Mediagazer: Wattpad replaces its Paid Stories paywall with a freemium tier letting users read some chapters free and buy others; Premium+ subscribers get two stories/month (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)

12:05 PM ET, October 3, 2023

Top News:

Ellie Rushing / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Police say freelance journalist Josh Kruger was shot and killed inside his Philadelphia home at age 39; Kruger wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer and others — A Philadelphia journalist was shot and killed inside his Point Breeze home overnight, police said, after a person with a gun entered …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Paris Hilton and her company 11:11 Media sign a partnership with X to create four original video content programs per year to promote X's Live Shopping product — Paris Hilton is getting her X on. — The influencer and entrepreneur — who has 16.6 million followers on X …

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK's Independent Publishers Alliance urges members to block crawling access for OpenAI and Google, as OpenAI removes ChatGPT's September 2021 training cut-off — Independent Publishers Alliance urges members to block GPTBot and Google Bard crawler ASAP. — ChatGPT's threat …

Discussion: The Keyword

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Netflix plans to raise the price of its ad-free service a few months after the SAG-AFTRA strike ends, likely starting with the US and Canada — Company to become latest streamer to lift fees; Disney weighs launching new live-sports tier abroad — plans to raise the price …

Discussion: Variety, The Streamable, The Wrap, The Verge, BGR, @pogue.bsky.social, @imdavidpierce@threads.net, Media Play News, @deitaone and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Meta pitched a plan to EU regulators to charge European users a subscription fee to use Facebook and Instagram without ads starting at €10 per month — European users would have option to pay fee or agree to personalized ads, according to company's pitch to regulators

Discussion: Android Authority, Insider, The Guardian, TechCrunch, NBC 7 San Diego, The Information, Fortune, 24/7 Wall St., @mattnavarra, @seyitaylor, @wolfofharcourt, Ars Technica, Engadget, BGR and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:

Wattpad replaces its Paid Stories paywall with a freemium tier letting users read some chapters free and buy others; Premium+ subscribers get two stories/month — After launching its “Paid Stories” program in 2019, the social storytelling platform Wattpad is now replacing it with a new freemium model called …

Discussion: wattpad

Sara Fischer / Axios:

In a memo to staff, Campbell Brown, Meta's head of global media partnerships, says she's stepping down from the role in the fall as Meta backs away from news — Campbell Brown, the veteran TV anchor who led Meta's foray into news, is leaving the company, according to an internal note obtained by Axios.

Discussion: @bgrueskin, more at Techmeme »

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

While Adobe, Getty Images, Stability AI, and YouTube have pledged to share some generative AI profits with creators, none have shared specific payout amounts — As tech companies begin to monetize generative AI, the creators on whose work it is trained are asking for their fair share.

Discussion: @carnage4life@mas.to, @rahll and @timnitGebru@dair …, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

In honor of “Mean Girls” day, Paramount makes the movie available on TikTok for free in 23 clips — Happy “Mean Girls” day, to all who celebrate! — In observance of so-called Mean Girls Day, Paramount Pictures launched an official account for “Mean Girls” on TikTok …

Discussion: IndieWire, The Verge, Fox News, @wagatwe.bsky.social and Insider

Ben Strauss / Washington Post:

A look at the scoop wars between NBA reporters Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania, Woj and Shams' impact on other beat reporters and usefulness to the league — In a battle for scoops and attention, it's ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski vs. his former protégé, the Athletic's Shams Charania.

