Top News:
New York Times:
People, The Washington Times, MarketWatch, and others fell for an elaborate hoax that claimed Barbie dolls would be plastic free by 2030; most removed the posts — The false campaign by environmental activists claimed that the toy giant was launching a new line of decomposable Barbies and would stop using plastic by 2030.
Discussion:
Washington Times, The Wrap, CBS News, The Hill, @corbinhiar, @therockfather, @weareyellowdot, Yahoo Entertainment, @dhlovelife, New York Post and The Toy Book
Emily Longeretta / Variety:
Digital media company Factz acquires celebrity entertainment news site Hollywood Life; founder and EIC Bonnie Fuller leaves the company — Factz, a digital media company, acquired the celebrity entertainment news site HollywoodLife.com on Tuesday. Founder, president and editor-in-chief Bonnie Fuller is no longer part of the company.
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
PBS announces that The Atlantic EIC Jeffrey Goldberg will be the next moderator of Washington Week, which will be renamed Washington Week With The Atlantic — The Atlantic will co-produce the show, which will be renamed “Washington Week With The Atlantic.” The publication will cover some of the costs and help sell sponsorships.
Discussion:
The Hill, Variety, @libertyjunky420, @corbinbolies, @lisadnews, @nxthompson, @ggreenwald, Current, The Atlantic, Deadline, The Daily Beast, The Hollywood Reporter, @benmullin, Semafor and @peterlattman
Alex Ross / New Yorker:
After iTunes failed to save classical music, Apple Music Classical seems an oddly clumsy point of entry, offering some good features but falling short of rivals — As classical listeners shift to streaming, Apple's bespoke app falls short of its smaller-scale competitors.
Discussion:
@ionarts, @ajdoug, @oxfordclock, @scurve and MIT Technology Review, more at Techmeme »
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon faced a search warrant and subpoena in July and is now on medical leave; the merger with Endeavor's UFC is on track — The WWE said in a footnote to a SEC filing that federal agents executed a search warrant and served a federal grand jury subpoena on McMahon July 17.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Breitbart, NBC News, New York Daily News, Bleacher Report, WrestleTalk, Sportico, ComingSoon.net and Deadline
Charley Piringi / The Guardian:
The Solomon Star and other newspapers in the Solomon Islands face criticism after accepting funding from China in exchange for positive coverage — The Solomon Star denies accusations of ‘giving away’ its independence by accepting thousands of dollars' worth of equipment
Discussion:
@dailypostdan
John Herrman / New York Magazine:
Three theories about how AI will change the news: replace some outlets entirely, be a helpful tool, or turn news organizations into wire services — Here are three theories of the case. — In early July, the Associated Press made a deal with OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, to license …
Discussion:
@omkar_raii, @mediaevan, Poynter, @cyrilsam, New York Post and What's New in Publishing
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Fiction-focused podcast company Realm, which has raised $20M, acquires kids content company Pinna and Lipstick & Vinyl, which focuses on unscripted shows — The fiction-focused business is also acquiring Lipstick & Vinyl and partnering with family programmers on ads
John Koblin / New York Times:
The Writers Guild of America told screenwriters in an email that it agreed to restart talks with Carol Lombardini, the studio negotiator, on Friday, August 4 — A strike by writers and actors has caused nearly a complete production shutdown of scripted entertainment.
Discussion:
Screen Rant, CBS News, Deadline, Next TV, @wgaeast, @alexblagg, @ddayen, Los Angeles Times, The A.V. Club, The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Rant and Vanity Fair
Mark Caro / Local News Initiative:
Q&A with ex-Washington Post chief Marty Baron on the need for outlets to figure out a commercially successful model by themselves, the role of owners, and more — In Pt. 1 of interview, Marty Baron calls on journalists to stop the nostalgia and doom-and-gloom and to focus on solving problems and making tough choices
Discussion:
@capitalresearch, @jacobin, Poynter, @dicktofel, @palewire, @markcaro, @mollybeck, @petercanellos, @tvgrimreaper, @dicktofel, @timafranklin, @timafranklin, @sarahscire and @ssuttell
Liz Shackleton / Deadline:
MPA: Southeast Asia added only 7K net new streaming subscribers in H1 2023, down from 7M in H2 2022, for 47.6M total; TikTok had 42% of video streaming minutes — Southeast Asia only added 7,000 net new SVOD subscriptions in the first half of 2023, a big slowdown from 7 million new subscribers …
Discussion:
WORLD SCREEN and Variety
Emilia David / The Verge:
Meta releases AudioCraft, a new open-source AI model that lets users create music and sounds via prompts, consisting of MusicGen, AudioGen, and EnCodec models — It consists of three AI models, all tackling different areas of sound generation. MusicGen takes text inputs to generate music.
Discussion:
Fast Company, Variety, Quartz, TechCrunch, Meta, Engadget and @stockmktnewz, more at Techmeme »
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