Mediagazer: Pro Shop, founded by a Full Swing producer and an ex-Puck CEO, raised $19.25M from the PGA Tour and others, to expand golf's presence in entertainment (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:

Q&A with FT Group CEO John Ridding on the benefits of being owned by Nikkei, using AI in the newsroom and for engagement, US growth, and Big Tech's AI missteps — The FT has more than 1.4 million subscribers, including more than 1 million digital subscribers. About 20% are based in the United States.

Discussion: @filip_struharik, @benwhitelaw, @worldeditors, @niemanlab and Financial Times

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

FT executive Alexandra Calinikos says FT Ventures plans to make £30M in initial deployments, investing £500K to £5M in “information, intelligence, media” firms — FT becomes strategic investor in growing media companies. — FT Ventures, the recently-announced venture arm …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Ben Markus / Colorado Public Radio:

Colorado Public Radio lays off 15, primarily in audio and podcast production, and spares the newsroom of cuts; staff grew from 48 in FY 2006 to 214 in FY 2022 — Colorado Public Radio laid off 15 employees this week, the largest cut to the public broadcaster's payroll in at least a quarter of a century.

Discussion: Inside Radio, The Squeeze, Radio Ink and @oddryhepburn@threads.net

Reuters:

Spotify plans to raise its prices in France due to a new tax law that adds a 1.2% tax on streaming companies' revenue to help finance local music creation — Swedish streaming service Spotify (SPOT.N) on Thursday said it would increase its prices in France due to a new tax, which it argued would fail to accomplish its intended goal.

Discussion: Spotify, Billboard, TechCrunch, CMU, Music Business Worldwide and Music Ally

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

A jury finds Rust movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins — Weapons experts and prosecutor witness Bryan Carpenter, explains in court that he found fault with Alec Baldwin's conduct and use of guns.

Discussion: Associated Press, TMZ.com, Decider, Variety, Boing Boing, The Sun, NME, Us Weekly, Fox News, Al Jazeera, CBS News, NPR, Vanity Fair, The Wrap, Washington Post, E! Online, SlashFilm, The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, ABC News, NBC News, New York Times, Law & Crime, New York Post, IndieWire and Deadline

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:

Netflix plans to livestream a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul in Texas on July 20, part of the company's push into “sports-adjacent programming” — The July bout between Mr. Tyson, the former world champion, and Mr. Paul, the influencer turned boxer …

Discussion: Variety, ESPN, Awful Announcing, TVLine, The Streamable, The Desk, IndieWire, The Wrap, @netflix, TMZ.com, New York Post, The Sun, What's on Netflix, Deadline, Media Play News, The Hollywood Reporter, About Netflix, The Verge and WORLD SCREEN

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Pro Shop, founded by a Full Swing producer and an ex-Puck CEO, raised $19.25M from the PGA Tour and others, to expand golf's presence in entertainment — The company, founded by ‘Full Swing’ EP Chad Mumm and former Puck CEO Joe Purzycki, has raised nearly $20M from the PGA Tour and Powerhouse Capital …

Discussion: Sports Business Journal, @chadmumm, @chadmumm, @chadmumm, @chadmumm, @chadmumm and Chris Wandell on LinkedIn

Tatiana Siegel / Variety:

Sources: Apple spent $700M+ of its reported $1B+ 2023 studio spend on just Napoleon, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Argylle, which earned $466M combined — On March 10, the tech giant has 13 shots to take home an Oscar via two historical epics, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Napoleon …

Discussion: Screen Rant, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, @tatianasiegel27, @pdergarabedian, GoldDerby and The Information, more at Techmeme »

Variety:

ITV reports 2023 external revenue down 3% YoY to £3.6B, ITV Studios revenue up 4%, digital revenue up 19% to £490M, linear ads down 15%, and ITVX MAUs up 19% — U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV's annual results for 2023 were revealed Thursday. — Total group revenue was down 2% …

Discussion: The Media Leader, Broadband TV News, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, ITV, The Guardian and Advanced Television

Cynthia Kroet / Euronews:

After IAB Europe appealed a 2022 decision, the EU's highest court rules that IAB's online advertising model uses personal data and is therefore subject to GDPR — After clarification from Luxembourg, the Belgian Court of Appeal will now rule on the case. — IAB Europe's online advertising …

Discussion: Irish Council … and @jason_kint, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Analysis: Temu and Shein are spending heavily on Facebook, X, and YouTube ads in the US; Temu placed ~1.4M ads globally on Google services in the past year — Temu, Shein, and streaming and gaming apps looking to break into the U.S. market are spending huge sums to get their wares in front of American consumers.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »

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: @fishertktk, @gbdonart, @joshtpm, @joshtpm, @joshtpm, @joshtpm, @joshuamzeitz, @laurarbelin, @danb11, @timbray@cosocial.ca and Media Nation