Mediagazer: Amazon reports Q1 ad revenue up 24% YoY to $11.8B, vs. $11.7B est., driven by the growth of its Stores and Prime Video businesses (Todd Spangler/Variety)

4:50 PM ET, April 30, 2024

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Amazon reports Q1 ad revenue up 24% YoY to $11.8B, vs. $11.7B est., driven by the growth of its Stores and Prime Video businesses — Amazon raked in $11.82 billion in advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2024, topping analyst expectations, fueled by the ecommerce giant's move …

Discussion: SlashFilm and The Hollywood Reporter

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

Amazon reports Q1 net sales up 13% YoY to $143.3B, advertising services net sales up 24% YoY to $11.8B, and net income up from $3.2B to $10.4B — Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco on June 8, 2022. — Amazon shares rose more than 3% …

Discussion: Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

Eight daily newspapers owned by Alden sue OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using copyrighted articles without permission to train generative AI products — The suit, which accuses the tech companies of copyright infringement, adds to the fight over the online data used to power artificial intelligence.

Discussion: Axios, NPR, Associated Press, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hill, The Information, New York Daily News, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, City A.M., Bloomberg and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

The Athletic has ~2.95M newsletter subscribers, up nearly 20% YoY; Comscore: it had 17.6M unique visitors in the US in March 2024, up from 6.6M a year prior — This article was provided as an exclusive preview for Digiday+ members, who were able to access it early.

Discussion: Chris Sprow on LinkedIn, Meg Linehan on LinkedIn and Claudio E. Cabrera on LinkedIn

The New York Times Company: The Athletic names Laura Williamson as its editor-in-chief for the UK and Europe, making her the first female EIC of a daily sports publication in the UK

Sahil Patel / The Information:

Sources: Google has agreed to pay News Corp $5M to $6M annually to develop new AI-related content and products, as part of the Google News Initiative — Google has agreed to pay Wall Street Journal owner News Corp between $5 million and $6 million annually to fund the news organization's development …

Discussion: MediaPost, Reuters and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Ken Klippenstein:

The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein resigns, citing the outlet's corporatization and saying its “fear of funders is more important than journalism itself” — ...and starting something new — I resigned from The Intercept today in order to pursue a new kind of journalism here on Substack …

Timothy B. Lee / Asterisk:

Tech journalism is often characterized by scandals, sensationalism, and shoddy research; publishers hesitate to invest in nuanced reporting without a clear ROI — A huge proportion of tech journalism is characterized by scandals, sensationalism, and shoddy research. Can we fix it?

Discussion: @brianwilt, @adamkovac, Beyond Search, @adamthierer, @rob_lh, @chastaylor, @robinwauters, Stuart McDonald on LinkedIn, @rao_hacker_one, @calebwatney, @binarybits, @tomaxwell, @kelseytuoc, LinkedIn and Observer, more at Techmeme »

Benoit Berthelot / Bloomberg:

UAE-backed RedBird IMI withdraws from the Telegraph and Spectator auction, which starts today, and will look to sell on its rights to the UK outlets — After a bruising few months, UAE-backed investor RedBird IMI is withdrawing from its attempt to acquire the Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazine …

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters, Telegraph, Al Jazeera, City A.M., Mediaite, Financial Times, The Wrap, The Guardian, @steven_swinford, @pippacrerar and Deadline

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

NYC-based newsletter platform beehiiv raised a $33M Series B led by NEA, taking its total raised to $46.5M, and says the service has ~20K active newsletters — With the number of people using e-mail globally approaching 5 billion, newsletters delivered regularly into people's inboxes continue …

Discussion: @rafat, Faraz Fatemi on LinkedIn, @iamjasonlevin, @beehiiv, @ryansingel@writing.exchange, @simondowens@threads.net, @denk_tweets, Beehiiv and Jacob Wolf on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg:

The EU opens a DSA investigation into Meta over deceptive Facebook and Instagram ad and political content; sources say the probe is about a pro-Kremlin campaign — - Probe said to target pro-Putin Doppelganger campaign — Meta probe is under the EU's tough new Digital Services Act

Tyler Aquilina / Variety:

Survey: 33% of Peacock users were still using the free tier in Q1 2024, though new sign-ups ended in January 2023; 24% of Peacock Premium users stream it daily — As the ever-shifting SVOD business continues to evolve, one key challenge now confronting streamers is how to handle subscription plans that no longer exist.

