Mediagazer: Media monitoring startup Meltwater sold an 11% stake for ~$65M to Norwegian private equity firm Verdane at a $592M valuation, down from $1B+ in December 2020 (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

OpenAI's deals with publishers, like the one the company recently inked with Axel Springer, offers a glimpse of how AI and the media might eventually intersect — This past week, Axel Springer, the German media conglomerate that owns Politico and Business Insider, signed a “multiyear licensing deal” …

Discussion: @jjvincent, @ednewtonrex, @jwherrman, @jwherrman, @intelligencer, @jwherrman, @jwherrman, @alexgraveley, The Verge and @ianbetteridge@writing …

Andreas Wiseman / Deadline:

BAFTA changes the rules for its Best Film category to increase its minimum theatrical screenings requirement from 70 in total to at least 350 screenings — - Audrey Diwan On The Challenge & Liberation Of Making Erotic Drama ‘Emmanuelle’: “I'm Not Trying To Capture Pornography”

Discussion: Variety

Benjy Sarlin / Semafor:

Substack writers Matthew Yglesias and Brian Beutler plan to launch politics podcast Politix on January 3, covering the 2024 US election from the center-left — In a shock Tuesday night decision, Colorado's Supreme Court booted Donald Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot for his role …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Indian Express, @brianbeutler, CBS News, Washington Post, The Daily Beast and Forbes

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:

Sources: X set up a 10-person team to help reach $100M in US political ad spend in 2024, to offset other ad losses, a goal industry executives are skeptical of — Plans for new political ads team to hit $100mn in sales ahead of US presidential election are met with industry scepticism

more at Techmeme »

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Prince Harry's and Hugh Grant's lawsuits against News Corp's UK papers accuse new Washington Post CEO Will Lewis of phone hacking coverups between 2010 and 2012 — When Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos wanted an assured hand to right the newspaper's shaky finances, he turned to Will Lewis …

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik

Bloomberg:

Sources: ByteDance's 2023 sales surged to $110B+, broadly matching 2022's 30% growth rate, despite economic turbulence in China and scrutiny in the US and India — - TikTok's Chinese owner expects revenue growth of about 30% … The world's most valuable startup's growth broadly matched …

more at Techmeme »

TIME:

Memo: Time EIC Sam Jacobs promotes Kelly Conniff from senior executive editor to deputy editor, in charge of day-to-day and strategic decisions — Dear all, — I am delighted to announce that Kelly Conniff has been promoted to Deputy Editor. In this role, Kelly will be my partner …

Discussion: @missmayad, Sam Jacobs on LinkedIn, @jsibo, Cee (Carol) Bunevich on LinkedIn, Kelly Conniff on LinkedIn and MediaPost

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Media monitoring startup Meltwater sold an 11% stake for ~$65M to Norwegian private equity firm Verdane at a $592M valuation, down from $1B+ in December 2020 — Meltwater, which first made its name around media monitoring and then got active in business intelligence using AI …

Discussion: Verdane

Alicja Ptak / Notes From Poland:

Poland's new government dismisses the management of TVP, Polskie Radio, and the Polish Press Agency; TVP's website and news channel TVP Info are now offline — Controversy has erupted around Poland's public media, with members of the conservative former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party …

Discussion: Reuters, @annettedittert, @bdstanley, The First News, @wojciechkosc, @wojciechkosc, @danieltilles1 and @notesfrompoland

Discussion: Agence France-Presse and Notes From Poland

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:

Gower Street Analytics predicts 2024 global movie ticket sales of $31.5B, down 5% YoY, and 2024 North American box office revenue of $8B, down 11% YoY — Leading London-based box office analytics firm Gower Street attributes the downturn to Hollywood's historic labor strikes and the resulting slowdown in production.

Discussion: Deadline, Bloomberg, Variety and SlashFilm

Yona Tr Golding / Columbia Journalism Review:

Q&A with Human Rights Center Investigations Lab co-founder Alexa Koenig on the promises and challenges of OSINT for journalism, OSINT ethics training, and more — On October 17, the parking lot outside Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, where hundreds of displaced Palestinians had amassed, was hit by an explosive of uncertain origin.

Brady Snyder / Android Central:

Google plans to limit the types of election-related queries for which Bard and SGE respond to, starting in early 2024, in preparation for elections worldwide — The move is intended to curb misinformation as the 2024 election nears — What you need to know

Discussion: Semafor, The Indian Express, The Keyword and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

An interview with The Guardian Deputy Editor Owen Gibson on the newspaper's voluntary contributions model, global ambitions, audience relationship, and more — Deputy editor Owen Gibson on the title's global ambitions and relationship with its audience. — The Guardian aims to continue growing the …

Discussion: The Guardian and @pressgazette