Mediagazer: Radio Times, started 100 years ago as the BBC's “official organ”, remains “highly profitable”; the magazine also offers a website, an app, and a weekly podcast (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

5:00 AM ET, September 20, 2023

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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Radio Times, started 100 years ago as the BBC's “official organ”, remains “highly profitable”; the magazine also offers a website, an app, and a weekly podcast — One hundred years on, the Radio Times print magazine continues to be the highly profitable “mothership” …

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

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Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

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Axios:

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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Sony Group cancels Emily Ratajkowski's podcast and lays off podcast unit staff; spokesperson: cuts involved a “significant percentage of the division” — - Company's podcast group is hit with third round of layoffs — Decision to cut staff and shows follows industry contraction

Discussion: @ashleyrcarman and @maxwelltani

Patrick Brzeski / The Hollywood Reporter:

Paramount plans to launch Paramount+ in Japan on December 1 as a free-of-charge addition to the on-demand services of local operators J:COM and Wowow — The deal will give Japanese subscribers to J:COM and Wowow access to Paramount+ content as a free-of-charge add-on.

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Nilay Patel / The Verge:

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Gretel Kahn / Reuters Institute:

How Russia spreads pro-Kremlin messages in Africa through local journalists and media outlets like Afrique Média, a Cameroon-based, pro-Wagner Group TV channel — This Cameroon-based outlet reaches millions through linear TV and boasts over one million followers on their social channels

Discussion: GitHub

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Highlights from three years of Platformer: from <75K free subscribers to 155,355 in a year, plans to experiment with ads, ~95% of readers do not pay, and more — Has the Substack revolution come and gone? PLUS: What's changing in year four — I. State of the union

Discussion: @thekenyeung, @legendaryscoop, @samtranum, @manjaselva, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, Nieman Lab and @caseynewton@mastodon.social

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Max Goldbart / Deadline:
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
An interview with The Independent CEO Christian Broughton on the newspaper's growth drivers: e-commerce, Independent TV, reader revenues, US expansion, and AI

Yoel Roth / New York Times:
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From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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