Mediagazer: A look at Adobe's cautious gambit in developing Firefly after the soaring popularity of DALL-E and Midjourney, emphasizing brand safety and liability protection (Bloomberg)

9:15 PM ET, February 13, 2024

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Memo: Paramount starts layoffs to reduce costs; sources say ~800 employees, or an estimated 3% of its headcount, are getting cut across all divisions — Paramount Global, amid a swirl of M&A discussions, is laying off about 800 employees worldwide — an estimated 3% of its headcount — as it looks to trim costs.

Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:

Sources: CBS News was hit with job cuts affecting 20 people, including Catherine Herridge, who is in a legal battle to protect sources of a 2017 Fox News story — Several CBS News reporters were caught up in layoffs at Paramount Global that claimed 800 jobs, including one who is embroiled …

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap, Deadline, The Desk, Reuters, The Daily Beast and @alexsteigrad

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Pete Distad, who was in charge of Apple's video and sports businesses, is among the top CEO candidates for the Disney/Fox/WBD streaming venture — Planned venture from Disney, Warner and Fox would combine their live-sports channels into a streaming package

Discussion: The Desk and @dylanbyers

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Forbes' Cyrus Farivar and Poker.org's Haley Hintze face libel lawsuits from Bitcoin Latinum over their coverage of securities fraud lawsuits against the firm — Bitcoin Latinum angry about quotes from fraud lawsuit and Star Trek reference. — The cryptocurrency firm Bitcoin Latinum …

Discussion: Techdirt, @Lazarou@mastodon.social, @arstechnica@mastodon.social and Talking Biz News

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

Axel Springer announces its first US leadership team, a 10-person group that includes Politico Europe co-founder Gabriel Brotman, a sign of its US ambitions — The 10-person cohort includes five new hires and points toward centralization — German media company Axel Springer announced …

Discussion: @nickpacilio, @markstenberg3, Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn, Zia Daniell Wigder on LinkedIn, PRWeek and Axel Springer SE

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Flipboard has launched more than 1,000 of its social magazines in the fediverse, allowing users to find the magazines via federated social apps like Mastodon — The fediverse just got a little bigger today as Flipboard has now launched over 1,000 of its social magazines across the decentralized social web …

Discussion: Flipboard

Bloomberg:

A look at Adobe's cautious gambit in developing Firefly after the soaring popularity of DALL-E and Midjourney, emphasizing brand safety and liability protection — Dall-E and Midjourney pushed the Photoshop behemoth to develop Firefly, a suite of AI tools. Will creatives get on board?

Discussion: Danielle Sacks on LinkedIn, Andy Rosen on LinkedIn, The Adobe Blog, Brody Ford on LinkedIn, @sethcjayson@threads.net and @austincarr, more at Techmeme »

Kristin Robinson / Billboard:

The Mechanical Licensing Collective sues Pandora for allegedly failing to adequately pay and report monthly royalties, including for its ad-supported tier — This is the first time the mechanical licensing organization has filed a lawsuit against a streaming service.

Discussion: Inside Radio, Radio & Television …, RouteNote Blog, CMU, The Desk, Music Business Worldwide and Digital Music News

Selome Hailu / Variety:

Nielsen and Adobe Analytics: Super Bowl 2024 averaged 123.4M viewers across CBS and streaming services, making the game the most-watched US telecast ever — The Feb. 11 Super Bowl game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers brought in an average of 123.4 million viewers …

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Q&A with Marc Jury, the CEO of African streamer Showmax, on doubling down on originals, working with Comcast, the appeal of the English Premier League, and more — Marc Jury discusses the appeal of the English Premier League, the challenges of serving 44 markets across sub-Saharan Africa …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Memo: SiriusXM plans to cut ~160 jobs, or ~3% of its workforce, after laying off 475 employees, or ~8% of its workforce, in March 2023 — SiriusXM is eliminating about 160 jobs, a move to cut expenses that represents a layoff affecting just under 3% of the satellite radio and audio streamer's workforce.

Discussion: @axios, @thataldendiaz, Music Ally, Advanced Television, Seeking Alpha, RAIN News, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Axios, The Wrap, Digital Music News, The Desk, Deadline, Inside Radio and Barrett News Media

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

TVNewsCheck, which covers the TV broadcasting business, says it is suspending updates to its website and newsletters but will continue its events and webinars — TV NewsCheck, a popular online publication that covers the television broadcast industry, says it will temporarily stop publishing new articles …

Discussion: Ethan Holland on LinkedIn, TVNewsCheck and MediaPost

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More News:

Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Source: DCG sold CoinDesk to crypto exchange Bullish for between $70M and $80M cash in November 2023, after acquiring the publication for $500K in January 2016

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A US judge says OpenAI must face a claim of violating CA unfair competition law by using copyrighted books, but dismisses some claims like DMCA violations

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Peter Beaumont / The Guardian:
Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Abu Omar and photojournalist Ahmad Matar were seriously injured during an Israeli airstrike on northern Rafah in the Gaza Strip

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Chris Vallance / BBC:
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Reuters:
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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
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Earlier Picks:

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with the US DOJ's Jonathan Kanter on Google's ad tech and search cases, media consolidation, blocking Penguin's merger with Simon & Schuster, and more

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Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Music encyclopedia EveryNoise, which uses Spotify data, stopped updating after Spotify laid off the employee running the site in December, angering its fans

Carlos Aguilar / New York Times:
A look at movie distributor GKids, which is redefining animation for US audiences by releasing bold work from around the world, including Studio Ghibli's movies

Discussion: @carlos_film, @e_vb_, @nytimesarts and @realdrtacosalad

John Archer / Forbes:
Amazon Prime Video's basic ad tier, which US subscribers who didn't pay extra were downgraded to on January 29, doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
A look at Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow's test to boost talk TV via Monday appearances; Vivvix: Daily Show had $39.9M in ad sales in 2022 vs. $129.1M in 2014

Discussion: Bloomberg, NPR, The Atlantic, Decider, UPI, GoldDerby, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, @bristei, The Daily Beast, @zsharf, @pkafka, TVLine, The Wrap, CBS News, StyleCaster, Jezebel, The Hill, UPROXX, Slate, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Deadline

From Techmeme:

Gavin Anderegg / anderegg.ca:
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Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
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Wall Street Journal:
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