Mediagazer: Oppenheimer will start streaming February 16 on Peacock, the longest time ever between a theatrical opening and its streaming debut for a Universal picture (Thomas Buckley/Bloomberg)

Top News:

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Platformer is leaving Substack and migrating to Ghost, saying the outlet doesn't believe Substack will publicly commit to proactively removing pro-Nazi material — After much consideration, we have decided to move Platformer off of Substack. Over the next few days, the publication …

David W. Chen / New York Times:

As deepfakes warp elections overseas, US state legislators race to enact laws, with varying penalties, requiring disclosure of the use of AI in political ads — Sophisticated political deepfakes have warped elections overseas. Can U.S. legislators act fast enough to make A.I. campaign ads more transparent?

Discussion: @votepenelope, more at Techmeme »

Chavi Mehta / Reuters:

Insider Intelligence: US political ad spend is expected to rise to $12.32B in 2024, up ~30% from 2020, with traditional media accounting for 71.9% of all spend — U.S. political advertising spend will likely jump by nearly a third in 2024 over the previous U.S. presidential election year …

John Herrman / New York Magazine:

A look at TikTok's dogged e-commerce push by subsidizing sales and promoting sellers in user feeds, as ad sales weaken and social media stagnates — It was supposed to be a test. Suddenly hundreds of people were watching. What's going on here? — Over the last four months …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Daily Beast and Bloomberg

Tom Gerken / BBC:

Many prominent voice actors say they weren't told about the SAG-AFTRA's deal with Replica Studios setting out how AI-generated voices can be used in video games — Prominent voice actors say they weren't told about a landmark deal setting out how voices generated by artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in games.

Discussion: gamedeveloper, NME, Decrypt, The Verge and GamesHub

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

CNN, Fox, and MSNBC carried Trump's conference after his NY fraud trial live, a reminder of his media advantage and readiness to exploit his trials — The coverage was a stark reminder that the former president's legal troubles offer an outsize media platform as he pursues the Republican nomination.

Discussion: Mediaite, Reuters, Adweek, Vanity Fair, Associated Press, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hill and Forbes

Bloomberg:

Sources: Universal Music Group plans to cut hundreds of jobs in Q1 2024, as revenue growth slows; in 2022, the company had about 10K employees — - Brunt of firings will fall on the recorded music division — CEO Lucian Grainge talked about impending cuts in October

Discussion: Variety

Neha Gupta / WAN-IFRA:

Project Oasis, a research initiative focusing on european digital-native media outlets, finds those with sales staff average 6x more revenue than those without — Digital native companies with dedicated sales teams and solid gender diversity are more successful than those that do not …

Discussion: @nehahaz

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Sources: Cheddar News is hanging on by a thin thread, with no more than a half-dozen or so editorial staffers, down from a couple dozen in December 2023 — Not too long ago, on the 25th and 26th floors of the One State Street tower in lower Manhattan, a vibrant newsroom existed.

Discussion: @oliverdarcy@threads.net and Talking Biz News

Katie Strang / The Athletic:

Emmy Awards organizer NATAS says ESPN won 30+ Emmys using fake names in its “College GameDay” entries; ESPN blames “a misguided attempt” and returns the awards — In March 2023, Shelley Smith, who worked 26 years as an on-air reporter for ESPN, received a call from Stephanie Druley …

Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:

A look at the post-election battle over Poland's state-run media, as the new moderate government aims to dismantle the hard right party's media legacy — A little over a year ago, Civic Platform, then the main opposition party in Poland, proposed a bill aimed at doing away …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Fox News, American Press Institute and New York Times

John Koblin / New York Times:

Peacock will become the first streamer to exclusively show an NFL playoff game, which cost NBCU $100M+, on January 13; the game airs free in KC and Miami — The game, between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, is the biggest test yet for whether live sports will find a comfortable home on streaming services.

Discussion: Awful Announcing, The Streamable, Deadspin, The Ringer, @onikuno and WKYC-TV