Mediagazer: A look at the fall of Vice, thanks to wild expenses, shady deals, greed, “fanfiction finance”, and a lack of understanding of how newsrooms work (Elizabeth Lopatto/The Verge)

4:50 PM ET, April 1, 2024

Top News:

Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: OpenAI discussed training GPT-5 on public YouTube video transcripts; AI companies struggle to find quality training data as publishers block access — Firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic are working to find enough information to train next-generation artificial-intelligence models

Discussion: @alex, @jeffjarvis, @dkobia, @carnage4life, @davidclinchnews and @chronotope.aramzs.xyz, more at Techmeme »

Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:

Disney's streaming strategy and losses led to Nelson Peltz's proxy fight, but placating Peltz in April 3's vote to shuffle the board likely won't fix the issues — Who's the hero and who's the villain in this tale of Walt Disney Co.'s battle with activist investors?

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper and Quartz

New York Times:
Retail investors, who hold 40% of Disney stock, may decide the Disney-Peltz proxy fight, which is expected to be one of the most expensive in history

Discussion: Scott Bisang on LinkedIn, Quartz, Variety, Fox Business, Business Insider, @annmlipton, Deadline, Hollywood Reporter and @annmlipton@esq.social

Reuters:

Israeli parliament approves a bill allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters, like Al Jazeera, considered a national security threat — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived moves on Monday to shut down Qatari satellite television station Al Jazeera in Israel …

Discussion: Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Wrap, Jerusalem Post, Voice of America, Financial Times, @jewishwarrior13, @ramabdu, @ashtonpittman, @rmsalih, @susurros@kolektiva.social, The Hill, @rafat and @freakazoid@retro.social

Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:

A look at the fall of Vice, thanks to wild expenses, shady deals, greed, “fanfiction finance”, and a lack of understanding of how newsrooms work — Vice was once promised to become the brash young voice of news. But wild expenses, shady deals, and greed turned it into ‘a fucking clown show.’

Discussion: @alexyablon, @alexeheath and The Guardian

David Bauder / Associated Press:

NBC News' controversy around Ronna McDaniel sparks debate over political contributors' role in TV news and the challenges in representing diverse viewpoints — One of the nation's most prominent news outlets has found itself in an embarrassing mess over the hiring — and quick firing …

Discussion: The Hill, @jessdrkn, Politico, @geisler_jill@threads.net, @jayrosen_nyc@threads.net, @jjpeterson741@threads.net, @jayrosen_nyc@threads.net and The Wrap

New York Times:
A profile of NBCU News Group Chair Cesar Conde, as he tries to navigate the biggest crisis of his tenure after the rapid hiring and dismissal of Ronna McDaniel

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @gersonborrero, @grynbaum, @bonillajl, @gersonborrero, @brianstelter, @bsdtectr.bsky.social, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social and Fox News

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

An interview with Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer on AI's role in the industry, licensing concerns with TikTok, working with Sony for over two decades, and more — The executive on the streaming boom, the challenge of AI — and taking Harry Styles to see Luton FC

Discussion: Digital Music News, Conrad Withey on LinkedIn, Flora Petersen-Dupré on LinkedIn, @danielthomasldn and @ft

Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:

AI search engine Perplexity, which touts on its site that search should be “free from the influence of advertising-driven models”, says it will sell ads — The AI search engine must prove ad scalability and address brand safety concerns — Generative AI search engine Perplexity …

Discussion: @carnage4life@mas.to, Trishla Ostwal on LinkedIn, Aisling Browne on LinkedIn, @aravsrinivas and Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »

Brett Martin / New York Times:

A profile of Matt Farley, who has released thousands of songs under ~80 pseudonyms on music streaming services with the goal of matching nearly any search query — Matt Farley has released thousands of songs with the goal of producing a result to match nearly anything anybody could think to search for.

more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Ampere: seven movie adaptations of video games were released broadly in 2023; Comscore: movies based on video games grossed $712.2M at the US box office in 2023 — Studios seek the wisdom of die-hard gaming fans. ‘Every design now is vetted within an inch of its life.’ — Sonic's teeth were creepy.

