Top News:
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, Wall Street Journal, 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 — - Paramount Global missed revenue expectations for the fourth quarter Wednesday but posted a surprise quarterly profit …
Discussion:
Paramount, The Streamable, Adweek, @jtoonkel, @sherman4949, Quartz, MediaPost, Barrett Media, Next TV, Media Play News, The Hill, Bloomberg, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
The White House calls on Fox News to correct coverage of bribery claims against Biden by an informant now charged with lying; source: Fox declines to make fixes — The White House is formally calling on Fox News to correct its dishonest coverage of bribery and corruption allegations against President Joe Biden.
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, @decodingfoxnews, @substackinc, The Verge and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
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 world's most populous nation.
Discussion:
MediaNama, Eiti Singhal on LinkedIn, @adityakalra, @proficienttroll, @kathyfgibson, @arindam___paul, @pti_news, @stufflistings, @sardesairajdeep, @yashjain88, @karthikravivarm, @karthikravivarm, @kdcloudy, @menakadoshi, @edmundlee, @edmundlee, @chandrarsrikant, Reuters, The Wrap, Quartz, Tech Startups, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Media Play News, New York Times, Bloomberg, The Wrap, CNN, WORLD SCREEN, Variety and Deadline
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David Streitfeld / New York Times:
How newspaper leaders tried and failed to see how tech would change the business of journalism, framed by the career of digital newspaper pioneer Roger Fidler — Roger Fidler tried his best, but the excellent business of journalism is gone for good. Can the idea of “news” survive in a digital world?
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.
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, @genepark and @niemanlab@mastodon.social
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Q&A with OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair on paying out $15B+ to creators since inception, negative perceptions of the site, hosting sports and other content, AI, more — The platform's boss is proud of its adult-content creators — and dismissive of banks that shun them
Discussion:
@1br0wn, Keily Blair on LinkedIn and @1br0wn@eupolicy.social, more at Techmeme »
Charlie Nash / Mediaite:
Vice shuts down a virtual town hall after laid off employees invited to the virtual meeting inundated leadership with thumbs down emojis — A virtual Vice Media town hall had to be prematurely shut down on Wednesday after staffers flooded the meeting with thumbs-down emojis to protest the company's mass layoffs.
Discussion:
@oliverdarcy@threads.net
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
Radio & Television Business Report:
The E.W. Scripps Company names Kate O'Brian as president of news, responsible for Scripps News, Court TV, and all news operations at local media stations — CINCINNATI — The E.W. Scripps Company has selected Kate O'Brian to fill the newly created role of President/News.
Discussion:
Variety, FTVLive and The E.W. Scripps Company
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
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