Top News:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Reliance and Disney merge their media businesses in India, creating the country's largest media conglomerate; Reliance values it at $8.5B and will invest $1.4B — Reliance, its portfolio Viacom18 and Disney are merging their media businesses in India, creating the largest media entity in the South Asian market.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Observer, Financial Times, @menakadoshi, @karthikravivarm, Media Play News, @edmundlee, Tech Startups, @pti_news, Los Angeles Times, @edmundlee, @chandrarsrikant, Bloomberg, @stufflistings, Reuters, @sardesairajdeep, @yashjain88, @kdcloudy, @karthikravivarm, @kathyfgibson, @arindam___paul, New York Times, @proficienttroll, The Wrap, CNN, WORLD SCREEN, Variety and Deadline, more at Techmeme »
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Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra says the company expects to take about a $1B charge in Q1 due to ongoing programming shifts and previously announced layoffs — Paramount Global expects to take a $1 billion charge in the current quarter due to ongoing programming shifts and the layoffs it announced earlier this month.
Discussion:
Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Media Play News
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Laya Neelakandan / CNBC:
Paramount reports Q4 revenue of $7.64B vs. $7.85B est., and profit of $514M, up from $21M the year prior; Paramount+ reached 67.5M global subscribers, up 4.1M
Discussion:
Adweek, The Streamable, Paramount, The Hill, Reuters, Next TV, The Wrap, Barrett Media, Bloomberg, @jtoonkel, Media Play News, @sherman4949 and The Hollywood Reporter
Yiwen Lu / New York Times:
Raw Story, AlterNet, and, in a separate case, The Intercept sue OpenAI in a NY federal court for copyright infringement; The Intercept is also suing Microsoft — Raw Story, AlterNet and The Intercept sued for copyright infringement over the way the ChatGPT creator trains its technology.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Substack debuts direct messaging, letting users have private one-on-one conversations; by default, users will only receive DMs from people they're connected to — Substack is introducing direct messaging, allowing users to have private one-on-one conversations, the company announced today.
Discussion:
On Substack, @bristoliver, @substackinc, @decodingfoxnews, The Verge and Engadget
Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Mehdi Hasan raises $4M to launch Zeteo, a digital media company on Substack, offering a weekly streaming show he hosts, contributor pieces, a podcast, and more — Hasan, whose MSNBC cancellation triggered an outpouring from fans, follows other political pundits who have struck out on their own
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, @mehdirhasan, @jeremymbarr, The Hill, @pressgazette, The Daily Caller, @mehdirhasan, Mediaite and The Wrap
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Axel Springer and 31 other media groups in Europe file a $2.3B lawsuit against Google, alleging that they suffered losses due to its digital ad practices — Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google was hit with a 2.1-billion-euro ($2.3 billion) lawsuit by 32 media groups including Axel Springer and Schibsted …
Discussion:
The Drum, Wall Street Journal and New York Post, more at Techmeme »
Jem Aswad / Variety:
ASCAP reports $1.737B in 2023 revenue, up 14.1% YoY, and $1.592B available for royalty distributions; US performance revenue surpassed $1.327B, up 12.6% YoY — The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) announced record financial results for 2023 …
Discussion:
Inside Radio, RAIN News and Billboard
Rhodri Talfan Davies / BBC:
The BBC says it is running 12 generative AI pilots, including reformatting and translating existing content and a “headline helper” for journalists — Rhodri Talfan Davies is the BBC's Director of Nations. He's responsible for bringing teams together across the BBC to shape …
Discussion:
Clare Spencer on LinkedIn and MSPoweruser
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
An analysis of educational backgrounds of 460 NYT newsroom staff members shows the Ivy League is over-represented; about 75% of staffers are not Ivy Leaguers — They're not a majority, based on a new look at education data, but they are wildly overrepresented.
Discussion:
@chronotope, @chronotope, @jbenton, @jbenton, @jbenton, @niemanlab@mastodon.social and @genepark
Lachlan Cartwright / The Hollywood Reporter:
Source: Disney held talks in 2015 and 2016 about buying Vice for $3.4B; Shane Smith is believed to be paid millions in a 2019 deal finishing at the end of 2024 — How did a Brooklyn media giant valued at $5.7 billion just a few years ago wind up going bankrupt and folding its newsroom?
Discussion:
@lachcartwright, @davelafontaine, @hunterduesing, @misterjohndoyle and @matthewkeyslive
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Adobe unveils Project Music GenAI Control, a platform that can generate audio from text descriptions or a reference melody and let users customize the results — There's plenty of GenAI-powered music editing and creation tools out there, but Adobe wants to put its own spin on the concept.
Discussion:
The Verge and @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org, more at Techmeme »
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
A group of top journalists, including from CNN, BBC, and CBS, sign an open letter asking Israel and Egypt to provide foreign media “unfettered access” to Gaza — A group of top international journalists have joined forces to demand that Israel and Egypt provide foreign media with “unfettered access” to Gaza.
Discussion:
Sky News, @clarissaward, Tim Gaynor on LinkedIn, @alexcrawfordsky, Lucy Carrigan on LinkedIn, The Hill and Press Gazette
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