Top News:
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources detail how a $300M investment from Blackstone, structured as a line of credit, became an albatross for Recurrent Ventures due to rising interest rates — The Blackstone investment was supposed to be a war chest. It became an albatross. — In May 2022, media company Recurrent Ventures announced …
Discussion:
@markstenberg3, @rafat, Jared Lake on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg and Financial Times
Pete Croatto / Poynter:
A look at the 2003 film Shattered Glass on serial fabulist Stephen Glass, the people involved in his rise and fall, and its enduring appeal in journalism school — 25 years ago, Stephen Glass was exposed as a fabulist. In 2003, a classic film chronicled his deceit. Not everyone involved walked away unscathed.
Discussion:
@jonathanchait, @petecroatto, @williams_paige, @billyray5229, On my Om, @om, @sonnybunch, @benmullin and @petecroatto
Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Jon Franklin, a pioneer of literary journalism who won two Pulitzer Prizes for stories published in The Baltimore Evening Sun, died on January 21 at age 82 — He won two Pulitzer Prizes by transforming accounts of doctors at work into in-depth, narrative articles that read like dramatic short stories.
Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:
Internal email: WWE President Nick Khan says Vince McMahon resigned as TKO Executive Chairman and from the TKO board, and no longer has a role with TKO or WWE — The WWE founder faced allegations of battery and sex trafficking by a former employee. … Following allegations of battery …
Discussion:
Deadline, Daily Mail, @wrestleops, Wrestlezone, The Sun, @mailonline, TV Insider, Variety, Associated Press, @jessehawken, @wrestleops, @seanrosssapp, @jbflint, New York Times, Mediaite, TVLine, The A.V. Club, Awful Announcing, Wrestlezone, POST Wrestling, The Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, New York Post, ESPN, CNN, The Wrap, UPROXX, USA Today and The Messenger
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
X plans to build a new “Trust and Safety center of excellence” in Austin, Texas, and hire 100 full-time moderators to fight child sexual exploitation material — - Employees will be full-time, primarily focused on CSE content — X CEO Yaccarino to testify before Senate committee next week
Discussion:
The Verge, @kurtwagner8, @seesyous and @alexanotherone.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »
Tim Harford / Financial Times:
With high-stakes elections in 2024, some experts are worried that a piece of disinformation potentially involving a deepfake might soon have a calamitous impact — Fakes, forgeries and the meaning of meaning in our post-truth hellscape — Not long after Eric Hebborn was murdered …
Ben Smith / Semafor:
Q&A with Washington Post CEO Will Lewis about his plans for the newspaper, including making its footprint bigger, lack of a Trump Bump, media layoffs, more — On Sir Will Lewis' 17th day as CEO of the Washington Post, Washington media celebrated him in its particularly small-town way …
Gretel Kahn / Reuters Institute:
Emerging journalists from Europe, North America, and Latin America discuss the challenges they face entering the news industry, like high tuition and low pay — Reporters put up with low salaries, long hours and uninspiring roles in the hope they will find a full-time job. Many may never have one
New York Times:
Sources: LAT owner Patrick Soon-Shiong clashed with editor Kevin Merida over an published article about a wealthy doctor and his dog, before Merida stepped down — The owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, had raised concerns with Kevin Merida, who stepped down this month, over reporting about a wealthy doctor and his dog.
The Wrap:
SAG-AFTRA calls for laws making the development and distribution of false AI images illegal, following the release of sexually explicit AI fakes of Taylor Swift — The Biden administration also spoke out on Thursday — Following the release of faked, sexually explicit images …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, NBC News, ABC News, VentureBeat, Page Six, The A.V. Club, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN, TMZ.com, Consequence, Variety, The Daily Beast, Deadline, The Hill, Business Insider, The Messenger, HuffPost, The Verge, Rolling Stone, CBS News, Fox News, New York Times, Billboard and New York Post, more at Techmeme »
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
A look at women's blog The Hairpin, which has been resurrected by a Serbian DJ after its 2018 shutdown and is now filled with SEO-optimized, AI-generated trash — Beloved women's website The Hairpin shut down in 2018. This month it returned from the dead to churn out AI clickbait.
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
404 Media outlines the reasons it wants to reach readers directly via email, including social media fragmentation and AI spam making discoverability tougher — You might have noticed that over the last few days, we've begun requiring readers to sign up with email addresses to read most of the articles on our website.
Discussion:
@janellecshane@wandering.shop, @jason_koebler, @jeffjarvis, @josephfcox, @josephfcox, @tnewmstweet, @josephfcox, @josephfcox, @chronotope, @josephfcox, @berkowitzbt, @cwarzel@threads.net, @thebrianpenny@threads.net, @shellsharks@infosec.exchange, @oh_that_courtney@hachyderm.io, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai on LinkedIn, 404 Media, @jeffjarvis@threads.net and @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
A profile of Anna Jones, Telegraph Media Group's first female CEO, who took over at possibly the most tumultuous time in the rightwing title's 169-year history — The first woman to lead the Telegraph Media Group has been described as ‘extraordinarily energetic, motivated and driven’
Discussion:
@pressgazette and Press Gazette
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