Discussion: Streaming Better and Adweek

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Reader's Digest UK Editor-in-Chief Eva Mackevic says the magazine will close in the UK after 86 years, citing the “unforgiving magazine publishing landscape” — The magazine's editor said it has “come to an end” in the UK after 86 years. — Reader's Digest magazine has closed in the UK …

Discussion: MediaPost, The Guardian, The Drum, Steph Bridgeman on LinkedIn and Eva Mackevic on LinkedIn

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:50 PM ET, April 30, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Deputy Health & Science Editor, DC — WaPo

Weather Reporter, NY — Bloomberg

Legal Editor, Johannesburg — LexisNexis

Transcription Copy Editor - Opinion, CA — NYT

Agriculture Reporter, Winnipeg — Reuters

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter - Ireland — Newsweek

Investigative Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

Deputy Spotlight Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Disinfo/Extremism/Tech Reporter — Mother Jones

Audience Editor - Search, NY — ProPublica

Middle East Editor, Remote — Semafor

Arts Editor, London — FT

Local Editor - New York, NY — Patch

Deputy Tech Ed. - CNBC, CA — NBCUniversal

Reporter - Police Beat, OR — The Oregonian

National Tech Reporter — States Newsroom

Express Desk Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Alabama Reporter, AL — Inside Climate News

Tech Reporter, CA — Fortune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout

Deputy Editor - Investigations, NY — WSJ

Senior Writer - Biotech, Remote — Fierce

Senior IP Correspondent, Brussels — MLex

Senior Editor - Business Desk, DC — NPR

Freelance Reporter - L.A. Education, CA — The 74

Associate Editor, London — WIRED

Copy & Weekend Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

Private Equity Reporter, NY — The Information

Political Reporter, TX — Courier Newsroom

Economic Mobility Reporter, FL — Miami Herald

Reporter - Skift Meetings, Remote — Skift

Reporter, NC — NC Newsline

Digital Editor, DC — Stars & Stripes

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:

Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:
In its first TikTok Shop Safety Report, TikTok reports 500K+ sellers in the US and 15M+ sellers worldwide in December 2023, adding 6M+ in H2 2023

Discussion: The Independent, more at Techmeme »

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Instagram updates its recommendation algorithms to remove aggregator accounts, hoping to promote original content and increase distribution to smaller accounts

Discussion: Spyglass, @howfxr, @liahaberman, TechCrunch, Engadget and @liahaberman, more at Techmeme »

Sudip Kar-Gupta / Reuters:
Arnaud Lagardère resigns as chair and CEO of French publishing group Lagardère SA, after an indictment accused him of misappropriating company funds

Discussion: Fortune, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Le Monde.fr, Dow Jones Newswires and Deadline

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Everyone TV, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, launches free streaming service Freely on smart TVs, targeting internet-only homes

Discussion: The Desk, The Sun, WORLD SCREEN, Deadline and Variety

Rachel Kurzius / Washington Post:
A profile of Samir Mezrahi, the ex-BuzzFeed social media director behind Zillow Gone Wild, which has 4M+ followers and a spin-off HGTV show debuting in May

Discussion: @jeremymbarr

Earlier Picks:

Alexandra Topping / The Guardian:
As News UK's TalkTV closes its linear channel and moves online, experts say the future of both of UK's broadcasting upstarts, TalkTV and GB News, is uncertain

Tom Phillips / The Guardian:
How the 2018 killing of Rio de Janeiro councilor Marielle Franco inspired a generation of journalists to investigate the city's dangerous underworld

Jon Henley / The Guardian:
In its annual report, Civil Liberties Union for Europe says media freedom is declining across the EU and “perilously close to breaking point” in some countries

Discussion: @jeffjarvis and Politico

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: NBCUniversal is prepared to pay an average of about $2.5B per year to air a package of NBA games, as WBD makes last-ditch efforts to keep those rights

Discussion: CNBC, Next TV, The Wrap, Quartz, New York Post, Yahoo Finance, TVLine, Front Office Sports, The Streamable, The Desk, @tvgrimreaper, Awful Announcing, Deadline, @2xaught7.bsky.social, Barrett Media and Sports Media Watch

New York Times:
OAN retracts a story that said Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen had an affair with Stormy Daniels and apologizes, part of a settlement with no monetary damages

Discussion: One America News Network, The Daily Beast, Poynter, @nycsouthpaw, HuffPost, CNN, Mediaite, Deadline and The Hill

From Techmeme:

Kris Holt / Engadget:
Microsoft unveils Copilot+ PCs as a new class of AI-capable Windows PCs, offering at least 40 TOPs of NPU performance, with several OEMs and chipmakers on board

Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
The FBI arrests a man on criminal charges for allegedly producing and distributing AI-generated images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct

Mike Scarcella / Reuters:
US v. Google: Google has preemptively paid damages to the US government, an unusual move aimed at avoiding a jury trial in the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit

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