Discussion: Sarah Krouse on LinkedIn, Douglas Montgomery on LinkedIn, @pdergarabedian, @bysarahkrouse and Business Insider

Max Tani / Semafor:

Sources: Apple suggests podcasters join its subscription program to get on its “browse” carousel; 5 of the first 7 carousel podcasts last week were participants — The Scoop — To get their show featured at the top of the Apple Podcasts feed, one of the best placements in the audio world …

Discussion: 9to5Mac, @semafor, @florian4gamers, Podnews, @wobburnerburner, @semafor, @ckrewson, @semafor, @alexcartaz@threads.net, @semafor, @semafor and @semaforben, more at Techmeme »

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Liberty Media agrees to acquire an 86% stake in Madrid-based Dorna Sports, the commercial rights holder for MotoGP, in a deal valuing Dorna at €4.2B — The Formula 1 owner, led by chairman John Malone and CEO Greg Maffei, agreed to acquire an 86 percent stake in the Madrid-based commercial rights holder Dorna Sports.

Discussion: Financial Times, @richlightshed, @murbanvideo, Deadline, The Official Home of MotoGP, Advanced Television, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Next TV and WORLD SCREEN

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Authentic Brands sues Arena Group and CEO Manoj Bhargava, says they owe $48.75M in missed payments and damages for infringing on Sports Illustrated's copyright — Authentic Brands Group, which owns Sports Illustrated, is accusing Manoj Bhargava of failing to pay millions of dollars for the rights to publish the magazine.

Discussion: New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Awful Announcing, Front Office Sports, Sportico, Business Insider and @benmullin

Rachyl Jones / Fortune:

A look at Netflix's baby steps into live sports as it produces one-off events and partners with WWE, avoiding overt interest in big leagues like the NBA — In golf lingo, Netflix is putting its way into sports. — After seizing dominance in streaming thanks to a huge library of movies and TV series …

Discussion: @lexnfx, Advanced Television and Rachyl Jones on LinkedIn

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More News:

Dan Primack / Axios:
Filing: Donald Trump's Truth Social lost $58M+ on $4.1M in revenue during 2023; Trump Media & Technology Group is valued at $7B+ after going public on March 26

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
MrBeast's “retention editing” of fast cuts and loud sounds, took over social media but may fade away as the YouTuber shifts to slower, more focused storytelling

Discussion: @fgamesnemesis, @alexisohanian, @mrbeast and The Information

Josh Hersh / Columbia Journalism Review:
Sports podcasts hosted by athletes offer an insider analysis, but they don't do investigative reporting, which major sports outlets have also turned away from

Discussion: @joshuahersh, @joshuahersh, @mansurshaheen, Joshua Hersh on LinkedIn and Madhu Soman on LinkedIn

Alex Sujong Laughlin / Defector:
Some journalists have experimented with paying sources for their time in documentary work, in particular for podcasts, raising questions about ethics and power

Discussion: @alexlaughs, @femme_thoughts, @stevemullis, @audreyyyrose, @alexlaughs, @kallipearl, @iamjessshane and @hanhopk

Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with war correspondent Jane Ferguson on her biggest stories, the rise of local reporters, the pressure female reporters face concerning their looks, more

Discussion: Diya Banerjee on LinkedIn

Earlier Picks:

New York Times:
A look at the impact of Georgia's filming incentives on tiny Thomasville; the state paid $5.2B+ in incentives between 2015 and 2022, compared to New York's ~$7B

Discussion: Craig Miller on LinkedIn, @tvaziri@mastodon.social, @rob_abiera, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Variety

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Several legal experts say Section 230 will not protect firms from lawsuits over the outputs of generative AI, echoing SCOTUS Justice Gorsuch's 2023 statement

Discussion: @nathandgregory, PJ Pereira on LinkedIn, Esther Dyson on LinkedIn, Christopher Mims on LinkedIn, @mimsical@mastodon.social and Dr. Jeffrey Funk on LinkedIn

Frank Landymore / Futurism:
Many of Amazon's Kindles are displaying ads for blatantly AI-generated books on the lock screen, with some appearing to be flagrant copies of existing works

Discussion: Digital Scholarship, @i_dont_caroline, @laurab7, @poet_economist, @alex_roddie@mastodon.scot, @thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io and MediaPost

James Pomfret / Reuters:
US-funded Radio Free Asia closes its Hong Kong bureau, citing concerns over staff safety after a stricter national security law came into effect on March 23

Discussion: JURIST, NPR, Al Jazeera, Reporters Without Borders, The Guardian, Semafor, Fox News, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and New York Times

From Techmeme:

The Information:
Source: Microsoft and OpenAI wrangle over Microsoft's stake in the for-profit, use of OpenAI's IP, continued collection of 20% of OpenAI's revenue, and more

Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
How H-1B workers from India and other countries help the US remain dominant in tech, as some on the new “Tech Right” discover MAGA's racial-nationalist bigotry

New York Times:
Japan Airlines halts ticket sales after a cyberattack hit its network equipment, causing delays to more than 40 flights, and says flight safety was not impacted

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