Top News:
Anna Nemtsova / The Daily Beast:
The family of award-winning Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna says she has been missing since August 3, when she returned to Russian-occupied territory — Victoria Roshchyna has been missing since Aug. 3. Her father told The Daily Beast that her family is desperate to find out where she is.
Discussion:
@pierrecrom, @stommedia and @milxind
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Yahoo announces that it's spinning off Vespa, its platform for applications that leverage AI and data online at scale, into an independent venture — Yahoo, otherwise known as the company that pays my salary (full disclosure: Yahoo owns TC), today announced that it's spinning off Vespa …
Discussion:
MediaPost, @thisguyoftheai, Business Wire and Beet.TV, more at Techmeme »
Ian Youngs / BBC:
GB News fires hosts Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson after concluding its internal investigations, and says its Dan Wootton investigation continues — Laurence Fox has been sacked by GB News after an outcry about comments he made on air about a female journalist.
Discussion:
Variety, Press Association, Daily Mail, The Independent, Daily Express, Spectator, London Evening Standard, @gbnews, @forakin, @david_challen, @calvinrobinson, Deadline and The Sun
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
News UK and DMG Media propose creating a joint venture to combine their printing operations, which would need to be cleared by the competition authority — The companies believe the plan could help ensure a “long-term sustainable future” for the UK newspaper ecosystem.
Discussion:
@newsuk, The Guardian, News UK and AOL
Todd Spangler / Variety:
WBD hikes the price of Discovery+ without ads in the US from $6.99 to $8.99 per month and Canada from CA$6.99 to CA$8.99; ad-tier remains $4.99/month in the US — It's the first time Discovery+ has increased the price of a monthly subscription in the markets since launching in January 2021.
Discussion:
MediaPost, New York Post, @tvgrimreaper, The Desk, Deadline, The A.V. Club, Forbes, CNET, TVLine, Engadget, The Wrap, The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, IGN, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News
Nicholas Casey / New York Times:
A look at Monitor Michoacán, a Mexican news outlet that closed after two of its journalists reporting on drug violence and government corruption were murdered — Drug violence and government corruption have put the country's journalists in peril. In one town, reporters tried to fight back.
Discussion:
@cpalbi, @farnazfassihi, @rebelryan77, @nytimes, @alfonslopeztena, @caseysjournal, @drixander and @brianmannadk
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Canva unveils AI tools to automate labor-intensive design tasks, and will pay out $200M over three years to designers for using their work to train AI models — As part of its 10th birthday celebrations, web-based design platform Canva is releasing Magic Studio — a new suite …
Discussion:
Fast Company and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Meta rolls out AI features for advertisers, like using AI to create backgrounds, expand images, and generate versions of ad text based on the original copy — Meta announced today it's rolling out its first generative AI features for advertisers, allowing them to use AI to create backgrounds …
Discussion:
AdExchanger, Facebook, The Messenger, @blyons151, @kvnbbg, @thisguyoftheai, Search Engine Land and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Patreon rolls out a slew of new features and products, including a new visual brand identity, an updated home feed, and free membership tiers — A decade since launching with the mission of helping creatives make money directly through fan support, Patreon is undergoing a major rebrand …
Discussion:
@ismaelnafria, @mattnavarra, @patreon, Patreon and @patreon, more at Techmeme »
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Taylor Lorenz on her new book, Extremely Online, women's role in building the internet, new media's effect on journalism, Twitter, Threads, and more — “The personality-driven model of news is not going away.” — In 2017, Taylor Lorenz predicted for Nieman Lab that selfie journalism would become “a thing.”
Discussion:
Wired, Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter, Platformer, @caseynewton@mastodon.social and The Information
Samanth Subramanian / The Guardian:
A profile of Michael Lewis, as he talks about his new book, Going Infinite, why he considers SBF to be essentially genuine, The Blind Side controversy, and more — As author of The Big Short and Moneyball, Michael Lewis is perhaps the most celebrated journalist of his generation.
Discussion:
CBS News, Washington Post, Fox News, The Overspill, The Messenger, @davidedgarwolf, @60minutes, @macrocephalopod, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @smtuffy, @juleshyman, @jbarro, @parikpatelcfa, @noahpinion, @zekefaux, @petercontibrown, @mrianleslie, @buccocapital, @samanth_s, @followtheh, @alexnazaryan, @gdnlongread, @molly0xfff, @samanth_s, @joshkraushaar, @matthewstoller, @samanth_s, @alderlaneeggs, @jack_raines, @glynmoody, @sokane1, @buccocapital, @julie_bush, @coffeebreak_yt, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @ugarles, @rdnarang, @samanth_s, @molly0xfff, @gdnlongread, @ben_a_goldfarb, @michaeldavsmith, @jenszalai, New York Post, Insider, Molly White, New York Times, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, The Hollywood Reporter, Awful Announcing, Bloomberg, Fast Company, CNBC, New York Magazine and The Block
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
The RIAA: Latin recorded music revenue in the US grew 14.8% to $627M in H1 2023, compared to overall US revenue growth of 9.3%; Latin streaming revenue grew 16% — One of the trends in recent years has been the fact that however fast recorded-music revenues grew in the US, Latin recorded music revenues grew faster.