Top News:
Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:
A deep dive into The New York Times' big bet on Games, whose team grew from ~15 people in 2015 to ~100 today, about the same size as the paper's Business desk — Wordle. Connections. Spelling Bee. Ye olde Crossword. The Times is home to beloved brainteasers that are helping boost the paper's bottom line.
Discussion:
Zoe Bell on LinkedIn, @stephentotilo, @kenherts, @davidclinchnews, @mlcalderone, @ahbseaborn, @phkeane, @elleactually, @bgrueskin and @charlottetklein
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Flipboard plans to fully integrate with ActivityPub and is testing the move with select accounts, like Semafor, Medium, Polygon, Kotaku, Digiday, and The Verge — Instagram Threads isn't the only app joining the decentralized social web, which includes Twitter/X rival Mastodon and other apps …
Sam Levin / The Guardian:
How incarcerated journalists inside San Quentin prison are making podcasts about life behind bars and winning awards, despite facing retaliation and censorship — Inside San Quentin, residents are drawing mainstream audiences and shifting narratives about life behind bars
Discussion:
William Drummond on LinkedIn and Nieman Lab
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Apple says The NYT's The Athletic is now available to Apple News+ subscribers, and all Apple News users will be able to read Wirecutter for free in early 2024 — NYT's Wirecutter reviews will be available free in Apple News app in 2024 — The New York Times Co. inked a deal with Apple …
Discussion:
Axios, @chancehmiller@threads.net, Apple, iMore, MacRumors, The Hollywood Reporter, @sarafischer, @bzamayo and 9to5Mac
Mikhail Klimentov / ReaderGrev:
A postmortem of The Washington Post's Launcher gaming vertical: 20 staff laid off, a lack of resources, executives' under appreciation of gaming media, and more — Why did The Washington Post kill its video game vertical? … November would have marked my four-year anniversary at Launcher …
Discussion:
@leadergrev, @leadergrev, @leadergrev, @leadergrev, @rcmacleod, @jacobwolf, @leadergrev, @alykkat and @paytherow
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
MailOnline announces a UK subscription service with 10 to 15 articles paid stories per day; Mail Online will remain completely free in the rest of the world — The Mail said it will also invest in podcasts and video. — Mail Online has confirmed it will make up to 15 articles per day paid …
Discussion:
@j_a_warrington and The Times
Julia Kollewe / The Guardian:
Hipgnosis delays its half-year results, saying the valuation by its independent valuer was “materially higher” than that implied by recent transactions — Company says songs have been assessed as worth more by independent valuer than recent transactions in the sector
Discussion:
Variety, Billboard, Reuters, Hipgnosis Song Management Limited, Digital Music News, City A.M., London Evening Standard, Financial Times, Dow Jones Newswires, CMU, Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, Investment Week, @bondhack, Proactiveinvestors NA, Sharecast, @dominicoc, @rhomboid1mf and The Times
Pranshu Verma / Washington Post:
NewsGuard: since May 2023, websites hosting AI-created fake news articles have grown from 49 to 600+; some post “hundreds if not thousands of articles” per day — AI is making it easy for anyone to create propaganda outlets, producing content that can be hard to differentiate from real news
Discussion:
@davidclinchnews and @pranshuverma_
Elsa Keslassy / Variety:
MGM+ partners with Lionsgate on a licensing deal to expand into Latin America as part of its international rollout, starting with Brazil and Mexico in January — Under the pact, the MGM+ offer will boast leading series and movies from Lionsgate and Starz, alongside iconic films …
Sanjai P R / Bloomberg:
Sony says it's looking to hear proposals from Zee to rescue the $10B merger plan and has not yet agreed to Zee's request to extend the December 21 deadline — - Wants to see Zee's deal rescue plans as Dec. 21 deadline looms — Both signed a pact in 2021 to create a $10 billion media giant
Discussion:
Free Press Journal, Reuters and Advanced Television
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Puck announces a sports vertical, to be led by veteran SBJ reporter John Ourand; a source says Puck's $13M Series B over the summer valued the company at $70M+ — New York CNN — — Puck is stepping into the sports arena. — The buzzy digital subscription publication that offers readers …
Discussion:
@loudmouthjulia, @pucknews, @ourand_sbj, @sherman4949, @webbarr, @teddyschleifer, @bizballmaury, @gmanolatos, @sarafischer, @bportnoy15, @blowryontv, @eriqgardner, @alexmsilverman, @bristei, @sbj, @kevdgrussing, @bkoo, @rcarthen, @royd77, Sports Media Watch, Awful Announcing and MediaPost
Lachlan Cartwright / The Daily Beast:
Sources: Appin co-founder Rajat Khare used law firms to threaten US, UK, Swiss, Indian, and Luxembourg outlets to kill stories about the hack-for-hire industry — A tech guru is waging a war on major media outlets across three continents, hiring a “media assassin” law firm to kill stories connecting him to …
Discussion:
@lachcartwright, @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social and @evacide@hachyderm.io, more at Techmeme »
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