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11:30 AM ET, August 18, 2023

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
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” …
RELATED:
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 …
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Columbia's journalism school begins offering graduates in nonprofit news $5K to $10K forgivable loans each year, with a max total of $50K, to pay student loans  —  “It takes away a little bit of anxiety about pursuing a degree in journalism if you know that there is a path through which the cost can be covered.”
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Twitch plans to roll out a long-requested anti-harassment feature in the next few weeks, letting streamers block banned users from watching streams  —  Twitch's chat ban tools have been around for ages, but the platform is about to hand streamers a way to control who can watch a stream to begin with.
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 …
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.
Reuters:
How major advertisers have adopted AI: WPP is using AI in Nestle and Mondelez campaigns, citing 10x-20x savings; Unilever developed its own generative AI  —  Some of the world's biggest advertisers, from food giant Nestle (NESN.S) to consumer goods multinational Unilever (ULVR.L) …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Netflix partners with Jio Platforms, India's largest telecom operator, to bundle its Netflix Basic streaming tier with two of the carrier's pay-as-you-go plans  —  Netflix has inked a “first-of-its-kind” deal with Jio Platforms, India's largest telecom operator, to bundle the streaming service …
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 …
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
 
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 More News: 
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
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
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
 Earlier Picks: 
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
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
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