Mediagazer: 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 (Todd Spangler/Variety)

5:00 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, HuffPost, @jbenton, @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 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 — It's the first time Discovery+ has increased the price of a monthly subscription in the markets since launching in January 2021.

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, MediaPost, The Desk, Deadline, The A.V. Club, Forbes, CNET, TVLine, Engadget, The Wrap, The Streamable, The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter, IGN, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News

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Nicholas Casey / New York Times:
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Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
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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:

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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