Discussion: @thelatinochild, @alexknobel, @leadergrev and @dannyfunt

Financial Times:

Police in New Delhi raid the homes of NewsClick journalists and contributors amid Indian officials' allegations the site is an outlet for Chinese propaganda — NewsClick journalists and contributors say police seized phones and laptops in early morning operation

Discussion: Agence France-Presse, MediaNama, Scroll.in, The Indian Express, Fox News and The Guardian

Associated Press:

The police chief who led the raid on the Marion County Record resigns, just days after he was suspended from his post by the mayor of Marion, Kansas — The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas resigned Monday, just days after he was suspended …

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 12:05 PM ET, October 3, 2023.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok confirms the company is running a limited-scale test of an ad-free subscription plan, but only says the market is not the US and does not share the price

Discussion: IGN, The Messenger, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, The Information, The Information, The Messenger, Engadget, @gao_zibo, MediaPost, BGR, The Verge and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Matt Donnelly / Variety:
Sources: Miramax CEO Bill Block is out after the company did not renew his contract, which expired this week; Miramax hired the film producer in 2017

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

Jordan Moreau / Variety:
The Golden Globes adds 11 members, bringing its voting body to 300 people that represents 76 countries and is 47% female and 60% racially and ethnically diverse

Discussion: The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline

Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav, Bob Iger, and Donna Langley are attending October 2's negotiating session at SAG-AFTRA's HQ, raising hopes for a quick deal

Discussion: Variety, @lisacullen, @slack2thefuture, @laceyvrose, @katiekilkenny7, @wgawest and Variety

Sara Fischer / Axios:
The Philadelphia Inquirer launches a seven-figure ad campaign aimed at millennials; all five major Philadelphia sports teams agreed for their logos to be used

Discussion: Adweek, @andrewessex, @benwerd, @maghielse, @sarafischer and @ben@werd.social

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Jeff Zucker acquires a minority stake in newsletter startup Front Office Sports; source: the deal values the startup at ~$40M, up from $25M at the end of 2021

Discussion: Adweek, Reuters, Axios, Front Office Sports, @lucas_shaw, @russwildejr, @aericfisher, @mmccarthyrev, New York Daily News, The Messenger, New York Post, Sportico, The Wrap, Awful Announcing and Talking Biz News

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
National World, run by ex-Mirror boss David Montgomery, acquires Midland News Association, taking its title of the UK's largest independent regional publisher

Discussion: Media Voices, @josiahmortimer, @provnewshistory and @pressgazette

Earlier Picks:

Reuters:
Vertex, a SPAC backed by Singapore's Temasek, plans to acquire live streaming service 17LIVE for ~$676M; 17LIVE had revenue of $363.7M in 2022 and is profitable

Discussion: Bloomberg

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
A profile of Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who has been SAG-AFTRA's executive director and chief negotiator since 2021, as talks with the studios resume on October 2

Discussion: @stufalk, @brooksbarnesnyt and The Wrap

Laura Wagner / Washington Post:
A profile of More Perfect Union, a nonprofit labor-advocacy publication with a $5.5M annual budget, 28 employees, and a video-first approach on social media

Discussion: @moreperfectus, @ericschultz, @william_fitz, @emissaryofnight, @jmillerlewis, @cascamike, @fshakir, @scotmackri, @mattyglesias, @laurenkgurley, @chaidingari and @mrsethharris

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Q&A with YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe on NFL Sunday Ticket “exceeding expectations”, Multiview interest, the Charter-Disney dispute, and more

Discussion: The Desk

New York Times:
The number of fact-checking sites has declined worldwide, as social media platforms reduce disinformation efforts and false AI content keeps fact-checkers busy

Discussion: American Press Institute, @corrie_pikul, @brookingsfp, @mausellmoli, @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, @caulfieldtim, @carnage4life@mas.to and Meta Journalism Project

Carly Thomas / The Hollywood Reporter:
California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes a WGA- and SAG-AFTRA-backed bill that would have given unemployment benefits to striking workers like writers and actors

Jeff Baumgartner / Light Reading:
Filing: LG suspends including IP-based broadcast signaling standard ATSC 3.0 in its 2024 lineup of US TVs due to a “challenging and uncertain patent landscape”

Discussion: The Desk, @matthewkeyslive, TechRadar, @alexhcranz@threads.net, FCC and The Verge

From Techmeme:

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

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
The UK plans to draft a regulatory framework to oversee stablecoins and staking services as part of a single overarching regime for cryptoassets in early 2025

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page