Top News:
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
The Atlantic is profitable, has 1M subscribers, and revenue grew 10% in 2023 thanks to a 50% price hike, a harder paywall, and a shift to in-depth reporting — Storied magazine raised subscription prices and hired top talent; ‘we make something worth buying’
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @nycsouthpaw, Megha Garibaldi on LinkedIn, @palewire, @delia_cai, Justin Pallenik on LinkedIn, Alice McKown on LinkedIn, @alexbruell, Bhumika Tharoor on LinkedIn, Molly Logan Cox on LinkedIn, The Atlantic, The Hill, Mariah Craddick on LinkedIn, @edmundlee@threads.net, @thekenyeung@mastodon.social, @davidtoddmccarty@me.dm, Nicholas Thompson on LinkedIn and The Wrap
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
How MowPod, which sells podcast advertising tools, uses mobile game ads to incentivize gamers to follow shows on Apple Podcasts in order to earn in-game tokens — At least nine of the current top 50 shows on Apple Podcasts have been promoted in mobile games — Welcome back to Soundbite.
Discussion:
@kantrowitz
NPR:
How Richmond Standard, a newspaper funded by the California town's biggest employer Chevron, puts its own spin on events as the town's primary news source — NPR's David Folkenflik reported this story with Miranda Green of Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
Jackie Snow / Quartz:
How newsrooms like Semafor and Skift are using generative AI for internal editing, story summaries, paywalled chatbots trained on their archives, and more — Beyond high-profile wins and faceplants, understated but impactful applications of generative AI are transforming newsrooms
Discussion:
@semaforcomms
New York Times:
Karlie Kloss' Bedford buys Life publication rights from Dotdash Meredith and plans to resume regular print publication in 2025; Josh Kushner will be publisher — The investor Josh Kushner and his wife, Karlie Kloss, have struck a deal with Barry Diller's media company to revive it as a regular print title.
Discussion:
Bedford Media, El País, Raw Story, Columbia Journalism Review, @angiejaime, Vulture, @kelseyjbarnes, @media_bedford, @alex, @joshuakushner, Al Jazeera, New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, New York Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, The Information, The Wrap, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and @lapresmidi
New York Times:
The NBC News-Ronna McDaniel saga highlights the perks and perils of partisan talk TV; a source says McDaniel is now seeking $600K+ for her two year deal — Why are television news networks so enamored with paid Beltway analysts? — Trying to juice ratings in an election year …
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
The proposed Living Wage for Musicians Act would add $4-$10/month to streaming fees, distributed based on usage and also capped to limit funds to top artists — - A proposed bill would add an extra $4 to $10 a month to streaming music fees. — Making streaming music work better for artists …
Discussion:
The Guardian, UMAW, @pkafka and @pkafka
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
New York-based The Brandtech Group, which provides generative AI-based tools for advertising and marketing campaigns, raised a $115M Series C at a $4B valuation — The Brandtech Group will use funds to disrupt industry with machine-generated content and artificial intelligence
Discussion:
The Brandtech Group, more at Techmeme »
Reuters:
Blackwells, which is in a proxy fight with Disney, sues Disney over possible disclosure violations in dealings with ValueAct; Disney calls the claims “baseless” — Blackwells Capital upped the pressure on Walt Disney (DIS.N) in a long-running boardroom battle …
Discussion:
Quartz, The Indian Express, Yahoo Finance and Deadline
Amrita Khalid / The Verge:
YouTube says 25%+ of Partner Program channels earn money from Shorts; of those who joined the program thanks to Shorts, 80% earn from other parts of YouTube — One year after YouTube turned on revenue sharing for its shortform video feature, a growing chunk of creators are getting paid for it.
Washington Post:
Scammers are using sample videos of influencers with modest social media presence to create AI deepfake ads that often push offensive products and ideas — Artificial intelligence is spurring a new type of identity theft — with ordinary people finding their faces and words twisted to push often offensive products and ideas
Advanced Television:
European Audiovisual Observatory: Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ took 85% of VOD viewing time in nine EU countries from September 2022 to September 2023 — Concentration is the main characteristic of VoD usage in Europe with 85 per cent of viewing time generated by only three services (Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+).
Discussion:
European Audiovisual Observatory, Media Play News and Broadband TV News