Top News:
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
News reporters shouldn't write off AI assistance for first drafts of stories; often, those drafts aren't publishable but can be useful to human journalists — Dystopian, yes — but tools don't have to be perfect to be useful to journalists. — Every other semester, I teach …
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Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: an Insider executive editor updates staffers on AI experiments and recommends AI not be used for quoting facts, data analysis, or getting up-to-date info — Insider's executive editor sent a note to staff today addressing how the newsroom's pilot group is using AI [image]
Discussion:
@journalist_guy, @thenewsan, @scottnover, @kaylaepstein and @scottnover
Mathew Ingram / Columbia Journalism Review:
News organizations' deals with OpenAI and its rivals echo past Google and Meta “partnerships” and could ultimately help companies put journalists out of work
News organizations' deals with OpenAI and its rivals echo past Google and Meta “partnerships” and could ultimately help companies put journalists out of work
Discussion:
New York Post, The Verge, @espiers, @mathewi, @cjr, @jayrosen_nyu, Platformer, The Information, @sarahposner.bsky.social and Vanity Fair, more at Techmeme »
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: Disney CEO Bob Iger and ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro have held early talks with the NFL, NBA, and MLB about adding them as minority investors in ESPN — - ESPN has held early talks about strategic partnerships with the NBA, NFL and MLB that could include the leagues taking an equity stake in the business, sources told CNBC.
Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Spotify plans to raise its US ad-free premium tier's price for the first time, by $1 to $10.99/month, and increase prices globally in the coming months — Audio company had avoided raising prices, but faces investor pressure to increase profitability
Marie Woolf / Globe and Mail:
Some Quebec radio stations and news pubs are refusing to run Meta ads that inform Canadians of the company's plan to block news links on Facebook and Instagram — Meta has started to run ads to inform Canadians of its plan to block the viewing and sharing of news content on Facebook …
Discussion:
CBC News, @fancrtcprofling, @pagmenzies, @dylanlindgren, @mgeist and @freemangrist
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Former White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield joins CNN as an on-air political commentator; she left her White House post in February 2023 — Former White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield has joined CNN as an on-air political commentator.
Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
How TV writing became a dead-end job with dwindling weekly pay as studios break down the job of making TV shows into simpler, lower-paid tasks — The writers say Hollywood studios are increasingly limiting their roles in television productions, highlighting a trend for white-collar workers.
Adam Sherwin / The i Paper:
UK's Global radio, which owns the LBC, Capital, and Heart brands, plans to restructure 11 newsrooms across the country, which could mean up to 40 job cuts — Journalists warn Global radio plans could ‘decimate local news’ with 40 jobs under threat at the home to Capital, Smooth, LBC and Heart
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:
Former ABC News producer James Gordon Meek pleads guilty to CSAM transportation and possession, but not distribution; the US DOJ arrested Meek in February 2023 — The harrowing legal saga—the type of story that could've appeared on Meek's former network— has reached its conclusion.
Discussion:
Variety, The Desk, Insider, Deadline, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, TVNewsCheck, Boing Boing, The San Diego Union-Tribune and Rolling Stone
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
TikTok launches its Commercial Content Library, giving the public access to ad data, including targeting parameters, but only ad data from Europe is available — TikTok has finally launched an ads transparency library — starting with data on ads and other commercial content running in Europe but with plans to expand that.
Discussion:
@tiktokcomms, @carolinegreer, @jadenester, @parkerjbach, Search Engine Land, TikTok and Gadgets 360
Nora Neus / Poynter:
A look at the ethics policy of not paying sources for stories or information, and how compensating people for their time could enable broader, deeper reporting — Amid industrywide conversations about whose stories get told and who profits, it's worth revisiting this blanket rule with some more nuance.
Discussion:
@poynter
Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
Hearst Magazines Media Union says 41 members were laid off due to “company restructuring”; Elle, Seventeen, and Men's Health are among the impacted publications — Hearst Magazines Media Union, which announced the news Thursday, says, “We are losing talented people whose creativity …