Mediagazer: Eric Newcomer, founder of the Newcomer newsletter on startups and VCs, says he made $1M+ in 2023 revenue from events and subscriptions and has hired a reporter (Sara Fischer/Axios)

5:48 PM ET, January 4, 2024

Top News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Sources: conservative media and business execs met with Jimmy Finkelstein at Mar-a-Lago on January 3 to discuss acquiring a 51% stake in The Messenger for $30M — A group of conservative media and business executives met with The Messenger founder Jimmy Finkelstein on Wednesday to discuss acquiring …

Discussion: New York Times, @taraemcg, @drewsav, @amandabecker, @cmseeberger, @seangriffey, @bencjacobs, @bgrueskin, Andy Barr on LinkedIn, Sara Fischer on LinkedIn and @johnbattelle@threads.net

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Sources: The Messenger is seeking to raise around $20M amid layoffs and financial struggles; it launched in 2023 after a $50M raise — Digital news start up The Messenger is seeking to raise around $20 million amid layoffs and financial struggles, sources tell Axios.

Discussion: @simondowens@threads.net, Julie Westfall on LinkedIn, Defector, The Wrap, @henryporters, @jasonshevrin, @themaxburns, @ernie.tedium.co, @scottnover, @rolandsmartin, New York Post, The Daily Beast and The Information

The Information:

Sources: OpenAI offered some media firms $1M to $5M per year to license news articles for model training; Apple offers more but wants to use content more widely — OpenAI has offered some media firms as little as between $1 million and $5 million annually to license their news articles …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Nicholas Yanes on LinkedIn, The Verge, New York Post, Neil Katz on LinkedIn, @blairmacgregor, @alex, Rafael Brown on LinkedIn, @garymarcus and Thurrott, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Eric Newcomer, founder of the Newcomer newsletter on startups and VCs, says he made $1M+ in 2023 revenue from events and subscriptions and has hired a reporter — Eric Newcomer, the founder and author of Newcomer, an independent newsletter covering startups and venture capital …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @ericnewcomer, Newcomer, @ericnewcomer, @maddierenbarger and The Guardian

Ralph D. Russo / Associated Press:

The NCAA and ESPN announce a $920M, eight-year agreement that will give ESPN rights to 40 championships, including the Division I women's basketball tournament — The NCAA and ESPN announced on Thursday a $920 million, eight-year agreement that will give the network exclusive rights to 40 championships …

Jacob Feldman / Sportico:

Marie Donoghue, vice president of global sports video at Amazon's Prime Video and a former top ESPN executive, is leaving the company — Five years after being tapped by Amazon to lead its global sports programming efforts, Marie Donoghue is leaving the company, a spokesperson confirmed.

Discussion: Variety, Awful Announcing, Barrett Media, @jacobfeldman4 and @andrewmarchand

Andrew Marchand / New York Post:

YES and MSG Network partner to launch Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment, a 50/50 venture that aims to capitalize on their streaming services — YES and MSG Network are partnering on a new venture that eventually could lead to a direct-to-consumer streaming service that offers the Yankees …

Discussion: Awful Announcing, Sphere Entertainment Co., Next TV, The Streamable, @tim_bays, Front Office Sports, Sportico, @stegensurvivor, @aagave, @yesnetwork, @mattzeitlin, @loudmouthjulia, @lucas_shaw, @ncostanzo24, @andrewmarchand, @pitchforkedpuck and The Hollywood Reporter

Wall Street Journal:

As Google restricts third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users, marketers, adtech companies, and publishers say Google has not done enough to prepare the market — Search giant plans to remove a technology seen as critical to the digital-ad industry — Google is going forward …

Agence France-Presse:

Tunisian authorities arrest Al Jazeera reporter Samir Sassi, one week after the arrest of Tunisian journalist Zied el-Heni, who criticized a minister — Samir Sassi joins growing number of journalists imprisoned and prosecuted in country — Tunisian authorities have arrested an Al Jazeera reporter …

Discussion: IFJ and Committee to Protect …

Bloomberg:

