Mediagazer: BuzzFeed, the media star of 2016 that now has a ~$36M market cap, needs just above $100M after its sale of Complex Networks to pay down debt due at 2024's end (Martin Peers/The Information)

1:10 PM ET, December 30, 2023

Top News:

Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:

Filing: BuzzFeed President Marcela Martin intends to resign on January 12 to pursue other opportunities; the CEO and others plan to absorb her responsibilities — BuzzFeed's (BZFD.O) Marcela Martin has announced her intention to resign as president effective Jan. 12 to pursue other opportunities, the digital media firm said on Friday.

Discussion: US Securities …, The Information, @zerohedge and Jaspreet Singh on LinkedIn

Martin Peers / The Information:

BuzzFeed, the media star of 2016 that now has a ~$36M market cap, needs just above $100M after its sale of Complex Networks to pay down debt due at 2024's end — Let's hope all those wannabe digital media entrepreneurs are paying attention to the slow disintegration of BuzzFeed, the media star of 2016.

The Information:

Sources: BuzzFeed is close to selling most of Complex Networks to livestream shopping startup Ntwrk for a little above $100M, far below Jonah Peretti's target — After months of discussions, BuzzFeed is close to an agreement to sell most of its Complex Networks business to Ntwrk …

Discussion: @theinformation and @tomaxwell, more at Techmeme »

Alex Griffing / Mediaite:

Fox News was 2023's most watched US network, followed by MSNBC, the only one to grow viewers YoY; MSNBC's average viewer was 70, Fox's was 69, and CNN's was 67 — The cable news industry had an undeniably rough 2023, ending the tumultuous year with fewer eyeballs as cord-cutting continues …

Discussion: @jeffreymberry, @scottbrodbeck, @civex, The Willis Report, @joelmathis.bsky.social, Los Angeles Times and @owillis.bsky.social

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Newsmax's ratings, which soared after Fox News ousted Tucker Carlson, have gradually declined; Q4 primetime ratings fell 14% QoQ but were higher than in 2022

Discussion: The Hill and Next TV

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:

Paramount Global and Comcast Xfinity strike a new carriage deal, averting a potential January 1 blackout that would have included CBS, MTV, and other channels — The previous deal was set to expire at the end of the year and would have impacted NFL and college football games.

Discussion: Variety, Awful Announcing, Sports Business Journal and The Desk

The Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix's stock ended 2023 up 65%, Spotify's was up 129%, and Roku's was up 126%; Lionsgate, Sony, and NBCUniversal owner Comcast were also media sector winners — Renewed sector deal chatter helped boost some stocks late in the year despite questions about the advertising and streaming outlook.

Discussion: Deadline and Variety

Financial Times:
Disney, WBD, Comcast, and Paramount face a year of reckoning in 2024 after losing $5B+ in 2023 from the streaming services they built to compete with Netflix

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Heatherly on LinkedIn, Deadline, Cord Cutters News, @carnage4life@mas.to and Liz Spaulding on LinkedIn

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Sources: for months, OpenAI has held talks with major news publishers including Gannett, News Corp, and IAC about the price and terms of licensing their content — Several major publishers have been in talks to license content to the creator of ChatGPT, but agreement on the price and terms has been elusive.

Discussion: @grecianformula, @minimaxir, @davidclinchnews, The Indian Express, PYMNTS.com, @benjaminmullin@threads.net and Tales from a Phoenix

A.O. Scott / New York Times:

How some authors are embracing ChatGPT and other chatbots as the latest iteration of an ancient literary conceit, a writer's “muse” — What happens to literature when writers embrace A.I. as their muse? — The robots of literature and movies usually present either an existential danger or an erotic frisson.

Discussion: @nytimesbooks, @lalatellsastory@threads.net and @stephenmarche, more at Techmeme »

Gary Marcus / Marcus on AI:

OpenAI and others will likely face more copyright lawsuits as systems like DALL-E produce copyright-infringing materials without attribution or informing users — At around the same time as news of the New York Times lawsuit vs OpenAI broke, Reid Southen, the film industry concept artist …

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

WBD acquires BluTV, a Turkey-based streaming service launched in 2016 for Turkish- and Arabic-speaking audiences globally, after a three-year partnership — The streamer offers premium originals, Turkish TV series and movies, as well as Hollywood and international series and films.

Discussion: Variety, The Desk, Francesco Perta on LinkedIn, Richard Lambert on LinkedIn, Mustafa Alpay Guler on LinkedIn, Fadi Ismail on LinkedIn, Deadline, Advanced Television and Broadband TV News

CNBC:

Altice USA sells Cheddar News to media company Archetype, which is owned by private equity firm Regent; source: the terms are structured as an “earn out” deal — - Cheddar News-owner Altice USA announced Thursday it has sold the financial news streaming service to the media company Archetype …

Discussion: @tomgara, The Desk, @rafat, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, Cord Cutters News, The Information, Cheddar News, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Talking Biz News and KNSD-TV

Leyla Latypova / The Moscow Times:

How Russia's independent media fared in 2023: imprisoned media workers grew from 11 to 28 as wartime censorship laws forced some outlets to cease all operations — The past year has been another troubling one for the Russian free press. — Russian officials branded scores of independent news outlets …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Reporters Without Borders, Talking Biz News, The Hill and @sambreazeale2

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Discussion: The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hill, MediaPost, Rolling Stone, New Republic, New York Post, Mediaite, The Information, Engadget and Reuters

Angela Fu / Poynter:
Research: the US news industry cut 2,681 jobs from January to November 2023, not including buyouts, more than in all of 2022 or 2021, and 130+ newspapers closed

Discussion: @joelmathis.bsky.social and Joel Marino on LinkedIn

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
The New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft relies on a false belief that copyright can limit the right to read and process data

Colin Mann / Advanced Television:
Podcast listening on the BBC Sounds app from January to November 2023 rose 34% YoY; the annual figures started to include smart speaker data as of April 2023

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Eugene Weekly:
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TheRighting:
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Discussion: @therighting and @farhip

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
A profile of Francesca Street, whose Chance Encounters love stories for CNN.com appeared five times on Chartbeat's list of 2023's most-engaging stories

Discussion: Mediaite, Francesca Street on LinkedIn and @farhip

Reuters:
Sources: Telecom Italia has renewed its five-season deal with DAZN to show Serie A soccer games on its streaming platform TimVision, for €43M to €46M per year

Financial Times:
Insider Intelligence: LinkedIn's ad revenue, which rose 10.1% YoY to nearly $4B in 2023, could grow 14.1% YoY in 2024, as brands seek to reallocate X ad spend

Discussion: MediaPost, PYMNTS.com, Business Post and James Eagle on LinkedIn

From Techmeme:

Samantha Subin / CNBC:
The Nasdaq falls 4%, with Meta closing down 7%, Nvidia down 6%, Amazon down 5%, and Apple down 4% as the White House say Trump's tariffs on China now total 145%

Reuters:
The cybersecurity industry is mostly quiet after Trump canceled SentinelOne's security clearances for hiring Chris Krebs; SentinelOne says it will cooperate

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI updates ChatGPT with a memory feature that references past chats for answers, rolling out to ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers, but not in the UK and EEA

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