Top News:
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Disney, Bloomberg, WaPo, The Atlantic, Axios, ABC, ESPN, Condé Nast, Hearst, Vox, and others join the NYT and Reuters in blocking OpenAI's GPTBot web crawler — Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter.
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
The Texas Tribune blames its layoffs on a budget shortfall as revenue fell 5% in 2023 and public institutions pulled sponsorships; some blame leadership issues — Frustration over a lack of transparency has been amplified by the newsroom's status as “the gold standard of nonprofit journalism” …
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Sara Fischer / Axios:
TechCrunch acquires Connie Loizos' media startup StrictlyVC, which has 60K newsletter subscribers, and appoints Loizos as editor-in-chief and general manager — TechCrunch, the digital tech and business publication owned by Yahoo, has acquired StrictlyVC, a media startup, from longtime Silicon Valley journalist Connie Lozois.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, @panzer, @sarafischer, @katie_roof, @thekenyeung, @danprimack, Talking Biz News, @arrington, Business Wire, @propllrhead, @alexrkonrad, @cookie and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The Daily Wire plans to offer the first episode of a 10-part series, Convicting a Murderer, on X on September 8 for free and spend six figures on X promotion — The Daily Wire, a conservative media and entertainment company, will debut its first full-length docuseries Sept. 8 on X …
Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
In a “safety” blog post, X announces “paid-for promoted political posts”, starting in the US, and plans to “provide a global advertising transparency center” — X (née Twitter) published a “safety” brief on its blog today outlining new policies …
Discussion:
Variety, Twitter, CNN, Deadline, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, @kyliebytes, @x, @katieharbath, @thesullivan, @moonalice, @__esteiner, @__esteiner, @__esteiner, @safety, The Hill and Insider, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Fox Sports signs a deal to use Google Cloud's Vertex AI Vision system to search footage from 1.9M+ videos and produce new TV, social, and marketing content — Fox Corp.'s Fox Sports is turning to generative artificial-intelligence to help its staffers more rapidly generate content from millions of hours of its archived games footage.
Discussion:
Google Cloud and Google Cloud Blog, more at Techmeme »
Max Tani / Semafor:
Source: on August 22, The Washington Post quietly laid off several top marketing staff, program managers, and product designers at Arc XP, its technology arm — The Scoop — The Washington Post has quietly laid off staff from Arc XP, the technology arm of the paper that Post leadership …
Discussion:
@semaforben and @mediaevan
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
UK-based The Independent names Managing Director Christian Broughton as its CEO, succeeding Zach Leonard, who will work on growing the US business as global COO — The Independent has appointed Christian Broughton, its managing director and former editor, as its next chief executive as it seeks …
Discussion:
The Independent
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube now lets creators take an educational training course when they receive a warning, which YouTube lifts if they don't violate the same policy for 90 days — YouTube announced this morning a change to its Community Guidelines that impact creators who break its rules.
Discussion:
YouTube Official Blog, 9to5Google, Gizmodo, Tubefilter, The Verge and Social Media Today, more at Techmeme »
Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:
MSNBC is drawing in major ratings, having emerged as the go-to network for coverage of Donald Trump's criminal charges just as Fox News and CNN face instability — The network's mix of weighty reflection, analysis, and schadenfreude is drawing in major ratings, surpassing Fox News and CNN …
Discussion:
@dannygroner, @wajahatali, @charlottetklein, @jayrosen_nyu, Poynter, Adweek and The Wrap
Reuters:
A look at Disney shifting its India strategy to free cricket on mobile, hoping to boost ads, after the unit reported a $41.5M loss on $390M revenue in FY 2022 — Walt Disney (DIS.N) is attempting to revive the fortunes of its streaming business in India by offering free cricket on smartphones …
Discussion:
The Streamable and Deadline, more at Techmeme »
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Snap rolls out Dreams, Snapchat's take on the generative AI selfies that Lensa and others popularized, charging $1 for an eight-photo pack; the first is free — After releasing its My AI chatbot earlier this year, Snapchat is now jumping on the AI selfie bandwagon with a new feature called Dreams.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Neowin, Adweek, Mashable and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
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