Mediagazer: Google cut “a small number” of Google News employees this week; an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson estimates 40 to 45 workers lost their jobs (Jennifer Elias/CNBC)

10:25 AM ET, October 19, 2023

Top News:

Jennifer Elias / CNBC:

Google cut “a small number” of Google News employees this week; an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson estimates 40 to 45 workers lost their jobs — - Google cut at least 40 jobs in its news division this week, CNBC has learned. — The company has been downsizing in recent months …

Discussion: Insider, The Information, Jennifer Elias on LinkedIn, MediaPost and Rob Ruenes on LinkedIn

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

Shifting media coverage of a deadly hospital explosion in Gaza highlight the difficulties of reporting on a fast-moving war with few journalists on the ground — The fast-moving events highlighted the difficulty of covering the war between Israel and Hamas.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @jemillerbalt, @stevesi, Wired and Committee to Protect …

Joseph Cox / 404 Media:

Experts say misinformation from “verified” pseudo-OSINT accounts on X, driven by profit and engagement, is destroying the Israel-Hamas war information ecosystem — Join the newsletter to get the latest updates. — Success — Great! Check your inbox and click the link. — Error

Discussion: American Press Institute, The Guardian, @jimmy_wales, @fancrtcprofling, @josephfcox, @gabrielesvelto@fosstodon.org, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @carnage4life@mas.to, @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org, @pogue.bsky.social, @404mediaco@mastodon.social and @jasonkoebler@mastodon.social, more at Techmeme »

John Burn-Murdoch / @jburnmurdoch:
[Thread] Media outlets keep slipping up on the Israel-Hamas war because they lack in-house OSINT teams or are wary to rely on such teams for help to break news

Sarah Whitten / CNBC:

Netflix reports Q3 revenue up 7.8% YoY to $8.54B, vs. $8.54B est., and global paid memberships up 10.8% YoY to 247.15M, vs. 243.88M est.; NFLX jumps 12%+ — LOS ANGELES — Netflix reported earnings after the bell. Here are the results. — Earnings: $3.73 vs $3.49 per share, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Netflix raises its US prices for its basic plan from $9.99 to $11.99, its premium plan from $19.99 to $22.99, and some of its prices in the UK and France

Discussion: The Streamable, KNSD-TV, Digital Music News, @tvgrimreaper, @jalefkowit@octodon.social, IndieWire, 9to5Mac and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Universal Music Group and BandLab form an alliance to advance their shared commitment “to ethical use of AI and the protection of artist and songwriter rights” — Universal Music Group and BandLab Technologies have announced plans for a strategic relationship concentrated on protecting artists' rights in the age of AI.

Discussion: Billboard, Billboard, Cointelegraph, US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, CNBC, Financial Times, Variety, Reuters, Reuters and Digital Music News

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:

Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO sue Anthropic for allegedly violating their copyrights by using song lyrics to train AI models — Partnership will be 'centered on empowering the next generation of artists, including within BandLab's global community'.

Discussion: Shelly Palmer, Decrypt, The Hollywood Reporter, CMU and Digital Music News

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:

Filing: Disney releases separate ESPN earnings results for the first time, showing profit at ESPN networks fell 20% through the first nine months of its FY 2023 — Profit at the ESPN sports networks fell 20% through the first nine months of fiscal 2023 as Walt Disney Co. provided the first peek at that business on a standalone basis.

Discussion: MediaPost, Awful Announcing, Dow Jones Newswires, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, The Information, Axios, @sportstvratings, The Wrap, Reuters, Barrett Media and The Hollywood Reporter

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

Russian authorities detained RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service editor Alsu Kurmasheva on October 18, charging her with failure to register as a foreign agent — WASHINGTON, D.C. - On October 18, authorities in Kazan, Russia, detained Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Tatar-Bashkir Service.

Discussion: New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, New York Times, UPI, Reporters Without Borders, Associated Press, Reuters, The Daily Beast, @afp, The Guardian, @rferlpress, @cpj_eurasia, @cpj_eurasia, Agence France-Presse, Committee to Protect … and Politico

Jim Edwards / Press Gazette:

Analysis: around 12 UK political journalists with access to Westminster have declared payments from political organizations, law firms, and lobby groups — Some 76 Lobby journalists declare financial interests. — Of the 437 political journalists with passes that give them access …

Blake Brittain / Reuters:

Mike Huckabee, Lysa TerKeurst, and other authors sue Meta, Microsoft, and Bloomberg over using the “Books3” dataset, which includes pirated books, to train LLMs — A group of writers including former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and best-selling Christian author Lysa TerKeurst …

Discussion: Washington Post and Vanity Fair

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:

Hipgnosis launches a strategic review that could lead to the ousting of its founder in the run-up to a vote to approve a continuation of the investment trust — Beyoncé and Neil Young rights owner says it is not exploring sale despite financial woes

Discussion: Billboard, Reuters, Financial Times and @annaknicolaou

Christi Carras / Los Angeles Times:

