Top News:
Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Byron Allen makes a ~$30B offer, including debt and equity, to buy all of Paramount; sources: Allen plans to sell the Paramount film studio and keep Paramount+ — - The media mogul offering to pay a 50% premium for voting stock — Allen already has interest from investors for assets
Discussion:
MediaPost, Hollywood Reporter, @solomonmissouri, @tvgrimreaper, Cord Cutters News, Deadline, Variety, Reuters, @gracerandolph, @ipodave, The Wrap and @authorrandallb
Reuters:
Alphabet reports Q4 Google advertising revenue up 11% YoY to $65.5B, vs. $66.1B estimated, and Google Search & Other revenue up 13% YoY to $48B — Alphabet (GOOGL.O) disappointed Wall Street on Tuesday as holiday season advertising sales came in below expectations and overshadowed …
Discussion:
@thetranscript_, MediaPost, MarketWatch and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Alphabet CEO says its digital subscription services, including YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, are on a $15B annual revenue run rate, up fivefold since 2019 — Alphabet's suite of digital subscription services — including YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, YouTube TV and Google One cloud storage …
Discussion:
@xpangler, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Universal Music Group plans to cease licensing content to TikTok after their agreement expires on January 31, saying they failed to reach new licensing terms — UMG said that its agreement with TikTok is set to expire on Jan. 31. “The companies have not agreed to terms for a new agreement …
Discussion:
UMG, The Guardian, Engadget, Agence France-Presse, inews.co.uk, Music Ally, TechCrunch, CityAM, Bloomberg, Business Insider, The Register, @broderick, Billboard, PR Newswire, @mikeisaac, @lucas_shaw, @tiktokcomms, Los Angeles Times, @umg, The Music Network, @jamesrbuk, @runciedan, Mumbrella, The Information, Music Technology Policy, @annaknicolaou, @xpangler, @mikeisaac, Wall Street Journal, @broderick, Rolling Stone, Financial Times, @russdiemon, The Daily Beast, Reuters, The Messenger, The Wrap, 9to5Mac, The Hollywood Reporter and Digital Music News, more at Techmeme »
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John Seabrook / New Yorker:
A profile of UMG CEO Lucian Grainge, who helped record labels rake in billions of dollars from streaming and now hopes to do the same with generative AI — Lucian Grainge, the chairman of UMG, has helped record labels rake in billions of dollars from streaming. Can he do the same with generative artificial intelligence?
Discussion:
@drorpoleg and Natalie Jacobs on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »
The New York Times Company:
The New York Times introduces a new format to its byline pages, called enhanced bios, highlighting journalists' expertise and ethics, how they operate, and more — The New York Times is introducing a new format to its byline pages. — Our journalists are what set The New York Times apart.
Discussion:
@ben@werd.social, @jayrosen_nyu, @nytimespr, @mattwelch, @mjnblack, @glenngabe, @froomkin, @froomkin, @edmundlee, @andrew_marshall, @jayrosen_nyu and @talmonsmith
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Emilia David / The Verge:
The NYT starts hiring for a team that will explore the use of generative AI in the newsroom “to help with reporting and how the Times is presented to readers”
Discussion:
The Messenger, @technicallymims@threads.net, @palewire, @palewire, @chris@threads.net and @zseward@threads.net
Mark Caro / Local News Initiative:
Q&A with Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy, the authors of the new book What Works in Community News, on local news, nonprofit outlets putting up paywalls, and more — Veteran journalists Clegg, Kennedy spotlight local news outlets that chart path forward — Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy brought …
Discussion:
@dankennedy_nu, @localnewsini and Media Nation
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
USC: in 2023, 35% of Billboard's Hot 100 singles in the US were performed by women and 56% of the most popular songs had at least one female songwriter — The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative's latest report finds that women's involvement in the biggest hits of 2023 was greatly improved over previous years.
Discussion:
Variety
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
An interview with Ethan Brown, founder and EIC of The Garrison Project, which partners with other outlets to publish its reporting on US criminal justice issues — “The story is less at [the U.S. Department of Justice] than with sheriffs and prosecutors at the local level, mostly the county level.”
Discussion:
@pamelacolloff and @niemanlab
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Novara Media says the left-wing UK nonprofit opinion and news outlet has nearly 15K monthly donors, up from 10K in July 2022, and 25 staff, paid £19 per hour — Press Gazette checks in with the un-paywalled outlet as it adds coverage of the North. — Supporter-funded Novara Media …
Discussion:
@pressgazette and @pressgazette
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
Bookstat: the US audiobook market grew 14% YoY in Q4 2023, excluding Spotify; with Spotify, it grew 28% YoY; Spotify had an 11% market share, behind Audible — There are early signs that Spotify's addition of audiobooks to its streaming service is helping drive audiobook consumption — already a growing market.
Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:
A profile of Penguin Random House CEO Nihar Malaviya, who was tasked to lead PRH after the US DOJ won its fight to stop the $2B+ Simon & Schuster acquisition — As chief executive of Penguin Random House, Nihar Malaviya runs a global company and the largest book publisher in the United States …
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