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10:15 AM ET, January 4, 2024

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 Top News: 
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.
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Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: The Messenger's board weighed shutting the site down at a December 29 meeting, and Jimmy Finkelstein has expressed a willingness to sell the site
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Michael Flaherty / Axios:
Hedge funds vie for power at Disney: ValueAct supports Disney's board slate, Trian and Ancora support Nelson Peltz, and Blackwells pushes other board candidates
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+.
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  —  Elvis Presley fans who missed out on seeing their hero when he was alive will be able to catch a glimpse of the King …
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 …
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  —  - Subscribers can pay extra $3 per month for ad-free streaming  —  Amazon.com Inc.'s push into video advertising will boost annual revenue …
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  —  Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) and Walt Disney (DIS.N) have appointed law firms …
Discussion: Variety and Wall Street Journal
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Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Athan Stephanopoulos plans to leave as CNN's chief digital officer at the end of January, the second turnover of digital executives at CNN since WBD took over
Kari Paul / The Guardian:
Q&A with Jacob Bakkila, who ran the popular @Horse_ebooks Twitter account for two years, on the inspiration for the language bot, AI chatbots, and more  —  By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, the account functioned like today's chatbots.
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  —  The plaintiff, suing as a Jane Doe, claims she was assaulted by former vice president of distribution Nolan Gonzales …
Discussion: Bloomberg Law and Deadline
 
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The UK Editors' Code of Practice Committee rejects calls to extend the discrimination clause in the code to cover Jews, Muslims, those with ADHD, and others
Aleks Chan / The Guardian:
The Guardian US raised $2.2M in its 2023 year-end fundraiser, up 25% from the previous record and the most successful raise since its first appeal six years ago
 

 
From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
Source: Apple is no longer in talks to participate in an OpenAI funding round that is expected to raise as much as $6.5B

Ricardo Brito / Reuters:
Court docs: Brazil's Supreme Court say X still needs to pay $5M+ in pending fines, including a new one, before it will be allowed to resume service in Brazil

Steven Levy / Wired:
Q&A with Trae Stephens, partner at Founders Fund and Executive Chairman of Anduril, on autonomous AI's role in warfare, building a wearable e-reader, and more
 
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