Sources: TikTok aims to grow TikTok Shop US' merchandise volume tenfold to $17.5B in 2024 and plans to increase merchant fees to 6% of each sale in April 2024 — - ByteDance's video app is fast expanding beyond advertising … The 2024 merchandise volume goal for the US version of TikTok Shop …

Discussion: MediaPost, @yohaas, Semafor, @herrmanndigital, @rishabhmjain, @alejandrochahin, TechCrunch, @carnage4life@mas.to, The Information, WWD, Forbes and Insider Intelligence

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

GroupM forms a consortium with Disney, Roku, NBCU, YouTube, and others to push for standardized measurements and ad formats for use across streaming services — One of the nation's biggest investors of ad dollars wants to push big large streamers to work together when it comes to commercials.

Discussion: Tubefilter, Next TV, Deadline, GroupM, Adweek and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

RedBird IMI invests in Media Res, the independent studio behind “The Morning Show”; Jeff Zucker plans to take a seat on the studio's board — The former CNN president will return to Hollywood by investing in the studio behind streaming hits like “The Morning Show” on Apple TV+.

Discussion: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap

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More News:

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
VideoAmp founder Ross McCray steps down as CEO as the company prepares to lay off nearly a fifth of its staff; Peter Liguori will serve as executive chairman

Discussion: Ad Age

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Amazon names Jeremy Helfand vice president and head of sales for Prime Video; he had been EVP for advertising for Disney's interactive businesses

Discussion: Adweek, Ad Age, The Wrap and The Information

Paul Sandle / Reuters:
Layered Reality announces Elvis Evolution, an AI, AR, and holographic-based show, launching in London in 2024 before traveling to Las Vegas, Tokyo, and Berlin

Discussion: Breitbart, Billboard, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, BBC, @michaelsocolow, Rolling Stone and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Aditya Kalra / Reuters:
Sources: Disney and Reliance executives signed a non-binding term sheet in December and both have hired law firms to do antitrust due diligence for their merger

Discussion: Variety, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
BOA analysis: Amazon's video ad push will boost annual revenue by up to $5B, comprising $3B in video ad sales and $1.8B in Prime users paying to avoid ads

Discussion: The Motley Fool

Kari Paul / The Guardian:
Q&A with Jacob Bakkila, who ran the popular @Horse_ebooks Twitter account for two years, on the inspirations behind the language bot, AI chatbots, and more

more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
In a lawsuit, a Disney employee claims she was sexually assaulted by former VP of distribution Nolan Gonzales and that management didn't escalate concerns to HR

Discussion: New York Post, ComingSoon.net, Deadline and Bloomberg Law

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
MPA: the Asia Pacific video industry grew 5.5% in 2023 to hit $145B in revenue, with a 13% jump in online video sales to $57B; TV revenue grew under 1% to $98B

Discussion: @livemint, Livemint, WORLD SCREEN and Advanced Television

Michael Schneider / Variety:
After a WGA protest, the Television Academy and Fox reverse an earlier plan and return the Emmy for variety series outstanding writing to the Emmys telecast

Discussion: @scenarist.bsky.social, @jennifergrand.bsky.social, @wgawest, IndieWire, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Oliver Darcy:
Internal note: Alex MacCallum, who became The Washington Post's chief revenue officer in July 2023, is leaving; sources: she's in talks to join CNN

Discussion: @benmullin, @dylanbyers, @dylanbyers, Oliver arcy, Puck and Variety

Kim Masters / The Hollywood Reporter:
A look at the men allied with Nelson Peltz and their histories with Disney: Ike Perlmutter, the ousted Marvel chairman, and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo

Discussion: @erik_hayden, @thr, @kimmasters, New York Post and Variety

From Techmeme:

Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Okta fixes a flaw present since July 23, 2024, that let users log in under specific circumstances with any password if the account's username had 52+ characters

David Pierce / The Verge:
Amazon's plan to rearchitect Alexa around LLMs could finally help Alexa understand what users actually want and reduce the awkward syntax needed to use Skills

Stephen Groves / Associated Press:
US House Speaker Mike Johnson says the GOP “probably will” try to repeal the CHIPS Act, but then walks it back, saying the GOP may “further streamline” the bill

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