Mediagazer: Internal doc: Spotify weighed removing white noise podcasts and redirecting users to “talk” content, which would boost the company's annual gross profit by €35M (Ashley Carman/Bloomberg)

10:15 PM ET, August 17, 2023

Top News:

Richard Rushfield / The Ankler:

Q&A with FTC Chair Lina Khan on visiting a WGA picket in NYC to hear from “people on the ground”, plus other Hollywood issues like M&A regulation and new tech — The FTC chair and Biden breakout star on her WGA meetings, A.I. and why the agency's keeping an eye on entertainment

Discussion: Variety and Bloomberg

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

The WGA urges antitrust regulators to stop M&A in streaming, saying that Netflix, Amazon, and Disney amassed market power that depresses wages and limits choice — The Writers Guild of America issued a report on Thursday calling Netflix, Amazon and Disney the “new gatekeepers” …

Discussion: IGN, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, @jbflint, @wgawest, IndieWire, Writers Guild of America West, @slack2thefuture and The Wrap

Kim Zetter / Zero Day:

How Timothy Burke accessed video from Fox News and why his lawyer says Florida prosecutors are using a “novel and unsupported” interpretation of the CFAA — But attorneys for Timothy Burke say a raid on his home and office exhibit government over-reach and misuse of the federal hacking law …

Discussion: @kimzetter, @kimzetter, @bubbaprog, @snlyngaas, @kimzetter@infosec.exchange and @steve@s.yelvington.com

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Sources: news publishers in the US say Meta made changes that cut their Facebook referral traffic; one publisher said traffic fell by 30%+ YoY, another by ~40% — Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

Discussion: @blackamazon, @johnbattelle@threads.net, @davidclinchnews and @johnbuckley.bsky.social

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Microsoft's Start, which uses AI to summarize news and other content, lists the Ottawa Food Bank as a tourist site and suggests visiting on “an empty stomach” — Microsoft published an AI-generated travel article about Ottawa, Canada that prominently recommended tourists visit …

Discussion: Fast Company, @corbin@toot.community, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @parismarx, @verge-poster.bsky.social, @harrymccracken@sfba.social, @ddsd.bsky.social, @fraying@xoxo.zone, @ianbetteridge@writing …, @the_verge@mastodon.social, @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org and @dclan@mstdn.ca

Brian X. Chen / New York Times:

Surveys: ~50% of Americans watch TV with subtitles on most of the time, as sound quality suffers from compressed audio and tiny, relatively weak TV speakers — Many of us stream shows and movies with the subtitles on all the time — and not because it's cool.

Discussion: @voron@mstdn.party, @michellemanafy@journa.host and @jalefkowit@octodon.social

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:

Trustees of NYC's pension funds send letters to the CEOs of Disney, Comcast, and Paramount Global, calling on them to negotiate and end the Hollywood strikes — Brad Lander and five pension fund trustees call on Paramount, Comcast and Disney executives to “end the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes promptly”

Discussion: Deadline

ACA Blog:

Nine, which owns The Sydney Morning Herald and others, plans to stop publishing comic strips, after News Corp and Australia Community Media did the same in 2022 — The Australian Cartoonists Association notes with disappointment that the Nine newspapers (including The Age, the Sunday Age …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Apple says the company removed all episodes of The Glenn Beck Program from Apple Podcasts because of a trademark dispute that has since been resolved — Reached for comment, an Apple spokesman told Variety that “The Glenn Beck Program” was removed from Apple Podcasts because of a trademark …

Discussion: The Desk, @glennbeck, The Post Millennial, Inside Radio, Mediaite, Podnews, TheBlaze, AppleInsider, Reclaim The Net, Deadline and Mediaite, more at Techmeme »

Jim Edwards / Press Gazette:

A profile of Fortune EIC Alyson Shontell, two years into her tenure, as she reorients the outlet to be digital-first and develops e-commerce as a revenue stream — Fortune's editor-in-chief says print is “an important differentiator” despite digital drive.

Discussion: @jeffjohnroberts

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:

A Revson Foundation report looks at how governments, banks, and philanthropy could help make loans and credit programs more accessible for local news outlets — The precarity of local news outlets has left them with “little to no access to capital.” A new report imagines what state and local government …

Discussion: The City

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Internal doc: Spotify weighed removing white noise podcasts and redirecting users to “talk” content, which would boost the company's annual gross profit by €35M — An internal document shows that white noise podcasts account for 3 million daily consumption hours on the platform

Discussion: @mylesudland, @cullend, @dada_drummer, @aotearoa_ben, @ashleyrcarman, @muckymann, @katienotopoulos@threads.net, @loudmouthjulia, The Verge, @cwarzel.bsky.social and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

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More News:

Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap:
USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative: the share of speaking female roles in the top 100 grossing films in 2022 was 34.6%, up 4.7 percentage points since 2007

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Steven McIntosh / BBC:
UK broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson dies at the age of 88; his TV career spanned seven decades, and he interviewed the world's biggest stars on his chat show

Calum Marsh / New York Times:
Documentaries about the annual CrossFit Games from CrossFit's media team have become consistent streaming hits due to their niche fitness community audience

Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:
A deep dive into X's Community Notes, including how the algorithm works, whether the feature actually fights polarization, and its use in high-stakes situations

Discussion: @vitalikbuterin, @carnage4life@mas.to, @iamdcinvestor, @timsweeneyepic, @mohithagadi, @diligentium, @scobleizer, @christophera, @elonmusk, @_jaybaxter_, @iuventini, @anirudh_chohan, @arthaud_, @kcoleman, @davidstehle and @smbounds, more at Techmeme »

Reggie Ugwu / New York Times:
A look at “MovieTok” influencers like Maddi Moo, Straw Hat Goofy, and Cinema.Joe, who reach millions of TikTok users by reviewing, analyzing, or promoting films

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Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Struum, an aggregator that used a ClassPass model for streaming content and was backed by Michael Eisner's investment firm Tornante, quietly shut down in 2022

Earlier Picks:

Eric Hananoki / Media Matters for America:
Six days after making brand safety assurances, X placed ads for The Athletic, MLB, USA Today, and others on a pro-Hitler account, before suspending the account

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Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Paramount drops its plans to sell a majority stake in BET Media, concluding that a sale wouldn't lead to a meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet

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The Hollywood Reporter:
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Discussion: Variety, Media Play News, WORLD SCREEN, Deadline and The Wrap

Bobby Allyn / NPR:
Sources: The New York Times' lawyers are exploring suing OpenAI to protect the news outlet's IP rights, after tense negotiations over a potential licensing deal

Discussion: Fortune, Gizmodo, The Drum, @bhaggart, @moonalice, @bhaggart, @bhaggart, @neilturkewitz, New York Post, The Conversation, Plagiarism Today, @hdv@front-end.social, Poynter, Insider, @baldur@toot.cafe, @npr_bot@m.ai6yr.org and Vanity Fair

Jonathan Randles / Bloomberg:
Diamond Sports sues Sinclair for allegedly siphoning $1.5B+ and cites testimony that Sinclair's executive chairman planned to “milk” Diamond via management fees

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From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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