Mediagazer: Rhoda Karpatkin, the former executive director and president of Consumer Union who doubled Consumer Reports subscriptions to 4.3M, died on August 4 at 93 (Sam Roberts/New York Times)

9:40 PM ET, August 8, 2023

Top News:

ESPN and Penn Entertainment unveil a deal to launch ESPN Bet, as Penn rebrands its sportsbook in the 16 US states where it is licensed; PENN up ~15% after hours — Sports betting deal to include a streamlined experience for sports fans — ESPN today announced an agreement with PENN Entertainment …

Axios:

Penn Entertainment is selling Barstool Sports back to founder Dave Portnoy, who has accepted certain noncompete agreements; Penn had bought Barstool for $551M — - Tim Baysinger- Kerry Flynn- Sara Fischer — ESPN on Tuesday announced a betting joint venture with casino operator PENN Entertainment …

Katherine Sayre / Wall Street Journal:
ESPN's deal allowing Penn to use its brand for ESPN Bet is worth $2B over 10 years: $1.5B in cash plus warrants worth about $500M to purchase shares in Penn

Discussion: CNN, The Streamable and Front Office Sports

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: BuzzFeed Inc., @jordannovet, @ckrewson, @matthewkeyslive, The Hollywood Reporter, Business Wire and @baekdal

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, @tvgrimreaper, Media Play News, The Streamable and The Desk

Wall Street Journal:
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

Sara Fischer / Axios:

OpenAI plans to offer a $395K grant to fund a new initiative at New York University's journalism school that 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: MediaPost, @tonyajoriley, Shelly Palmer, @_felixsimon_, @dicktofel, @jackmirkinson.bsky.social and @ingrid@everything …

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Puck raised a $10M+ Series B led by J Rothschild Capital Management and plans to hire 8 to 10 people in 2023; the outlet has 31 employees and is not profitable — Puck, the buzzy media startup that covers the intersection of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington …

Discussion: The Wrap, @sarafischer and The Information

Sam Roberts / New York Times:

Rhoda Karpatkin, the former executive director and president of Consumer Union who doubled Consumer Reports subscriptions to 4.3M, died on August 4 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

Jeff Kosseff / Wired:

Unlike in Gonzalez v. Google, SCOTUS in the next year can't just punt the NetChoice cases challenging social media content moderation laws in Texas and Florida — Forget Gonzalez v. Google. There's another dispute that will come before the justices in the next year and this time they will …

Discussion: @joeo10@mastodon.sdf.org and @PrivacyDigest@mas.to, more at Techmeme »

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, @erniesuggs, Detroit Free Press, @tommytomlinson, @bethelmckenzie and Nieman Foundation

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

Catherine Perloff / Adweek:

Google changes the name of one of its advertising video formats from “in-stream ads” to “skippable ads”, after a report accused YouTube of misleading buyers — What was once in-stream ads are now skippable ads — Google changed the name of one of its video formats …

more at Techmeme »

Agence France-Presse:

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

Discussion: Al Jazeera and Canadian Association …

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: Gizmodo, 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, @kaylaancrum, @zachrosewriter, @bibliogato, @pronounced_ing, @lindaholmes, @harikunzru, @pronounced_ing, Philosophy bear, CityLife, The Shaxpir Blog, The A.V. Club and Gizmodo

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 9:40 PM ET, August 8, 2023.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Local Government Reporter, IA — The Gazette

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Editorial Assistant, Remote US — Launch Potato

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
YouTube will stop showing users recommended videos in some places, including the homepage, when watch history is turned off entirely

Discussion: The Verge, Engadget, @carnage4life@mas.to, TechCrunch and @sportstvratings, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:
Sources: Google and UMG are in talks to license artists' melodies and voices for AI-made songs; goals include making a tool for fans and paying copyright owners

Discussion: MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Max Kim / Los Angeles Times:
The Korea Broadcasting Actors Union says Netflix is not responding to calls to meet, as the union asks for the same residuals that US actors get under SAG-AFTRA

Discussion: Rolling Stone, New York Post, @aliciadcarroll, @wgawest, @sev___, @ingloriousgigi.bsky.social, @oriana_banana, @carriecnh12, @judyberman.bsky.social, @elisewho, @lawoftd, Inverse, @dasgoot1, Screen Rant and Collider

Jon Lafayette / Next TV:
Nexstar reports Q2 net revenue down 0.4% YoY to $1.24B, adjusted EBITDA down 32% YoY to $331M, a $78M loss for the CW, and core TV ad revenue down 2.2% to $404M

Discussion: MediaPost, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, TVNewsCheck, Nexstar Media Group, Inc., The Desk and The Wrap

Reuters:
Sources: earlier in 2023, before the writers' strike, Disney created a task force to study how to apply AI, develop AI apps in-house, and partner with startups

Discussion: Breitbart, IndieWire, New York Post, Gizmodo, @chris@mastodon …, Fortune and Collider

Wesley Hilliard / AppleInsider:
Apple Music launches Discovery Station, akin to Spotify's algorithmic track recommendations, available via the Listen Now tab in the Stations for You category

Discussion: ZDNet, Android Police, Music Ally, @HilliTech@techhub.social, TechCrunch and The Verge

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Spotify expands its AI-powered DJ beta, available in the app's Music feed, to ~50 markets, six months after debuting the English-only feature in North America

Discussion: Spotify, Engadget, Gizmodo, @eldsjal, AppleInsider, Bloomberg and Digital Music News, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
Fox Corp reports Q4 revenue flat at $3.03B and net income up 20% YoY to $369M; FY 2023 revenue rose 7% YoY to $14.91B and net income rose 2% YoY to $1.25B

Discussion: @bristei, New York Post, @bristei, @bristei, The Desk, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, PR Newswire and Deadline

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
The New York Times reports Q2 revenue up 6% YoY to $590.9M, $92.2M adjusted operating profit, 9.88M subscribers, and subscription revenue up 7% YoY to $409.6M

Discussion: The Wrap, @loudmouthjulia, @newspaperworld, Front Office Sports, @loudmouthjulia, Poynter, @azagata.bsky.social and Yahoo Finance

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

Killian Faith-Kelly / Press Gazette:
An interview with The Times obituary writer Damian Arnold on his workday, stock obituaries, the right way to die, writing his first obituary in 2008, and more

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

Discussion: @karissabe, @fos, @messiquote, @pkedrosky, Awful Announcing and The Ringer

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

Discussion: The Information

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Donald Trump announces that Sriram Krishnan, until recently a general partner at a16z, will serve as senior policy advisor for AI at the White House OSTP

Financial Times:
Sources: Palantir and Anduril are in talks with OpenAI, SpaceX, and more to form a consortium to bid for US defense contracts and plan to announce it in January

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page