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, Media Play News, SlashFilm, The Hollywood Reporter 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, Annie Palmer on LinkedIn, Richard King on LinkedIn, Quartz and Reuters, 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
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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, CBS News, NPR, UPI, The Register, The Verge, The Hill, Associated Press, The Hollywood Reporter, @sarafischer, New York Daily News, Sara Fischer on LinkedIn, The Wrap, The Information, Justin Finnegan on LinkedIn, @sarafischer, City A.M., Bloomberg and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »
Thania Garcia / Variety:
Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl and singer FKA twigs testify before a US Senate committee to support a plan to defend people from nonconsensual AI deepfakes — ‘We must enact regulation now to safeguard our authenticity and protect against misappropriation of our inalienable rights,’ FKA Twigs said.
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:
Mediaite, @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
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:
Reuters, Engadget and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Twitch rolls out its TikTok-like discovery feed, launching as a tab within the Twitch iOS and Android apps showing live streams and clips — Twitch is officially rolling out its new TikTok-like discovery feed to all users this week, the company announced on Tuesday.
Discussion:
Bloomberg and Traackr, more at Techmeme »
Melvin Backman / Quartz:
WBD shares hit a 52-week low after a WSJ report suggested WBD could lose rights to NBA games, as NBCUniversal is prepared to bid about $2.5B per year for rights — The stock hit a 52-week low and was one of the S&P 500's worst performers of the day — Warner Bros Discovery stock hit …
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
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:
The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter
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 …
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