Mediagazer: News sites are closing due to the collapse of programmatic ad revenue; a case study of Talking Points Memo shows how subscriptions kept the site in business (Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo)

4:30 PM ET, March 6, 2024

Top News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:

An interview with LinkedIn EIC Dan Roth on investing in journalism and news, work with over 400 news publishers globally, launching a podcast network, and more — - Unlike Facebook and X, traffic referrals to news publishers have increased slightly from LinkedIn over the past three years, per Similarweb.

Discussion: Jeff Jarvis on LinkedIn, Dan Horowitz on LinkedIn, @jbhavan, Katie Carroll on LinkedIn, @silmonn, Paul Quigley on LinkedIn, Heather Harder on LinkedIn, Michael Learmonth on LinkedIn, @jeffjarvis, @ismaelnafria, @risj_oxford, @eriqgardner and Media Voices

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

News sites are closing due to the collapse of programmatic ad revenue; a case study of Talking Points Memo shows how subscriptions kept the site in business — Over the years I've written about structural problems in the digital news industry, often driven by the growth of platform monopolies and other issues.

Discussion: Media Nation, @gbdonart, @joshtpm, @joshtpm, @laurarbelin, @danb11, @joshtpm, @joshuamzeitz, @joshtpm and @fishertktk

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

Police in Azerbaijan detained about a dozen journalists after raiding offices of Toplum TV; EIC Khadija Ismayilova said no explanation for the raid was given — Police in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, detained about a dozen journalists from the online Toplum TV channel on March 6 after searching …

Discussion: Reuters and Radio Free Europe/Radio …

Hayden Field / CNBC:

Patronus AI releases CopyrightCatcher and says OpenAI's GPT-4 produced copyrighted content on 44% of prompts in its test of AI models for copyright infringement — - Patronus AI, an AI model evaluation company founded by ex-Meta researchers, on Wednesday released research showcasing …

Discussion: @mark_riedl, @kn4qdg and Quartz, more at Techmeme »

Will Sommer / Washington Post:

Road & Track magazine quietly pulls a piece by socialist writer Kate Wagner covering an F1 race in Austin in a trip funded by UK petrochemicals company INEOS — Editors for Road & Track aren't saying why they yanked Kate Wagner's story from the website shortly after it published

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

CNBC expands its Make It personal finance brand with new ventures like a weekly TV series and online classes, and says Make It is its largest vertical — A ‘Make It’-branded TV series and an online course are among the projects in the works. — CNBC is expanding its presence …

Discussion: Kamelia Angelova on LinkedIn and Jessica Leibowitz on LinkedIn

Todd Spangler / Variety:

WBD plans to shut down Rooster Teeth after failing sell the unprofitable fandom, gaming, and comedy entertainment unit, resulting in layoffs of ~150 employees — Warner Bros. Discovery in talks to sell shows like ‘RWBY,’ ‘Red vs. Blue’ and ‘Gen:Lock’ and will shop the Roost podcast network

Discussion: IndieWire, Gizmodo, Evan Bregman on LinkedIn, @chadjamesrt, @themilesluna, @g0ffthew, @ordinarygamers, @chris_short1991, @eoinjleahy, Popverse Latest, Deadline, cream and five sugars, I Have Hope For A Better …, The Hollywood Reporter, Fanfictions and RWBY … and Cord Cutters News

Cormac Pearson / The Independent:

More than 100 MPs back an amendment to the UK's Digital Markets Bill requiring parliament's approval before UK news outlets can be bought by foreign governments — The amendment would require parliament's approval before UK news media organisations could be purchased by a foreign government

Discussion: @robertjenrick, @pressgazette and @tinastowell

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Tidal plans to combine its HiFi and HiFi Plus plans into a single $10.99/month “Tidal” plan, below HiFi Plus' $19.99/month; students will still pay $4.99/month — Tidal seems to have decided that there just aren't enough people willing to pay upward of $20 per month for the highest-possible audio fidelity.

