Mediagazer: Substack now lets writers paywall their Chat discussion spaces and says active Chat participants are 12% more likely to retain their subscriptions (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

12:10 PM ET, May 1, 2024

Top News:

Jacob Bryant / The Wrap:

Fubo cuts ties with WBD after renewal negotiations for their partnership fell through, citing WBD's “abuse of massive market power” as cause for the decision — The media company accuses WBD of refusing “to engage in good faith negotiations” — Fubo cut ties with Warner Bros. Discovery …

Discussion: StreamTV Insider, The Streamable, The Verge, Yahoo Finance, WORLD SCREEN, The Desk, Deadline, Awful Announcing and Variety

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

Karissa Bell / Engadget:

LinkedIn launches three Wordle-style puzzle games: theme-based guessing game Pinpoint, Sudoku and Minesweeper-style crossover Queens, and trivia game Crossclimb — How long until “What I learned about B2B sales from playing Crossclimb”? — LinkedIn, the professional network known …

Discussion: CNN, TechCrunch and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Marko Zivkovic / AppleInsider:

Source: Apple is testing an AI-enabled Safari browser with a Web Eraser feature for better content blocking, AI-powered text summarization, a new UI, and more — Apple is testing a version of its Safari web browser that includes UI tweaks, advanced content blocking features …

Discussion: @chronotope, @scottkrauss, @siddhantsahu92, Glenn Gabe on LinkedIn, @tomgara, Quartz and 9to5Mac

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Substack now lets writers paywall their Chat discussion spaces and says active Chat participants are 12% more likely to retain their subscriptions — Substack is launching the ability for writers to paywall their entire Chat or specific threads to paid or founding members only, the company announced on Wednesday.

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

DMG Media makes up to 15 sport staff redundant at its Mail titles, as part of a “significant restructuring” on the sports desk — A similar number of roles have been cut at sports betting business Livescore. — Up to 15 sport staff are being made redundant at the Mail titles …

Discussion: @mediaguy19

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Fox News takes down a six-part streaming series that staged a mock trial of Hunter Biden, a day after Biden's legal team threatened to sue the network — Fox News has pulled down a six-part series in which it staged a mock trial of hypothetical criminal charges against Hunter Biden …

Discussion: Adweek, @hadas_gold, Kenneth Lagasse on LinkedIn, @davidfolkenflik, The Daily Beast, New Republic, CNN, New York Post, Mediaite, Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill and Deadline

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:

Comcast expects its cable TV customers to lose access to 15 Bally regional sports networks at midnight in a fee dispute with Diamond Sports Group — “We'd like to continue carrying their networks, but they have declined multiple offers and now we no longer have the rights to this programming …

Discussion: Next TV, Sportico, Barrett Media, businesswire.com, MLive.com, The Desk, The Streamable, Awful Announcing and Cord Cutters News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon is testing a new discovery page on Audible to give users recommendations about what to listen to next based on their Prime Video viewing behavior — Amazon has historically operated audiobook marketplace Audible as a separate entity, unconnected to the retailer's broader goals and ambitions.

Discussion: The Verge

Rachel Kaser / VentureBeat:

Roblox expands its immersive video ad format to all advertisers and adds more controls, such as genre targeting and brand suitability, to its Ads Manager — The Roblox Corporation announced today that its video ads are opening up for all advertisers who wish to join.

Discussion: PRWeek, Variety, Reuters, AdExchanger and Digiday

Bloomberg:

A look at potential Telegraph bidders after RedBird IMI walked: Daily Mail proprietor Jonathan Harmsworth, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, Murdoch, and more — - Conservative-leaning UK newspaper is a coveted media asset — UAE-backed takeover was thwarted by British politicians

Discussion: Al Jazeera, Reuters, Telegraph, City A.M., The Wrap, Financial Times, The Guardian and Deadline

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

Four female BBC News presenters start legal action against BBC, saying they were forced off air for a year and were victims of a “sham” hiring process in 2023 — Four female BBC News presenters have commenced legal action against the UK broadcaster, arguing they were forced off air …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Metro.co.uk, @jake_kanter and @jake_kanter

Financial Times:

In tests run by executives in advertising, animation, and real estate, OpenAI's Sora generated people with more realistic facial features than Runway or Pika — The FT asked workers in animation, advertising and real estate to test rival AI systems that create short clips

Discussion: Ars Technica and @cristinacriddle

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: @simonjharris, @dcurtis, @christianhern, @benedictevans@threads.net, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, SlashFilm, Deadline and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon reports Q1 revenue up 13% YoY to $143.3B, a $10.4B net income, vs. $3.2B YoY, $15.3B operating income, vs. $4.8B YoY, subscription sales up 11% to $10.7B

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, Tinny Widjaja on LinkedIn, Annie Palmer on LinkedIn, Richard King on LinkedIn, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

The Athletic has ~2.95M newsletter subscribers, up nearly 20% YoY; Comscore: the outlet had 17.6M unique US visitors in March 2024, up from 6.6M in March 2023 — This article was provided as an exclusive preview for Digiday+ members, who were able to access it early.

Discussion: Inbox Collective, Awful Announcing, 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

Discussion: @sebsb, @nytimespr and @adamcrafton_

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More News:

BBC Studios:
The BBC launches BBC Verify US to combat disinformation, led by Analysis Editor Ros Atkins and based in DC, as part of its 2024 US elections coverage plans

Discussion: @bbcstudiosuspr, @ejhchess, Ros Atkins on LinkedIn, @leng_cath, @pressgazette, @back_the_bbc and @caitrionaperry

Natalie B. Compton / Washington Post:
A profile of Rick Steves, whose travel company makes $120M yearly, published 110 books, filmed 12 seasons of his travel show, and produced 750+ podcast episodes

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Nielsen:
US audiences gave 67% of their daily ad-supported audio time to over-the-air radio in Q1, 20% to podcasts, and the rest to streaming audio or satellite radio

Discussion: Business Insider, RADIO ONLINE, Inside Radio and Radio & Television …

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

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Earlier Picks:

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

Discussion: 9to5Google, Bloomberg and Traackr, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: Next TV, Bloomberg, The Wrap, Deadline and Los Angeles Times

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

Discussion: Streaming Better

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”

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
A UK CMA report finds that Apple's policies hold back innovation in mobile browsers and recommends investigating Apple and Google's mobile ecosystem activities

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Threads is testing AI-generated summaries of what users are discussing, in the app's Trending Now section in the US, and Search and Trending Now improvements

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