Mediagazer: Dish reports Dish TV lost 197K subscribers in Q2, leaving 6.9M, Sling TV lost 97K subscribers, leaving 2M, and total pay TV subscribers fell 11% YoY to 8.9M (Luke Bouma/Cord Cutters News)

5:00 PM ET, August 8, 2023

Top News:

Charlie Ergen strikes a deal to merge Dish and EchoStar, as he shifts away from the shrinking pay-TV network to compete with wireless giants like AT&T — Deal aims to give Dish the financial flexibility it needs to compete in the next generation of wireless

Discussion: Light Reading, Axios, Deadline, CNBC, Reuters, Broadband TV News, Total Telecom, The Desk, The Hollywood Reporter, @semaforcomms, Next TV, Bloomberg, The Wrap, @kerrymflynn, The Verge, Radio & Television … and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News:

Dish reports Dish TV lost 197K subscribers in Q2, leaving 6.9M, Sling TV lost 97K subscribers, leaving 2M, and total pay TV subscribers fell 11% YoY to 8.9M — Today DISH announced its 2nd quarter 2023 earnings and reported that DISH and Sling TV lost 294,000 subscribers.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Media Play News, The Streamable, The Desk and @tvgrimreaper

Sara Fischer / Axios:

OpenAI plans to fund a new initiative at NYU's journalism school with a $395K grant, which will provide workshops on journalism ethics issues — OpenAI, the parent company to ChatGPT, will fund a new journalism ethics initiative at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute …

Discussion: @tonyajoriley, Shelly Palmer, @_felixsimon_, @ingrid@everything …, @dicktofel and @jackmirkinson.bsky.social

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Given the countless times Elon Musk has walked back announcements, the business media must rethink its coverage of X, Musk, and the fight with Mark Zuckerberg — After a weekend of whoppers about X and fighting Mark Zuckerberg, the press should take a more skeptical approach

Natalie Korach / The Wrap:

BuzzFeed misses with Q2 revenue down 27% YoY to $77.9M, ad revenue down 33% YoY to $35.4M, and a net loss of $27.8M vs. $23.6M in Q2 2022 — The struggling media company reports a net loss Tuesday for the second quarter of $27.8 million — BuzzFeed ended June with $41.3 million in cash …

Discussion: Business Wire

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Puck raised a $10M+ Series B led by J Rothschild Capital Management and plans to hire 8 to 10 new people in 2023; the outlet currently has 31 employees — Puck, the buzzy media startup that covers the intersection of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington …

Discussion: The Wrap, The Information and @sarafischer

Agence France-Presse:

News Media Canada, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, CBC, and Radio-Canada ask Canada's competition watchdog to investigate Meta's blocking of news — Media on Tuesday asked Canada's competition watchdog to investigate Meta's blocking of news articles on Facebook and Instagram …

Discussion: The Guardian and Canadian Association …

ESPN Press Room U.S.:

ESPN and Penn Entertainment unveil a deal to launch ESPN BET this fall; Penn plans to rebrand its current sportsbook in the 16 US states where Penn is licensed — Sports betting deal to include a streamlined experience for sports fans — ESPN today announced an agreement with PENN Entertainment …

Discussion: @barstoolsports, @barstoolsports, @sherman4949, Business Wire, The Hollywood Reporter and @jbflint

Jane Friedman:

An author finds “garbage books”, most likely AI-generated, uploaded to Amazon under her name and added to Goodreads; both services have since removed the titles — Update (afternoon of Aug. 7): Hours after this post was published, my official Goodreads profile was cleaned of the offending titles.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, @erikbryn, @janefriedman, @thesarahrose, @janefriedman, @mariavalewrites.bsky.social, @tylerking.bsky.social, @jenhoward.bsky.social, @lilithsaintcrow …, @edsermark.bsky.social, @jasonsanford.bsky.social and Decrypt, more at Techmeme »

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Prosecraft, which compiled 27K+ books to compare their language's “vividness”, shuts down after a writer backlash over the site's potential generative AI uses

Discussion: @pronounced_ing, @benji_smith, @bibliogato, @kaylaancrum, @pronounced_ing, @harikunzru, @pronounced_ing, @zachrosewriter, @lindaholmes, Philosophy bear, CityLife, The Shaxpir Blog, The A.V. Club and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Sources: earlier in 2023, Disney created a task force to study how the company can apply AI, develop in-house AI apps, and form partnerships with startups — Walt Disney (DIS.N) has created a task force to study artificial intelligence and how it can be applied across the entertainment conglomerate …

Discussion: IndieWire, Gizmodo, Fortune, @chris@mastodon … and Collider

Sara Fischer / Axios:

The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson says the outlet hopes to be profitable in 2024, plans to seek higher-margin ad deals, and has 925K subscribers — The Atlantic has booked $19.5 million in advertising and events revenue so far this year, according to data shown to staff during …

Discussion: @sarafischer

Sam Roberts / New York Times:

Rhoda Karpatkin, the former executive director and president of Consumer Reports who doubled subscriptions to 4.3M, is dead at 93 — The first woman to be named executive director of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, she expanded its readership and its influence in Washington.

Discussion: @mltellado, @jimshultz, TACD and @chrishendel

Mark Hicks / The Detroit News:

Bob Giles, who led two newsrooms to Pulitzers, oversaw Nieman Journalism Lab's launch, and selected and hosted hundreds of Nieman Fellows at Harvard, dies at 90 — Former Detroit News editor and publisher Bob Giles ― who led the paper to a Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor in journalism …

Discussion: @jodeet, @bethelmckenzie, @erniesuggs, @tommytomlinson, Detroit Free Press and Nieman Foundation

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Katie Robertson / New York Times:
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A UK CMA report finds that Apple's policies hold back innovation in mobile browsers and recommends investigating Apple and Google's mobile ecosystem activities

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