Top News:
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Kendall Baker, who led Axios Sports and now heads up newsletters at Yahoo Sports, on sports media competitors, what attracted him to Yahoo, and more — “I believe, if we do our job as well as we can, we're going to make sports fans into even bigger sports fans …
Discussion:
Media Voices, @niemanlab, @niemanfdn, @niemanlab, @markjburns88 and @kendallbaker
Tim Adams / The Guardian:
An interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner and Novaya Gazeta EIC Dmitry Muratov on the documentary about him, attacks on reporters, his motivations, and more — The Russian newspaper editor speaks from Moscow in an exclusive interview as a new film biography charts his defiance of the Kremlin during the war in Ukraine
Discussion:
@alexwitzleben, @johnobrennan2, @mandoline_blue, @kenroth, @luighseach and @youarelobbylud
Semafor:
Sources describe a conversation where Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy asked GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to pay if he wanted the network to cover him — If Vivek Ramaswamy wants to appear on Newsmax, he should pay to do it. — That was the message that network chief Chris Ruddy delivered …
Discussion:
@defensebaron, @chrislhayes, @forwardcarolina, @thateljefe, @ivanthek, @schwartzesque and @semaforben
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
More media consolidation is likely, but most analysts say high interest rates, regulatory hurdles, and a shaky ad market make for one of the worst times to sell — Experts agree the media business needs to consolidate. But high interest rates, a hostile government and a shaky advertising market …
Discussion:
@lucas_shaw
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
A judge upholds a US Copyright Office finding that artwork created by AI isn't eligible for copyright protection as “human authorship is a bedrock requirement” — A federal judge on Friday upheld a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office that a piece of art created by AI is not open to protection.
Discussion:
The Verge, Comic Book, @jon@henshaw.social, @justinebateman, Mashable SEA, @maxkennerly@mstdn.social, @tprstly, @josourcing, @jeffjarvis.bsky.social, @batdorkgirl, @robsforman, @baldur@toot.cafe, @bruces.bsky.social, @rusmclaughlin.bsky.social, @slack2thefuture …, The A.V. Club, @troutgirl@hachyderm.io, @mhwilliams.bsky.social, @greene.haus, @robprather.bsky.social, US District Court for the District of Columbia, The Wrap, Bloomberg Law, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Jo
David Ljunggren / Reuters:
Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge demands that Meta lift its “reckless” news ban on Facebook and Instagram for the safety of people fleeing wildfires — The Canadian government on Friday demanded that Meta (META.O) lift a “reckless” ban on domestic news from its platforms …
Discussion:
@buccocapital, @sub8u, @levie, @caj, @pascalestonge_, Insider, Los Angeles Times, @bgrueskin, @bgrueskin, @jason_kint, @mgeist, @swiftie01, @zachklipp@androiddev.social, @Rothtran@econtwitter.net, @pernillet@mastodon.online, @seth@sethlong.social, @cube_drone@mastodon.social, Associated Press, @J12t@social.coop and @Nonilex@masto.ai
RELATED:
Pete Evans / CBC News:
Evacuees from the wildfires threatening Yellowknife say that Meta's news fight with Canada's government makes it harder for them to share lifesaving information
Discussion:
Wired, @dtsailawyermba, BBC, Cabin Radio, Fast Company, @mxtthxw@mxtthxw.art, National Observer, The Guardian, Newser and CBS News
Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:
How The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Sun, The Independent, and other publishers are using non-news verticals to grow revenue, traffic, and subscribers — Building strong verticals beyond hard news can be a useful investment. — The New York Times “bundle” …
Discussion:
@haslebacher, @pressgazette, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and @joelmathis.bsky.social
Alex Reisner / The Atlantic:
Analysis: 170K+ books from authors like Stephen King and Junot Díaz are in Books3, a dataset used to train Meta's Llama, BloombergGPT, and EleutherAI's GPT-J — Stephen King, Zadie Smith, and Michael Pollan are among thousands of writers whose copyrighted works are being used to train large language models.
Discussion:
@mkirschenbaum, @jeffreygoldberg, @kbandersen, @stevesi, @lincodega, @dlberes, @theshawwn, @theatlantic, @garymarcus, @ivanthek, @sam_fentress, @kylebarr5, @kz_howell, @elkmovie@mastodon.social, @technursejon@mastodon.art, @johnshirley2024 …, TorrentFreak, Mashable SEA and news.ycombinator.com, more at Techmeme »
Steven Kurutz / New York Times:
A look at Standard Industries, a roofing conglomerate that employs some Vanity Fair alumni and has invested in media startups like Puck, Air Mail, and Pushkin — Technically, none. So why has Standard Industries hired several of them? — When Graydon Carter started his digital newsletter …
Discussion:
@mediaevan, @learmonth, @tomgara, @jeff_epperly, @heybriandawson, @mattdpearce, @karaswisher@threads.net, @semaforben and The Information
New York Times:
Sources: Donald Trump plans to upstage the first GOP primary debate on August 23, hosted by Fox News, to instead sit for an online interview with Tucker Carlson — The former president's apparent decision to skip the first debate is a major affront both to the Republican National Committee and to Fox News, which is hosting the event.
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, The Hill, New York Times, TVLine, New York Post, Deadline, @adamscrabble, @jonathanvswan, CBS News, New York Magazine, The Florida Standard, The Guardian, Bloomberg, @smotus.bsky.social, New York Daily News, @piersmorgan, @lauraloomer, @mehdirhasan, Politico, Rolling Stone, Insider, WOWK 13 News, The Post Millennial, @froomkin, @jonathanvswan, Mother Jones, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, @lynndeborah@awscommunity …, Slate, Adweek, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, KTSM 9 News, CNN, Mediaite, @GaryRLundberg@newsie.social, NewsNation, @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social, @JamesGleick@zirk.us and Fox News
Liam Scott / Voice of America:
US Press Freedom Tracker data shows that out of 90+ search-and-seizure instances involving journalists documented since 2017, nine have involved search warrants — The police raid on a local Kansas newspaper in August stunned many First Amendment advocates. But it was far from an isolated incident.
Discussion:
@kaleidic, @bubbaprog and @bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us
Amaris Castillo / Poynter:
How journalists for the Hawaiian nonprofits Honolulu Civil Beat and Akakū Maui Community Media are covering, and coping with, the Maui wildfires — 'We're going to be here for the long haul, so we have a huge task in front of us.' — Just before noon on Aug. 9, Courtney Teague felt a rush of adrenaline.
Discussion:
@cratebeats and Honolulu Civil Beat
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