …

Discussion: BBC, Associated Press, @annie_sparrow and Committee to Protect …

Washington Post:

The Washington Post becomes the first major national newspaper to join Verizon's +play subscription aggregation hub; new Post subscribers get three months free — The Washington Post announced today that it has joined Verizon's +play - giving Verizon customers an exclusive three-month subscription …

Discussion: The Desk

Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:

The LAT debuts De Los, a free, standalone vertical for English-dominant Latinos on its website, Instagram, and TikTok; the paper has 547K+ digital subscribers — “There is no future for the L.A. Times without Latino subscribers, because that's who lives here.”

Discussion: Axios, Los Angeles Times, @maxwelltani, @yvonnewingett, @sarahscire, MediaPost, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Times

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 6:05 PM ET, July 11, 2023.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Local Breaking News Reporter, DC — WaPo

US Leveraged Finance Reporter, NY — Bloomberg

Finance Editor, NY — NYT

Senior Associate Editor - Bankruptcy — Reuters

Food & Nutrition Reporter - Ireland — Newsweek

Local News Editor, AR — Bentonville Bulletin

Austin Scene Reporter, TX — MXDWN

Charleston Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

Senior Editor, Remote US — Thrillist

Editor in Chief, NY — Kotaku

Graphics Reporter, CA — SF Chronicle

Sr. Writer - Games Dev & Tech — VentureBeat

Computational Journalist, NY — ProPublica

EU News Editor, Remote Europe — Decrypt

Senior Editor - Editorial Review, DC — NPR

Senior Technology Reporter, Remote — Axios

Senior Business Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Reporter - China Economy, Singapore — WSJ

Editor, MA — Commonwealth Beacon

Managing Editor, NE — Omaha World-Herald

Senior Editor - Culture Desk — The Atlantic

Political Reporter, LA — The Advocate

General Assignment Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

California Governor Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Private Equity Reporter, NY — The Information

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Managing Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

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Staff Editor - News, CA — The Athletic

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More News:

Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Shutterstock announces an expanded, six-year partnership with OpenAI that grants access to its video, image, and music libraries for AI training; SSTK jumps 9%+

Discussion: MediaPost, TechCrunch, The Verge, @glenngabe and NBC 7 San Diego, more at Techmeme »

Adam Buckman / MediaPost:
CNN launched a new weeknight primetime show, “The Source”, anchored by Kaitlan Collins, on July 10 at 9pm ET; Collins most recently co-anchored CNN This Morning

Discussion: @brianstelter

Michael Geist:
Canada outlines planned regulations for Bill C-18 that cap liability and set minimum financial contributions by Meta and Google based on their Canadian revenue

Discussion: National Post, @mgeist, @hermida, Bloomberg, The Wrap, @smlabto, @mgeist, @cselley, @mattgurney, @_llebrun, @mgeist, @elliemaeohagan and Globe and Mail

Axios:
Source: Instagram plans to add branded content tools to Threads, letting marketers do paid promotion, but won't add ads before Threads hits a critical user mass

Discussion: Search Engine Land, @idoubtit@mstdn.social, 9to5Mac, Ad Age and The Drum, more at Techmeme »

Michael Lipin / Voice of America:
Q&A with CPJ's Yeganeh Rezaian on jailed female Iranian journalists Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamedi and how Iran handles high-profile political prisoners

Discussion: @voadirector, @pressfreedom and @michael_lipin

Earlier Picks:

Reuters:
Meta told an Australian foreign interference inquiry the company plans to add “state-affiliated media” and “fact-checking” labels to Threads “expeditiously”

more at Techmeme »

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

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family sell the San Diego Union-Tribune to an affiliate of Alden Global Capital's newspaper publisher MediaNews, which promised cuts

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

Discussion: Defector, @katie_robertson, Poynter, @sunlorrie, Nieman Lab, Wall Street Journal, Front Office Sports, @dcsportsbog, @mpolymer, @theseantcollins, American Press Institute, @christophclarey, @smbahr14, @johnbranchnyt, @viclombardi, @joshneedelman, @joshkraushaar, @paulschwartzman, @fos, @mattstephens, @jbenton, @feralvarez, @jackcurryyes, @dcsportsbog, @fox29philly, @jakejakeny, @sulliview, USA Today, @albaneselaura, @elaheizadi, @jbenton, The New York Times Company, @danbarrynyt, Washington Post, @mikebarnicle, @megreenwell, @jbflint, @katierosman, @genepark, @byjameswagner, @pkafka, @jakesherman, @ppistone, Sports Media Watch, @digitalshields, @rafat, @rwesthead, @mrwaltershapiro, @marcpdumont, @eugenefreedman, @sportingtrib, @jessimckenzi, @mikebeauvais, @chrisdeville, @bgrueskin, @mattkatz00, Los Angeles Times, @lmoses, @arnoldcommajon, @loudmouthjulia, @zeppelin_tours, @jamestylerespn, @hammbear2024, @rickyjmarc, @alexweprin, @richlightshed, @timfernholz, @zwoolfe, @aagave, @jasonshevrin, @bkoo, @tim_bays, @sherman4949, The Information, TVNewsCheck, MediaPost, Fox News, HuffPost, Media Nation, Newser, CNN, Sportico, CBS News, Variety, Press Gazette, The Big Lead, The Wrap, New York Post, New Jersey Online, Mediaite, The Hill, The Daily Beast, Awful Announcing, @jackmirkinson.bsky.social, The Daily Beast and Deadline

From Techmeme:

Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Microsoft's AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman says content on the open web is “freeware” that anyone can copy or use to reproduce, due to the fair use “social contract”

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
TeamViewer warns that its corporate environment was breached on June 26, and attributes the cyberattack to the Russian hacking group APT29 aka Midnight Blizzard

Eliza Gkritsi / Euractiv:
Margrethe Vestager says Apple's decision not to launch its AI features in the EU is a “stunning, open declaration” of the company's anticompetitive behavior

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