Mediagazer: Music rights investor Concord agrees to buy Hipgnosis Songs Fund in a deal valuing the song catalog company at ~$1.4B, capping a period of turmoil for Hipgnosis (Amy Thomson/Bloomberg)

10:50 AM ET, April 18, 2024

Top News:

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

A Los Angeles ethics agency fines former CBS CEO Les Moonves $15K for misconduct in obtaining confidential police info about a sexual assault claim against him — Leslie Moonves, the former CEO of CBS, was fined $15,000 on Wednesday by the L.A. City Ethics Commission for obtaining secret information …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, @mhanson101@union.place, @iamiysha.bsky.social, @pppatticake.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, @parsnip.bsky.social, @arunadsouza.bsky.social and Deadline

Souhail Karam / Bloomberg:

A Tunisian court sentences prominent government critic and journalist Mohamed Boughalleb to six months in prison for defamation, renewing press freedom concerns — A Tunisian court jailed for defamation a reporter who's one of President Kais Saied's most prominent critics …

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Uri Berliner says he is resigning from NPR as he “cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm” NPR's problems — Uri Berliner, a National Public Radio senior editor who wrote a scathing online essay accusing the public radio network …

Discussion: The Guardian, Associated Press, The Hill, New Jersey Online, Poynter, @samsanders, @samsanders, @samsanders, @davidfolkenflik, @maxwelltani, Tedium, @ernie.tedium.co, @benmullin, @mikeisaac, @viajoshhunt, @dkiesow@threads.net, @thefp, @audiecornish, @nycsouthpaw, @howardkurtz, @davidfolkenflik, @heminator, @aghamilton29, @bariweiss, @normcharlatan, @brien_jackson, @oldarenaghost, @ijbailey, @dgreenbaum, Politico, @normative@threads.net, @normative@threads.net, @melodykramer@threads.net, New York Times, Washington Post, @kalihays1@threads.net, Newser, @yonetteajoseph@threads.net, The Present Age, @davelevitan.bsky.social, NewsNation, JONATHAN TURLEY, @jbouie.bsky.social, @kevinmkruse.bsky.social, Mediaite, @jbouie.bsky.social, Fox News, @zammer.bsky.social, Talking Biz News, @ryansingel@writing.exchange, @marcchannick.bsky.social, CBS News, Current, Fox News, @uberliner, Slate, MediaPost and Inside Radio

Ben Mullin / @benmullin:
About 50 NPR staffers sign a letter to NPR leadership calling for a public rebuke of the “factual inaccuracies and elisions” in Uri Berliner's essay

Discussion: Fox News, The Guardian, New York Post, NPR, MediaPost, Inside Radio, JONATHAN TURLEY, The Wrap and The Daily Beast

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Twitch plans to roll out its TikTok-style discovery feed later in April, letting users scroll clips and livestreams, after testing the feature for a year — After nearly a year of testing, Twitch's new TikTok-style discovery feed will finally roll out to all users later this month.

more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Barrett / The Guardian:

James Warburton, the CEO of Australia's Seven West Media since 2019, steps down; CFO Jeff Howard will take over as CEO starting on April 19 — Media executive's exit comes as broadcaster faces a number of controversies — Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Discussion: Mumbrella, Variety and Deadline

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

An analysis of the gender pay gap in UK media: 76% of the biggest media organizations increased the proportion of women in their top pay tier from 2022 to 2023 — Average gender pay gap across major UK media organisations now stands at 11%. — Three-quarters of the UK's biggest media …

Discussion: @pressgazette

Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:

Music rights investor Concord agrees to buy Hipgnosis Songs Fund in a deal valuing the song catalog company at ~$1.4B, capping a period of turmoil for Hipgnosis — - Concord's long term backer Apollo will provide financing — Hipgnosis struggled to recoup its investment on music rights

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Billboard, Financial Times, Reuters, The Guardian, City A.M. and Digital Music News

The Economic Times:

VerSe Innovation, the parent of Indian news aggregator Dailyhunt, acquires New York-based digital magazine store Magzter in an undisclosed cash and stock deal — Homegrown digital newsstand Magzter, founded in 2011 and offering a cross-platform, self-service experience, has been acquired by Dailyhunt.

