Mediagazer: Nonprofit newsroom The City cuts staff hours by 20%, taking advantage of NY state's work-share program; reporter Tom Robbins quit to help stave off job losses (Max Tani/Semafor)

10:10 PM ET, September 20, 2023

Top News:

Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:

After talks on September 20, the WGA and AMPTP release a joint statement saying negotiations will continue on September 21, a first during the strike — The union met with four top CEOs, including David Zaslav, Ted Sarandos, Bob Iger and Donna Langley, in their latest negotiations session on Wednesday.

Discussion: The Wrap, @davidfaber, @wgaeast, Deadline, Bleeding Cool News and Vanity Fair

Hollywood Reporter:

Source: Disney CEO Bob Iger, WBD CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, and NBCUniversal Studio Group chair Donna Langley attend the AMPTP-WGA talks — “This is so long in coming; everyone's feeling pain. Let's get in there and nail things down," says one source familiar …

Discussion: TVLine, Bleeding Cool News, Variety, IndieWire and Deadline

Max Tani / Semafor:

Nonprofit newsroom The City cuts staff hours by 20%, taking advantage of NY state's work-share program; reporter Tom Robbins quit to help stave off job losses — The Scoop — New York nonprofit newsroom The City is slashing costs in the latest sign that philanthropists around the U.S. are tiring of supporting journalism.

Discussion: @LorrieW@mstdn.social and @sewellchan

Alexi Duggins / The Guardian:

Actor Stephen Fry warns about the dangers of AI after finding an unauthorized version of his voice he claims was generated from his Harry Potter book narration — Actor warns about dangers of artificial intelligence after discovering version of his voice based on Harry Potter audiobooks

Discussion: The Messenger, The Wrap, Variety, Collider and Futurism

Michael Wolff / New York Magazine:

Excerpt from Michael Wolff's The Fall: how Tucker Carlson's success became a headache for Rupert Murdoch, making Carlson a casualty of the Dominion settlement — Rupert Murdoch didn't want to dump his ratings leader and favorite Fox host. But was Tucker Carlson giving him a choice?

Discussion: Insider, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Politico, Vanity Fair, The Messenger, UPROXX, @martinpengelly, @aghamilton29, @michaelwolffnyc, @anncoulter, @justinbaragona and Columbia Journalism Review

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty says that in 2022, Rupert Murdoch thought Fox would pay $50M in the Dominion lawsuit, which cost $787.5M

Discussion: Sydney Morning Herald, New York Times, UPROXX, The Messenger, Insider, CNN, @janinegibson.bsky.social and The Wrap

Mediaite:

Sources: Project Veritas, founded by James O'Keefe, suspends all operations amid financial woes and lays off six people, following earlier layoffs in August — Project Veritas, the conservative organization founded by James O'Keefe, suspended all operations on Wednesday after another round of layoffs, Mediaite has learned.

Discussion: @bobbyhreports, @lauraloomer, @marindavannoy1, @woodhouseb and @barryjeaux

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:

Source: Paramount+ removed one Russell Brand stand-up comedy special, Russell Brand in New York City, after one allegation of rape and four of sexual assault — The streaming service follows YouTube and the BBC in distancing itself from the comedian, who has been accused by four women of sexual assault.

Discussion: TVLine, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, The Messenger, Deadline and Newser

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

Journalists Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett plan to launch In Retrospect, a weekly pop culture podcast, on September 21, distributed by iHeartPodcasts — iHeartPodcasts and The Meteor are launching “In Retrospect,” a pop culture podcast by Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett.

New York Times:

The Authors Guild and more than a dozen prominent novelists sue OpenAI over allegedly infringing on authors' copyrights by using their books to train ChatGPT — The suit, filed with the Authors Guild, accuses the A.I. company of infringing on authors' copyrights, claiming it used their books to train its ChatGPT chatbot.

Discussion: Deadline, Reuters, CNN, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, IGN, @michellemanafy, CNBC, Hollywood Reporter, @bergmayer@mastodon.social, Lieff Cabraser, CBS News, UPROXX, MediaPost, Rolling Stone and bookforum.com

Kim Willsher / The Guardian:

France arrests investigative journalist Ariane Lavrilleux, who covered classified documents alleging Cairo used French intelligence to target civilians in Egypt — Ariane Lavrilleux, who reported on leaked documents alleging French intelligence used to target civilians in Egypt, is in custody

Discussion: Voice of America, Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect …, @redfrog@mamot.fr, Al Jazeera and European Federation …

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Mumbai-based Kuku FM, which offers audio content in English and six Indian languages for ~$1.20/month, raised a $25M Series C, taking its total funding to $60M — Google-backed audio content platform Kuku FM has raised $25 million in a new funding round as it looks to make deeper inroads …

Discussion: The Information, more at Techmeme »

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Substack shares its redesign, which changes the layout and adds a Home tab to help users find stuff to read, that feels more like a traditional social media app — After a tease in a blog post on Tuesday, Substack officially shared details about its redesigned app on Wednesday, which offers a new …

Discussion: @andydehnart.bsky.social, @hamishmckenzie, On Substack, @hamishmckenzie and TechCrunch

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The Guardian:
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
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Earlier Picks:

Patrick Brzeski / The Hollywood Reporter:
Paramount plans to launch Paramount+ in Japan on December 1 as a no-additional-cost add-on to the on-demand services of local operators J:COM and Wowow

Discussion: The Wrap, WORLD SCREEN, MediaPost, Broadband TV News, Media Play News, Variety and Paramount

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
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Discussion: Deadline

Axios:
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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony Group lays off some podcast staff and cancels Emily Ratajkowski's podcast; spokesperson: cuts involved a “significant percentage of the division”

Discussion: New York Post, Podnews, @ashleyrcarman and @maxwelltani

Abbey White / The Hollywood Reporter:
Reading Rainbow's LeVar Burton leads an open letter signed by 175+ writers, musicians, actors, comedians, academics, and others denouncing book bans in schools

Discussion: The Wrap, Axios, MoveOn, The Guardian, The Hill, The Messenger, MoveOn and Billboard

From Techmeme:

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
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Anissa Gardizy / The Information:
Source: Amazon is discussing a second multibillion-dollar Anthropic investment, asking Anthropic to use servers with Amazon chips; Anthropic prefers Nvidia GPUs

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Detroit plans to accept crypto for tax and fee payments from mid-2025 via a PayPal platform that will convert them to USD, becoming the largest US city to do so

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