Mediagazer: 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 (Sarah Scire/Nieman Lab)

8:55 PM ET, October 4, 2023

Top News:

Sources: AT&T is exploring options for its 70% stake in DirecTV, including selling the stake and exiting the venture as early as August 2024 — - Telecoms giant majority owns DirecTV with private equity TPG — Declining pay-TV customer base has cut into AT&T's cash flow

Discussion: The Desk and Cord Cutters News

Natalie Korach / The Wrap:

X starts removing preview headlines from posts with article links, showing only the lead image and domain name; Elon Musk mentioned the change in August 2023 — The platform formerly known as Twitter now only displays outside sites' featured images on its iPhone app

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: The Information, The Verge, Engadget, @bradydale, Billboard, @ashleyrcarman, NBC 7 San Diego, The Messenger, Pitchfork and New York Daily News, more at Techmeme »

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

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

Freedom of the Press Foundation:

Over 50 media and civil rights groups write US AG Merrick Garland, demanding transparency over the FBI's raid of Tim Burke's house and seizing his equipment — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: — An FBI raid on the home newsroom of Florida journalist Tim Burke in May prompted over 50 organizations …

Discussion: @trevortimm, @freedomofpress, @freedomofpress, @freedomofpress@newsie.social and @bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us

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

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, @stommedia, @milxind, @jalefkowit@octodon.social and @pierrecrom

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 »

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: New York Times, @davidclinchnews and Fortune

Peter Kafka / Vox:

Dune's availability on both Netflix and Max illustrates a strategic shift by big media companies, which have been pushed by Wall Street to generate more revenue — Remember when Netflix's competitors, like Warner Bros., kept their biggest stuff on their own streaming services? That's so 2021.

Discussion: Screen Rant

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 …

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

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Accounting Specialist Editor, Remote US — Reuters

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Senior Managing Ed. - Daily Desk — The Athletic

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Mia Sato / The Verge:
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Discussion: Engadget, TechCrunch, Patreon, The Information, MediaPost, @mattnavarra, @patreon, @patreon and @ismaelnafria, more at Techmeme »

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

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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

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

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

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:
WBD hikes the monthly price of Discovery+ without ads in the US from $6.99 to $8.99 and in Canada from CA$6.99 to CA$8.99; the US ad tier remains at $4.99/month

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, MediaPost, The Desk, The A.V. Club, Deadline, Forbes, CNET, TVLine, Engadget, The Wrap, The Verge, The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, 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

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Discussion: CBS News, Washington Post, @macrocephalopod, The Overspill, @juleshyman, The Messenger, @jbarro, @parikpatelcfa, @moorehn, @buccocapital, @followtheh, @alexnazaryan, @joshkraushaar, @matthewstoller, Deadspin, @juliedicaro, @alderlaneeggs, @jack_raines, @buccocapital, @julie_bush, @ugarles, @rdnarang, Fox News, @juliedicaro, @sarahfrier@threads.net, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @sokane1, @noahpinion, @60minutes, @molly0xfff, @molly0xfff, @zekefaux, @coffeebreak_yt, Molly White, @glynmoody, @jenszalai, @davidedgarwolf, @samanth_s, @mrianleslie, @petercontibrown, @gdnlongread, @michaeldavsmith, @smtuffy, @ben_a_goldfarb, @gdnlongread, Insider, New York Post, 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

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:

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
X starts rolling out an update to let users see public posts, and following and followers lists, of users who block them; blocked users still can't engage or DM

Financial Times:
Sources: Meta's plans to build a US nuclear-powered AI data center were thwarted in part after a rare bee species was found on land earmarked for the project

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with GM SVP Baris Cetinok on having a “high conviction” that ditching CarPlay and Android Auto is the right call, building autonomous cars, and more

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