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
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