Top News:
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Sources: Vice Media executives are planning to lay off hundreds of its 900+ employees over the next week, eliminating staff from its digital publishing division — Vice Media, which emerged from bankruptcy last year, is planning to cut hundreds of its more than 900 employees, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
The Wrap, MediaPost and @skullwizard.bsky.social
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Lachlan Cartwright / Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: Vice News editor Josh Visser told staff he gave execs including CEO Bruce Dixon a chance to deny rumors the site was shuttering, but has not heard back — Editor Josh Visser said he had given senior executives of the company, including CEO Bruce Dixon, an opportunity to deny rumors …
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Reddit files for a US IPO, says it had revenue of $804M in 2023, up 20% YoY, and a net loss of $90.8M, compared to a net loss of $158.6M in 2022, and 73M DAUs — - Reddit on Thursday filed to go public. — Its market debut will mark the first major tech initial public offering of the year …
Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
[Thread] Engadget announces layoffs and a restructuring that separates news and features from reviews and buying advice; EIC Dana Wollman is leaving — Memo that went out to staffers at Engadget announcing layoffs today [image]
Tampa Bay Times:
Tim Burke is charged with 14 crimes related to alleged computer hacks at Fox News, including six counts of accessing a protected computer without authorization — Burke, a nationally recognized media consultant, is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday in Tampa.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Awful Announcing, CNN, Rolling Stone, @willsommer, @matthewkeyslive, The Daily Beast, @matthewkeyslive, Daily Mail, @oneunderscore__@threads.net, @chathamharrison.bsky.social, @martinbowling, @jordanuhl, @oliviacgeorge, @collinsherwin, @kthorjensen, @ralphamsden, @tessastuart, @carlfranzen and @ryanlcooper.com
Dr Richard Fletcher / Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism:
Analysis: at 2023's end, 48% of the top news websites in the US, the UK, and eight others had blocked OpenAI's crawler and 24% had blocked Google's AI crawler — In this factsheet we describe the proportion of top news websites in ten countries that block AI (artificial intelligence) crawlers.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google strikes a deal with Reddit, reportedly for $60M/year, giving Google access to the Reddit Data API to surface more Reddit content and train AI models — Google today announced an “expanded partnership” with Reddit that sees it get access to the forum website's data for training and other product uses.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Verge, WinBuzzer, 404 Media, @mattnavarra@threads.net, @documentingmeta@threads.net, Reuters, Benzinga, MobileSyrup, The Decoder, Quartz, Reddit Upvoted, @cherthedev, @annatonger, TechStartups, @reuters, @glenngabe, Emil Protalinski on LinkedIn, New York Post, @mmitchell_ai, @chirag_mehta, MSPoweruser, @crumbler@threads.net, Gizmodo, David Callahan on LinkedIn, @reuters, One Man & His Blog, @toddlombardo, The Keyword, @rustybrick, Search Engine Land, The Verge, CoinXposure, KnowYourMobile, @mrjnowlin, The Wrap, @carnage4life@mas.to, @basedtorba, @brij, The Information, r/privacy, r/google, r/singularity and r/news, more at Techmeme »
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 a January 2024 NFL playoff 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:
Mediaite, The Streamable, Deadspin, The Desk and Awful Announcing, more at Techmeme »
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Substack says 3M+ customers subscribe to paid newsletters on its platform, up from 2M in February 2023, and credits its recommendations feature for the growth — - The company said it plans to expand the recommendations feature, which helps writers promote other newsletters in its network …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, On Substack, The Verge, @alex, @substackinc, @sarafischer, @mattnavarra@threads.net and Ebony Lewkovitz on LinkedIn
Jessica Testa / New York Times:
A look at Alex Cooper's media movies beyond Call Her Daddy, as her company Unwell adds new podcasts and hosts, develops merch, and begins producing live events — The success of Alex Cooper's “Call Her Daddy” podcast has birthed a new media company. Can this millennial solve the riddle of what Gen Z wants?
Discussion:
Moorea Mongelli on LinkedIn, Greg Myrick on LinkedIn, Stuart Coxe on LinkedIn and Bloomberg
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A look at German tabloid Bild, whose paid tier, Bildplus, has 707K digital subscribers and has grown subscribers by buying rights to boxing matches not on TV — Bundles and sports livestreams help, but journalism drives most subscriptions for Bild. — The head of the digital subscriptions strategy …
Discussion:
Charlotte Tobitt on LinkedIn
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:
The Kyiv Independent, CMU, Digital Music News and Music Ally