An October 6 to 9 poll of 1,003 US adults: 34% side with the actors in SAG-AFTRA's strike, 7% back the studios, 29% sympathize equally, and 30% took no position — As the Hollywood writers' strike has come to a close and the actors' walkout rages on, the American public continues to favor unions …

Discussion: Associated Press, Rolling Stone, Forbes and The Wrap

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Managing Editor, Remote US — Velo

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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: YouTube is building an AI tool that lets creators record audio using famous musicians' voices and seeking major record labels' rights to train the tool

Discussion: The Verge, Music Ally, @lucas_shaw, Billboard and Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »

Mike Fleming Jr / Deadline:
David Ellison's Skydance Animation signs a multiyear deal with Netflix to develop and produce exclusive animated movies, and ends its Apple distribution pact

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, IGN, IndieWire, Sabrina Kloss on LinkedIn, Reuters, Eric Calderon on LinkedIn, 9to5Mac, ComingSoon.net, Variety and Collider

Katie Notopoulos / MIT Technology Review:
Federated networks like Mastodon and a growing acceptance of paying for content may help move people away from big social platforms and improve online discourse

Discussion: Media Voices, @peepeepoopoop@mastodon.social, Niall Firth on LinkedIn, Garbage Day, @stefan@gardenstate.social, @Cassandra@artisan.chat, @tchambers@indieweb.social, @hrheingold@mastodon.social, @mammoth@moth.social, @timbray@cosocial.ca, @waxy@xoxo.zone, @ben@werd.social and The Information

Elahe Izadi / Washington Post:
How Only in Dade, started as an Instagram meme page a decade ago, inadvertently became a Miami local news source, including by using its 1.3M followers' videos

Discussion: @elaheizadi, @davidovalle305, @elaheizadi, @jesusrodriguezb and @fraying@xoxo.zone, more at Techmeme »

Justin Smith / Semafor:
On its first anniversary, Semafor has nearly 500K “engaged” free newsletter subscribers, 3M monthly readers “on and off platform”, and 40 marketing partners

Discussion: Digiday, @prashantrao, @katie_robertson, Justin B. Smith on LinkedIn and Ben Smith on LinkedIn

Earlier Picks:

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: with ESPN and TNT unwilling to pay $2.6B+/year on NBA rights, the league looks to Amazon, Apple, and others to make more, offering local market rights

Discussion: Sportico, @kinnick519, @tvgrimreaper, @damanr, @mdotbrown, Awful Announcing, The Streamable, Barrett Media, Sports Media Watch and Vibe

Theo Wayt / The Information:
Sources: Amazon is offering to make commercials for brands that spend $15K+ to run ads on Freevee and Twitch, part of attempts to build a streaming ad business

Discussion: @theo_wayt

Jon Porter / The Verge:
YouTube adds a news page to its mobile apps that suggests content from “authoritative sources”, and plans to spend $1.6M to promote creating Shorts news content

Discussion: Nieman Lab, YouTube Official Blog, @tomaxwell, @jeff@honeytree.social, TechCrunch, @darthbluesky.bsky.social, @blackamazon.bsky.social and @simli.bsky.social

Kylie Robison / Fortune:
X tests Not A Bot, requiring new, unverified users to sign up for a $1 annual subscription to be able to post and interact, in New Zealand and the Philippines

Discussion: @support, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, The Overspill, X, @dieworkwear, Scott C. Lemon on LinkedIn, CBS News, Fox Business, Observer, Ars Technica, PC Gamer, TechCrunch, Techdirt, New York Post, Boing Boing, The Ankler, Shacknews, Global News, The Hill, UPI, @rahaeli.bsky.social, NPR, @kyliebytes, @lexnfx, KNSD-TV, Mediaite, The Messenger, IGN, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Reuters, The Guardian, The Information, 9to5Mac, The Hollywood Reporter, @pixel@desu.social, Ben Shute on LinkedIn, Insider, KRQE-TV, @andypiper@macaw.social, @tchambers@indieweb.social, CNN, Variety, Forbes, @chancerydaily@threads.net, @chrispirillo@threads.net, Matt Mullenweg, @joshwolf@threads.net, @reporterzoe@threads.net, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, The Verge, The Wrap, @scalzi.com, @dell.bsky.social, @billbennett@mastodon.nz, @venya@musicians.today, @evacide@hachyderm.io, @mike_isaac@threads.net, @thekenyeung@mastodon.social, The Sun, @megmac@social.treehouse … and Engadget

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
The EC's president says the EU won't revisit its “untouchable” rules, like the DMA, and could tax digital ad revenue, hitting Meta and Google, if US talks fail

Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Sources: Tim Cook approved doubling Apple's AI chips budget in 2023 after John Giannandrea sought more GPUs, but CFO Luca Maestri cut the increase to under half

Erin Woo / The Information:
Source: Google cuts hundreds of employees in its platforms and devices unit, which works on Android, Pixel, and Chrome, after offering buyouts in January 2025

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