Top News:
Alex Webb / Bloomberg:
How Lionel Messi coming to MLS may help Apple attract international TV+ subscribers, as the service has almost no content made for non-English-speaking markets — Lionel Messi may be just what Apple TV+ needed. But first... Apple TV+ has come a long way in a relatively short period of time.
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Insider, more at Techmeme »
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The Ringer:
Apple is “out-HBOing” HBO with quality scripted content filled with marquee casts, but its dividends in viewership, subscriptions, and revenue are murkier — Apple TV+ has amassed a rich library of original content in less than four years—with the awards season nominations to prove it.
Discussion:
@shermanjeff, @sarthakgh, @tvgrimreaper, @serenepapenfuss, @nycsouthpaw, @peterschorschfl and @joshschoen
New York Times:
Paramount reaches a $1.62B deal to sell Simon & Schuster to private equity firm KKR; the prestigious US publisher was first put up for sale in March 2020 — The deal, for $1.62 billion, will put control of a cultural touchstone in the hands of a financial buyer.
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Mia Sato / The Verge:
TikTok unveils Gimme the Mic, a music competition hosted on livestreams where the US winner receives 50K Diamonds, the USD conversion rate for which is unclear — TikTok will host a music contest similar to popular talent shows like The Voice, the company announced today.
Discussion:
TikTok, Music Ally, TechCrunch and Tubefilter
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: the NYT placed Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf on leave earlier in 2023 during a probe into her possible misuse of funds, like overpaying non-US staff — The Scoop — The New York Times fired its second Baghdad bureau chief in five years in a bizarre saga that has infuriated some of the paper's staff in the Middle East.
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: WBD is targeting the beginning of the MLB playoffs to debut a sports tier for Max, planning to use the Bleacher Report brand to target young audiences — - Warner Bros. Discovery plans to simulcast live games on cable TV and Max streaming in October.
Financial Times:
A profile of German millionaire Holger Friedrich, who has been engulfed by controversies since acquiring and leading a turnaround of the daily Berliner Zeitung — East German entrepreneur has been engulfed by a string of controversies since buying historic Berliner Zeitung
Discussion:
@laurapitel, @a_reader_ft, @rubenanguiano and @tonytassell
Chris Lee / Vulture:
A group of 50+ Marvel VFX employees votes to be represented by IATSE, marking the first time VFX professionals have banded together to form a union — Call it the Hollywood-labor-organizing version of Avengers Assemble! On the heels of more than a year's worth of damning disclosures around …
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New York Times:
Shoddy self-published guidebooks, which appear to be compiled with the help of generative AI and promoted via deceptive reviews, are proliferating on Amazon — In March, as she planned for an upcoming trip to France, Amy Kolsky, an experienced international traveler who lives in Bucks County …
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
UK broadcast regulator Ofcom launches four impartiality investigations into GB News, after upholding two Mark Steyn COVID-19 coverage complaints earlier in 2023 — Broadcaster faces four Ofcom investigations over impartiality. — GB News is facing four new impartiality investigations from broadcast regulator Ofcom.
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
After social media upended the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle magazine industries, some women turn to Facebook Groups and Substack for curated recommendations — People still want to know what to wear and what is actually worth buying — and they want to trust the person telling them.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Prosecraft, a site which compiled 27K+ books to compare and rank the “vividness” of their language, shuts down after writers' backlash over its possible AI uses — On Monday morning, numerous writers woke up to learn that their books had been uploaded and scanned into a massive dataset without their consent.
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