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:
The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, SlashFilm and Deadline, more at Techmeme »
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Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon Q1: revenue up 13% YoY to $143.3B, net income of $10.4B, vs. $3.2B YoY, operating income of $15.3B, vs. $4.8B YoY, subscription revenue up 11% to $10.7B — Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco on June 8, 2022.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and Reuters, 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.
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
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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” — I resigned from The Intercept today in order to pursue a new kind of journalism here on Substack, one more hard-hitting than what's possible in the corporate world.
Discussion:
@faustianfool.bsky.social, @chrisrulon, @agoldmund, @alexjordanatl, @WorMP3@mstdn.social, @poorlyreasoned, @jeremymbarr, @flargh@mastodon.social, @hypercubexl.bsky.social, @asherelbein.bsky.social, @katebushupdates, @nandoodles, @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social, @alexdecampi.bsky.social, @jeremymbarr, @jragazzo, @davidgerard@circumstances.run, @alshafei@mastodon.social, @trappgodd.bsky.social and @ggreenwald
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Source: Paramount and Charter extend contract renewal talks; the contract, which affects Paramount's cash flow amid buyout talks, was set to expire on April 30 — Paramount Global and Charter Communications agreed to extend their talks on a deal renewal, which — for now …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter
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?
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, Mediaite, City A.M., Financial Times, The Wrap, The Guardian, @steven_swinford, @pippacrerar and Deadline
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
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 …
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
Discussion:
European Commission, Engadget, Ars Technica, UPI, Liberties.eu, lawsociety.ie, @clothildegouj, @prestonjbyrne, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Invezz, TechCrunch, @clothildegouj, @thierrybreton, Euronews, Digital Journal, @vestager, Infosecurity, Euractiv, Mind.ua, @rita_wezenbeek, @fhortalforonda, @disinfoeu, Associated Press, Reuters, The Verge, New York Times, Politico, Semafor and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »
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