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6:45 PM ET, January 4, 2024

Mediagazer

 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 …
RELATED:
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.
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 …
Om Malik / On my Om:
The decline of Wired, once a magazine that inspired hope in technology's future, illustrates a broader loss of necessary optimism among tech writing communities  —  On January 2nd, 1993, Wired burst onto the scene, and let me tell you, it transformed the way many of us looked at technology and its impact on our future.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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  —  The founder of VideoAmp, a measurement-technology start-up that has been vying with Nielsen and others to create a new means …
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  —  Amazon has tapped a Disney veteran to lead its new push into the streaming ad wars.  —  Jeremy Helfand, who rose from a position at Hulu …
Discussion: Adweek, Ad Age, The Wrap and The Information
 
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 More News: 
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
 Earlier Picks: 
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
 

 
From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

Hannah Lang / Reuters:
Sources: a16z, Ripple, Kraken, and Circle are jostling for a seat on Trump's promised crypto advisory council, which is expected to set up a bitcoin reserve

 
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