Discussion: Moneycontrol, YourStory, TechCrunch, Financial Express and Storyboard18

Russell Brandom / Rest of World:

How Oscar winner RRR's success brought a wave of Telugu-language movies to Netflix's US catalog, about 50% of which is now made up of non-English content — Netflix's U.S. catalog has more content in Telugu than in German, Russian, or any dialect of Chinese.

Discussion: @restofworld@restof.social

Kate Knibbs / Wired:

How one author gained a limited copyright for the “selection, coordination, and arrangement of text” from AI, as the US Copyright Office wrestles with AI law — Elisa Shupe was initially rebuffed when she tried to copyright a book she wrote with help from ChatGPT.

Discussion: The Information, @brooklynlaw, @knibbs, @ai_machinations, @magdaromanska, @peterhndrsn, @ai_machinations, @blipclinic, @mahendra.bsky.social and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Sheena Vasani / The Verge:

TikTok starts rolling out TikTok Notes, its Instagram rival for sharing photo and text content, for limited testing in Australia and Canada on Android and iOS — TikTok has started rolling out its Instagram rival, TikTok Notes, to select Android and iOS users “for download and limited testing in Australia and Canada.”

Discussion: @tiktokcomms, Music Ally, The Guardian, @tiktokcomms and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:

A look at Newsweek's use of AI, including in video production, an AI-focused Live News desk for breaking stories, and letting the tech write some first drafts — The legacy publication is leaning on AI for video production, a new breaking news team, and first drafts of some stories.

Discussion: @decka227

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 10:50 AM ET, April 18, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

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

Team Editor - Breaking News, ON — Toronto Star

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

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

Senior Media Editor — Digiday

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Staff Reporter, CA — Daily Kos

Data Editor, NY — ProPublica

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

James Careless / TV Tech:
Parks Associates: US households with internet now consume an average 43.5 hours of video per week across all viewing devices, up from 37.2 hours in 2020

Discussion: The Desk

Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
After Forbes found 120+ YouTube videos and 27 Google ads promoting AI deepfake porn tools and “nudifier” Telegram bots, Google took them down

Discussion: @rashishrivast18, @ttp_updates and @iblametom

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The European Data Protection Board says large online platforms like Meta should give users an option to use their services for free without behavioral ads

Discussion: The Register, Gadgets 360, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, The Information, Daniel Tunkelang on LinkedIn, @intergalacticdesign …, Christos Zanganas on LinkedIn, Maria Lobato on LinkedIn, @parkert@threads.net, @documentingmeta@threads.net, @daveleebbg@threads.net, edpb.europa.eu and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Steven Kurutz / New York Times:
A profile of Rusty Foster, whose Today in Tabs daily media industry newsletter has 36,000 subscribers, of which ~10% pay $6 per month or $50 per year

Discussion: @anildash@threads.net, The Information and @waxy@xoxo.zone

Earlier Picks:

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
Swedish streaming service Viaplay, which shut down its US app in February, launches a $5.99 per month subscription channel on Prime Video Channels

Discussion: Broadband TV News, Advanced Television, Media Play News and Variety

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Snap plans to add watermarks to AI-generated images exported from Snapchat; the watermarks appear as a translucent version of the Snap logo with a sparkle emoji

Discussion: Snapchat

Sam Tobin / Reuters:
UK court documents: actor Hugh Grant settled a lawsuit against The Sun publisher News Group Newspapers over claims of using private investigators to phone tap

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

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
How Tim Cook may navigate Trump's presidency, a closer look at Apple's upcoming smart home command center, sources detail a new AirTag coming in 2025, and more

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

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page