Mediagazer: Scholastic employees, represented by The NewsGuild of New York, staged a one-day work stoppage on November 1 after the publisher rejected a wage raise proposal (Sophia Stewart/Publishers Weekly)

Top News:

HBO's Casey Bloys concedes that creating Twitter accounts to undermine TV critics was a “very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration” — The HBO CEO apologized for the accounts that trolled critics posting about network programming on social media.

Mark Caro / Local News Initiative:

Q&A with Ken Doctor on the Press Forward's philanthropic commitment to invest $500M in local news, his local digital news outlet Lookout Santa Cruz, and more — Veteran journalist Ken Doctor had been analyzing “Newsonomics” for many years when he jumped back into the game to launch …

Discussion: Voice of San Diego, Andy Donohue on LinkedIn and The Atlantic

Columbia Journalism School:

Columbia Journalism School names Margaret Sullivan as executive director for the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security, starting on January 1 — Margaret Sullivan, weekly columnist for the Guardian US, will become the Executive Director for the Craig Newmark Center …

Discussion: @sulliview, @craignewmark, @sulliview and @columbiajourn

Joe Duball / IAPP:

The EDPB instructs the Irish DPC to ban Meta's use of Facebook and Instagram users' personal data for behavioral ads in EU and EEA countries within two weeks — An unprecedented shakeup in the advertising technology space has arrived in Europe. Changes are coming to adtech's approach …

Discussion: Luca Bolognini on LinkedIn, Joe Jones on LinkedIn, MarTech, edpb.europa.eu, @privacymatters, @Frederik_Borgesius …, Independent.ie, Mobile Dev Memo, @eric_seufert, @Privacymatters@mastodon …, Advanced Television, Bloomberg, Reuters, MediaPost and Wired, more at Techmeme »

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr release Now and Then, the first “new” Beatles song since 1995, created using AI and an old lo-fi John Lennon recording — Today marks the release of the first “new” song by the Beatles since 1995. “Now and Then” is available on streaming services …

Billboard:

After Taylor Swift's success with her re-recordings, major labels add clauses that bar artists from re-recording releases for 10 or more years after they leave — While Taylor Swift has been racking up billions of streams with updated “Taylor's Version” re-recordings of her original hits …

Discussion: Jeff Nelson on LinkedIn, Drew Thurlow on LinkedIn, Miriam Boulos on LinkedIn, Forbes, NME, CMU and The Wrap

Mia Sato / The Verge:

Meta announces new creator tools, including a Reels A/B testing tool to test different versions of Reels and see which perform best — Creators on Facebook are getting a handful of new tools on the platform — including the ability to test how different Reels perform against each other.

Discussion: Engadget and Meta, more at Techmeme »

Gerardo Arbaiza / Reuters:

El Salvador's Congress repeals a law that criminalized publishing gang messages, which critics said unjustly targeted journalists; no arrests were ever made — El Salvador's Congress repealed a law on Wednesday that criminalized the publication of gang messages, as ruling party leaders declared victory …

Sophia Stewart / Publishers Weekly:

Scholastic employees, represented by The NewsGuild of New York, staged a one-day work stoppage on November 1 after the publisher rejected a wage raise proposal — Unionized workers at Scholastic staged a one-day work stoppage on November 1 following the children's publisher's rejection …

Discussion: @newsguild, @gaufre, @nyguild, @brerva and The NewsGuild

Erin Woo / The Information:

Source: TikTok users sent $250M+ worth of digital gifts to US livestreamers in Q3 2023; TikTok takes a 50% cut and is on track to earn $500M in US tips in 2023 — A young man with a shaved head and leather jacket bounces up and down in New York's Union Square, chanting “TGIF” …

more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg:

The FTC says Jeff Bezos ordered Amazon executives to accept more junk ads to boost profits; Amazon used disappearing Signal chats from June 2019 to early 2022 — - FTC releases less redacted antitrust complaint against Amazon — Amazon counters that the FTC is ‘wrong on facts and the law’

Discussion: CNN, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, The Verge, Reuters and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »

Jared Newman / TechHive:

Amazon adds physical product ads, such as for earbuds and apparel, to Fire TV's top feature carousel, which until now has only promoted streaming video content — Amazon will hawk products straight from the top carousel and bring ads into search results. — CORD-CUTTER CONFIDENTIAL

Discussion: MediaPost, @techhive, @Newmy@writing.exchange, AdExchanger and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Burcu Karakas / Reuters:

Turkey arrests two high-profile journalists under its “disinformation law”: RSF says 20+ journalists, mostly local reporters, are being targeted by the 2022 law — Free speech advocates expressed their concerns on Thursday over a widening state crackdown on press freedom …

Discussion: Balkan Insight