Mediagazer: Over 50 media and civil rights groups write to US AG Merrick Garland, demanding transparency over the FBI raiding Tim Burke's house and seizing his equipment (Freedom of the Press Foundation)

1:20 AM ET, October 5, 2023

Top News:

Sources: AT&T is exploring options for its 70% DirecTV stake, such as adding a new investor or 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

Sheila Dang / Reuters:

Guideline: X's monthly US ad revenue has declined 55%+ YoY in each of the 10 months since Elon Musk's Twitter takeover in October 2022 through August 2023 — Monthly U.S. ad revenue at social media platform X has declined at least 55% year-over-year each month since billionaire Elon Musk bought …

Discussion: The Information, CNN, MediaPost and Fortune, more at Techmeme »

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

Freedom of the Press Foundation:

Over 50 media and civil rights groups write to US AG Merrick Garland, demanding transparency over the FBI raiding 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: @freedomofpress@newsie.social, @trevortimm, @freedomofpress, @freedomofpress and @bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast-Charter joint venture Xumo launches its first streaming set-top box for new Spectrum video customers, coming to Comcast's Xfinity Internet users “soon” — Can Xumo help cable companies grab a new foothold in the streaming space? — Xumo — the joint venture of Comcast …

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News

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 …

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

Deadline:

SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP met on October 4 for contract negotiations to end the strike, with studio CEOs attending, and plan to meet on October 6 and on October 9 — SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on just wrapped their second day of renewed talks …

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Peter Kafka / Vox:

Netflix and Max both offering Dune illustrates a strategic shift at Big Media companies, which Wall Street has pushed to cut spending and generate more revenue — Remember when Netflix's competitors, like Warner Bros., kept their biggest stuff on their own streaming services? That's so 2021.

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

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, New York Times and Fortune

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Ian Youngs / BBC:
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Mia Sato / The Verge:
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Discussion: Engadget, Patreon, The Information, MediaPost, @mattnavarra, @patreon, @patreon, @ismaelnafria and TechCrunch, 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:
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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

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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

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

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

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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:
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