Mediagazer: Fortune CEO and former EIC Alan Murray plans to step down at the end of April 2024; he became CEO in December 2018, after Chatchaval Jiaravanon acquired Fortune (Chris Roush/Talking Biz News)

4:55 PM ET, October 4, 2023

Top News:

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Memo: Amazon is shutting down Amp, its live audio streaming app launched in March 2022 that let users act like DJs by playing music and talking alongside songs — The service launched in March 2022 following a frenzy around live-audio services during the pandemic.

Discussion: @ashleyrcarman, @bradydale and NBC 7 San Diego, more at Techmeme »

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: Byline Times, New York Post, @jalefkowit@octodon.social, @stommedia, @milxind and @pierrecrom

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Wall Street and music industry analysts generally see Spotify's move into audiobooks as a good opportunity for the company to increase profit margins — An Evercore ISI analyst expects the effort to be a higher margin business than its music offerings, while a Morgan Stanley expert highlighted …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Yahoo plans to spin off Vespa, its open-source big data serving tool that powers the company's search, recommendations, and ad tech, 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: @thisguyoftheai, MediaPost, Business Wire and Beet.TV, more at Techmeme »

Hamilton Nolan / How Things Work:

Cable news networks continue to hire politicians' relatives and former White House flacks as news anchors, breaking the most basic rules of ethical journalism — It's kind of impressive how long cable news has been openly corrupt. — When you work in the parts of the media where I have spent …

Discussion: @hamiltonnolan, @hamiltonnolan, @finagle-a-hegel.bsky.social, @hamiltonnolan and @annamerlan.bsky.social

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Fortune CEO and former EIC Alan Murray plans to step down at the end of April 2024; he became CEO in December 2018, after Chatchaval Jiaravanon acquired Fortune — Alan Murray, the chief executive officer of Fortune and its former editor in chief, is stepping down in six months.

Discussion: @davidclinchnews and Fortune

Ian Youngs / BBC:

GB News fires hosts Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson after concluding its internal investigations, and says its “investigation into Dan Wootton continues” — Laurence Fox has been sacked by GB News after an outcry about comments he made on air about a female journalist.

Discussion: The Guardian, @gbnews, Reclaim The Net, Daily Mail, The Independent, Daily Express, Spectator, London Evening Standard, @david_challen, @arusbridger, @forakin, @calvinrobinson, The Sun, Deadline, Press Association and Variety

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Meta rolls out generative AI features for advertisers, including to create backgrounds, expand images, and write 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: Facebook, @kvnbbg, Search Engine Land, @blyons151, @thisguyoftheai, Bloomberg, AdExchanger and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:

The Messenger hires AI company Seekr to flag clickbait, bias, and more; reporters can get a score reflecting their political lean that is visible to readers — What counts as clickbait? Merriam-Webster's definition is “something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click …

Discussion: Seekr Technologies, Adweek, @jbenton, HuffPost, @jaspjackson, @jbenton, @jbenton, @ismailtweets, @_cingraham, @_cingraham, @maxwelltani, @katienotopoulos, @jmhaigh, @katienotopoulos, @semaforben, @katienotopoulos and @maxwelltani

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

News UK and DMG Media propose a joint venture to combine their printing operations for a more sustainable business model, which the UK CMA would need to clear — The companies believe the plan could help ensure a “long-term sustainable future” for the UK newspaper ecosystem.

Discussion: MediaPost, @newsuk, The Guardian, News UK and AOL

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Canva unveils AI tools to automate labor-intensive tasks, and plans to pay out $200M over three years to designers who let their work be used to train AI models — As part of its 10th birthday celebrations, web-based design platform Canva is releasing Magic Studio — a new suite …

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, CNET, Bloomberg and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

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, @tvgrimreaper, New York Post, 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

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This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:55 PM ET, October 4, 2023.

