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 …
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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 …
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
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 …
Discussion:
Sportico, The Walt Disney Company, Variety, The Athletic, The Wrap, USA Today, Sports Business Journal, UPI, Bloomberg, @bkoo, @wolfsburgfl, Deadline, Awful Announcing, Axios, @slmandel, Sports Media Watch, @achristovichh, @ryan_reilly78, The Streamable, Front Office Sports and Barrett Media
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 …
Discussion:
MediaPost, Business Insider, LifeHacker, The Drum, Next in Media, BGR, Jamie Seltzer on LinkedIn, Curtis Bixel on LinkedIn, Jessica Randazza-Pade on LinkedIn, W Media Research, Brian Mandelbaum on LinkedIn, Jeff Chasin on LinkedIn, Gizmodo, Ad Age, Press Gazette, The Register, Digiday and Adweek, more at Techmeme »
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 …
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:
The Wrap, Variety, Awful Announcing, Barrett Media, @jacobfeldman4 and @andrewmarchand
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