Top News:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
BuzzFeed sells Complex, acquired for $300M in 2021, to livestream shopping platform Ntwrk for $108.6M; BuzzFeed plans to lay off 16% of its workforce — - The Wall Street Journal reported that BuzzFeed is also looking to possibly sell its social media food brand Tasty.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, CMU, CNN, Music Ally, Digital Music News, @iramadisonthree, @natjarv, Newser, @benmullin, @nicholasadeleon, @jaycodon, @sarafischer, @milkman__dead, @runciedan, @almighty_red, The Desk, New York Post, The Hill, Deadline, Adweek, New York Times, Music Business Worldwide, Semafor, @jalefkowit@octodon.social, The Information, Business Wire, The Wrap and Billboard, more at Techmeme »
Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:
Newsmax joins the New York Post's editorial board and other right-leaning outlets criticizing a pair of Florida bills making it easier to sue for defamation — The cable channel joins a growing list of right-wing outlets bashing Florida GOP legislation that takes square aim at the news media.
Discussion:
Raw Story, @aaron.rupar@threads.net, New York Post and Fox News
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
Amazon says there are “no changes” coming to Freevee, following reports that the company plans to shutter its FAST service in the coming weeks — The statement comes after AdWeek reported that the free, ad-supported streamer was shutting down — Amazon is pushing back against reports …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Broadband TV News, MediaPost, The Streamable, Media Play News, The A.V. Club, Variety, UPROXX and Cord Cutters News
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Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources: Amazon plans to shut its FAST service Freevee in the coming weeks, as part of a broader effort to focus its ad and product efforts on Prime Video — The service has become redundant following the introduction of ads to Prime Video — Amazon is planning to sunset its free …
Discussion:
CarterMatt, @seriestalks, @jackgen0vese, @imperfecttl, @webbarr, @takeshikitano3, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn, The Desk, The Streamable, 9to5Google, Deadline, UPROXX, TechHive, Geoff Clark on LinkedIn, Metro, The Information, TVLine, @markstenberg3@threads.net, Media Play News, Consequence and Appleosophy
Reuters:
Sources: Reddit has inked a deal with Google to make its content available for training the search giant's AI models; source: the contract is worth ~$60M a year — Social media platform Reddit has struck a deal with Google (GOOGL.O) to make its content available for training …
Josh Peck / TPR:
Journalists at Hearst's San Antonio Express-News and MySA.com say they intend to unionize, becoming the fourth Texas newsroom to announce a union effort in 2024 — Journalists at the San Antonio Express-News and MySA.com announced their intent to unionize on Wednesday …
Discussion:
@mediaguildwest, @susanrinkunas.com, San Antonio Express-News, The NewsGuild and MediaPost
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Instagram launches its marketplace tool to connect brands with creators for paid partnerships or ads in eight new countries, including India, Japan, and the UK — Instagram said today that it is expanding its marketplace tool to connect brands with creators for paid partnerships or ads in eight new countries.
Discussion:
Music Ally, B&T and Meta, more at Techmeme »
Miranda Bryant / The Guardian:
In a Danish court, prosecutors allege a man fraudulently made ~£502K in royalties from music streamers and breached copyright law — Aarhus court hears he may have profited from artificially generated playbacks, in case thought to be first of its kind
Discussion:
CMU, Digital Music News and Music Ally
Michael McCarthy / Front Office Sports:
Sources: Amazon paid $120M for exclusive rights to show a 2025 NFL playoff game on Prime Video; NBCU paid $110M for the January 2024 NFL payoff game on Peacock — Out of the Big Four tech giants, Amazon is the most ambitious about invading live sports. The giant streamer is opening …
Discussion:
The Desk and Awful Announcing, more at Techmeme »
Dr Richard Fletcher / Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism:
Analysis: by the end of 2023, 48% of the most popular news websites in the US, UK, and eight others blocked OpenAI's crawler and 24% blocked Google's crawler — In this factsheet we describe the proportion of top news websites in ten countries that block AI (artificial intelligence) crawlers.
Discussion:
@risj_oxford, @risj_oxford, @risj_oxford, @risj_oxford, @risj_oxford and @risj_oxford, more at Techmeme »
Stanley Widianto / Reuters:
Meta says “we understand Meta will not be required to pay for news content that publishers voluntarily post to our platforms” in Indonesia under a new law — Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META.O) on Thursday said it believes that a new Indonesia law does not require …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
The first trial in the death of a cinematographer on the set of Rust begins; weapons handler Hannah Gutierrez pleads not guilty to involuntary manslaughter — More than two years after Alec Baldwin fired the deadly shot, questions persist about who was responsible for the accidental death …
Discussion:
KTAR.com, @megjameslat, @megjameslat, NewsNation, UPI, KGW-TV, Rolling Stone, Raw Story, Reuters and Deadline