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Deputy Health & Science Editor, DC — WaPo

Weather Reporter, NY — Bloomberg

Legal Editor, Johannesburg — LexisNexis

Transcription Copy Editor - Opinion, CA — NYT

Agriculture Reporter, Winnipeg — Reuters

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter - Ireland — Newsweek

Investigative Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

Deputy Spotlight Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Disinfo/Extremism/Tech Reporter — Mother Jones

Audience Editor - Search, NY — ProPublica

Awards Specials Editor, CA — Hollywood Reporter

Middle East Editor, Remote — Semafor

Arts Editor, London — FT

Deputy Tech Ed. - CNBC, CA — NBCUniversal

Reporter - Police Beat, OR — The Oregonian

National Tech Reporter — States Newsroom

Express Desk Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Alabama Reporter, AL — Inside Climate News

Tech Reporter, CA — Fortune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout

Deputy Editor - Investigations, NY — WSJ

Senior Writer - Biotech, Remote — Fierce

Senior IP Correspondent, Brussels — MLex

Senior Editor - Business Desk, DC — NPR

Freelance Reporter - L.A. Education, CA — The 74

Associate Editor, London — WIRED

Copy & Weekend Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

Private Equity Reporter, NY — The Information

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More News:

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Patreon rolls out new features for creators and fans, like a new visual brand identity, a revamped mobile app, an updated home feed, and free membership tiers

Discussion: MediaPost, Engadget, Patreon, @mattnavarra, @patreon, @patreon and @ismaelnafria, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: @cpalbi, @farnazfassihi, @rebelryan77, @nytimes, @alfonslopeztena, @caseysjournal, @drixander and @brianmannadk

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

Discussion: CBS News, Washington Post, Fox News, The Messenger, @davidedgarwolf, @60minutes, @macrocephalopod, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @smtuffy, The Overspill, @juleshyman, @jbarro, @parikpatelcfa, @noahpinion, @zekefaux, @petercontibrown, @mrianleslie, @buccocapital, @samanth_s, @followtheh, @alexnazaryan, @gdnlongread, @molly0xfff, @samanth_s, @joshkraushaar, @matthewstoller, Deadspin, @juliedicaro, @samanth_s, @alderlaneeggs, @jack_raines, @glynmoody, @sokane1, @buccocapital, @julie_bush, @coffeebreak_yt, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @ugarles, @rdnarang, @samanth_s, @molly0xfff, @gdnlongread, @juliedicaro, @ben_a_goldfarb, @michaeldavsmith, @jenszalai, Insider, New York Post, Molly White, New York Times, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, The Hollywood Reporter, Awful Announcing, Bloomberg, Fast Company, CNBC, New York Magazine and The Block

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

Discussion: Mediaite, Wired, Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter, Platformer, @caseynewton@mastodon.social and The Information

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%

Discussion: Billboard, RIAA, Billboard and Variety

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Q&A with former Washington Post editor Marty Baron on his book, pressure from Trump, not sharing the Steele Dossier, journalists' free speech rights, and more

Discussion: Fox News, @raineytime, @raineytime, Vanity Fair and Politico

Earlier Picks:

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
A US judge rules that Disney must face an antitrust lawsuit accusing the company of inflating the cost of streaming live TV using its ownership of Hulu and ESPN

Discussion: Cord Cutters News, PYMNTS.com and Deadline

Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
Sources: Paramount is considering scrapping its plans to launch Paramount+ in India in 2023 in favor of selling more programming to its partner JioCinema

Amy Hawkins / The Guardian:
A profile of Jimmy Lai, the owner of now closed Apple Daily and one of Hong Kong's most outspoken pro-democracy activists, as he marks 1,000 days in prison

Discussion: New York Times

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Code in the latest build of the Spotify app suggests the company is working on AI-generated playlists based on users' prompts, likely available in English only

Discussion: @alex193a, @thomas_thomas_thomas …, @chris@threads.net, @chris@threads.net and Music Ally

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

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple and OpenAI are preparing a major announcement of their partnership at WWDC; the new AirTag with a better chip is scheduled to arrive by mid-2025

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: US officials have told Google, Meta, and others about concerns that undersea cables could be vulnerable to tampering by China-owned repair ships

Emma Agyemang / Financial Times:
Around 58 countries now offer a digital nomad visa, as governments compete with each other to attract talent; the number of US digital nomads hit 17.3M in 2023

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