Discussion: Music Business Worldwide, Music Ally, Engadget, CMU, TIDAL and Billboard

Todd Spangler / Variety:

At a tech and media conference, Bob Iger says Disney is working to catch up with Netflix's tech capability and downplays the effects of activist investors — CEO says Nelson Peltz's activist investor proxy fight ‘designed to distract us’; reveals studio has ‘killed a few’ movie projects

Discussion: The Streamable, Screen Rant, Quartz, Deadline, Media Play News, Broadband TV News, Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, @xpangler, Next TV, The Wrap, Deadline and TVBEurope

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell plans to spend “tens of millions” of pounds to find the next global hit like Bluey; BBC Studio raised its debt facility to £600M — Commercial arm of broadcaster will ‘really go out to the market’ to develop new shows

Discussion: Adweek, Deadline, @danielthomasldn and Advanced Television

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:

Memo: Sony Pictures Entertainment promotes Global Television Studios and Corporate Development chairman Ravi Ahuja to president and COO, effective April 1 — The TV chief, who will take on the expanded role effective April 1, will continue to report to chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra

Discussion: Deadline and Hollywood Reporter

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This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:30 PM ET, March 6, 2024.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Commissioning Editor - Practical Law — Reuters

Energy Markets Reporter, London — WSJ

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Editor, MA — Nieman Reports

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Senior Reporter & Event Host, NY/CA — Newcomer

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

News Reporter, MA — Berkshire Eagle

Multimedia Journalist, PA — Observer-Reporter

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Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

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California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

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More News:

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Dish-owned streamer Sling TV launches a gaming platform called Arcade, free for Sling TV and Sling Freestream customers on Amazon Fire TV and Android TV

Discussion: The Streamable, The Desk, SLING TV and Cord Cutters News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Paramount Global is in discussions to sell its minority stake in Viacom18 in India to Reliance

Discussion: Media Play News and @lucas_shaw

Max Goldbart / Deadline:
The UK announces an extended indie movie tax credit for films that have budgets between £1M and £15M, along with business rates relief for big studios

Discussion: Financial Times, Antony Hunt on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, WORLD SCREEN and Variety

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
EY report: the Indian media and entertainment industry grew 8% YoY to $27.9B in 2023; TV shrank 2% YoY to $8.3B due to advertising declining by 6.5% YoY

Discussion: Business Standard and Financialexpress

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Elon Musk's Tesla, which had been famous for shunning advertising, is now running ads on YouTube, TikTok, and Elon Musk's X; the ads started in early 2024

Discussion: 9to5Mac, Quartz, The Hill, Gizmodo, @sawyermerritt, @jyarow, @pkafka, @annmlipton, Electrek, @dangillmor@mastodon.social and @annmlipton@esq.social, more at Techmeme »

Emma Roth / The Verge:
A US judge upheld parts of a National Music Publishers' Association's copyright lawsuit against X and dismissed the claim that X engaged in direct infringement

Discussion: CNN, Digital Music News, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard, Music Ally, CMU, Reuters and US District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:
Ad company Entravision says Meta plans to wind down its authorized sales partner program and end its relationships with all ASPs, including Entravision, by July

Discussion: RADIO ONLINE, Inside Radio and Radio & Television …

Amy Maclean / Cablefax:
C-SPAN is searching for a new CEO as co-CEOs Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain step down this year; VP of Finance Matt Deprey will replace Kennedy as CFO

Discussion: Next TV, Radio & Television …, NewscastStudio, The Desk, @cspansusan, The Hollywood Reporter, Amy Maclean on LinkedIn and Deadline

The Verge:
YouTube star Hank Green interviews The Verge EIC Nilay Patel about the pressure from algorithms, giving work away for free, AI, the fediverse, and more

Discussion: @waxy@xoxo.zone

Emma Roth / The Verge:
In response to the EU's ruling, Spotify submits an app update for the EU to provide pricing info within its iOS app and link users to its subscription options

Discussion: TechCrunch, Engadget, 9to5Mac, The Sun, AppleInsider, Marcus James B. on LinkedIn, The Apple Post, CMU, Total Telecom and MediaNama

Sara Fischer / Axios:
NTWRK CEO says the company plans to fold its brand and business into Complex and form Complex NTWRK, less than two weeks after acquiring Complex for $108.6M

Discussion: @joshuaogundu, Sam Hart on LinkedIn and Megan Rall on LinkedIn

From Techmeme:

Gavin Anderegg / anderegg.ca:
Bluesky is working to become fully decentralized but it could take years amid financial concerns as it makes money only by selling domains for usernames

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ByteDance is valuing itself at about $300B as part of a recent buyback offer, one of its highest valuations ever

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: T-Mobile's network was among the systems hacked by the China-linked Salt Typhoon group, and some foreign telecommunications firms were also compromised

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