Top News:
Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Gannett fires an experienced editor overseeing 26 community newspapers for “sharing proprietary information” with a “competing media company”, which was Poynter — Sarah Leach spoke to Poynter in an attempt to staff up her team. She may have been successful, even if she won't be at Gannett to see it through.
Discussion:
@marybschneider, @hayley__harding, @annagustafson, @kkdumez, @saminglot, @kelleyroot, @llondo, @reporterdavidj, @johnsellek, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @elaheizadi, @jayrosen_nyu, @sentinelleach, @zachvat@newsie.social, @kennysmith@mstdn.social, @danrshafer, @megganje, Substack, @solomonlexib, @lesbowen, @raleighreporter, @nannburke, @rasmus_kleis, @seloesch, @neilstrebig, @mediaevan, @stevenldoyle, @kylewiim, @benmullin and @poynter
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD reports a $86M profit in Q1 for its DTC unit, which includes streaming, up from $50M in Q1 2023, and 99.6M streaming subscribers, up from 97.7M in Q4 2023 — The entertainment conglomerate led by CEO David Zaslav reported its first-quarter results.
Discussion:
Quartz, Media Play News, The Streamable, Streaming Better, IndieWire, CNBC and Bloomberg
RELATED:
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
WBD reports Q1 revenue down 7% YoY to $9.96B, and a $966M net loss, down 10% YoY, as TV revenue fell 8% YoY to $5.13B and studio revenue fell 13% YoY to $2.82B
Discussion:
MediaPost, Reuters, Next TV, The Information, The Wrap, Media Play News, Advanced Television, Deadline and WORLD SCREEN
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Vice Media plans to create a joint venture with Savage Ventures, which will invest “tens of millions of dollars”, to relaunch its sites, including Vice.com — - Savage Ventures was one of the entities that looked to buy Vice out of bankruptcy last year.
CNBC:
Sources: Sinclair is looking to sell 60+ of its 185 TV stations, in markets including Minneapolis and Austin, and is exploring options for the Tennis Channel — Signage stands outside the Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. headquarters in Cockeysville, Maryland, U.S., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018.
Discussion:
Sports Media Watch, Lillian Rizzo on LinkedIn and The Desk
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Nexstar Q1: revenue up 2.1% YoY to $1.28B, net income up 89.8% YoY to $167M, losses for The CW were cut by $50M, or about half 2024's projected loss reductions — The CW's losses fell by $50 million in the first quarter and parent Nexstar Media Group still expects the network to turn a profit by next year …
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, Nexstar, The Wrap, @deadline and Next TV
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
OpenAI's pitch deck to news publishers promises priority placement to partners in chat conversations and payment contingent on “display success” — OpenAI's Preferred Publisher Program offers media companies licensing deals — The generative artificial intelligence firm OpenAI …
Christopher Kuo / New York Times:
The British Board of Film Classification adopts updated guidelines for how it rates movies; in the US, no systematic process for updating guidelines exists — As the attitudes of moviegoers evolve, so do the guidelines of the ratings board, which has reclassified dozens of films including “Mary Poppins” and “Rocky.”
Discussion:
BBFC
New York Times:
A look at Israel's long-strained history with Al Jazeera, which Israel calls a security threat, while Al Jazeera says Israel wants to hide its brutality in Gaza — The network will keep covering the war in Gaza, but it will be harder for Israelis to watch.
Discussion:
Jerusalem Post, BBC, @omunderdal and Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tyler Falk / Current:
At a House hearing on “NPR bias”, Republicans criticize NPR CEO's absence but some praise local stations, and witnesses call for decentralizing or defunding NPR — House Republicans criticized NPR CEO Katherine Maher Wednesday for not attending a hearing about alleged bias within the network …
Discussion:
USA Today, Free Press, @elaheizadi, Inside Radio, @brandyzadrozny@threads.net and Fox News
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
ElevenLabs previews a music-generating AI model, showing samples of songs with lyrics generated from text prompts — Voice AI startup ElevenLabs is offering an early look at a new model that turns a prompt into song lyrics. To raise awareness, it's following a similar playbook Sam Altman used …
Discussion:
@bryancsk, @scobleizer, @ammaar, @carles_reina, @victorswift, @elevenlabsio, @ammaar, @somewheresy and @lukeharries_
The Australian:
Australia's federal government plans to create a joint parliamentary select committee to investigate Meta abandoning payment-for-content deals with news outlets — Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman — The decision by tech giant Meta to abandon payment-for-content deals with news outlets …
Discussion:
Australian Financial Review
Aisha Counts / Bloomberg:
Reddit releases a new content policy, including a ban on AI data licensees from using deleted posts or comments; Reddit expects $60M+ in 2024 licensing revenue — - Social media company restricts data use by AI companies — Reddit expects to generate $60 million from licensing in 2024
Discussion:
Reddit Upvoted, Social Media Today, ZDNet, TechCrunch and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
Beth Mellor / Bloomberg:
After Concord said its $1.25 per share offer for Hipgnosis was final, Hipgnosis is set to be sold Blackstone at $1.30 per share, valuing the fund at ~$1.57B — That was topped last week by a $1.30 per share bid from Blackstone, valuing the business at about $1.57 billion.
Discussion:
Financial Times, Billboard, Digital Journal, Music Business Worldwide, City A.M., Wall Street Journal, Digital Music News and Reuters
Senior Data Journalist, NY — 
Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — 
Oil Reporter, Singapore — 
Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — 
Business Reporter, SC — 
State Government Reporter, WA — 
Climate Crisis Columnist — 
Multimedia Journalist, CA — 
Community Engagement Mgr., DC — 
Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — 
Staff Writer - Business, NY — 
Team Editor - Opinion, ON — 
Assistant Correspondent, DC — 
Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — 
Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — 
Lead Business Reporter, TN — 
Managing Editor, WA — 
Private Credit Reporter, NY — 
Trending News Reporter, TX — 
City Correspondent, London — 
Legislative Reporter, CA — 
Reporter, PA — 
Visual Editor, Remote — 
Staff Writer, MI — 
Senior Political Reporter, DC — 
California Playbook Writer, CA — 
National Investigative Reporter, NY — 
Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — 
Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — 
Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — 
Coordinating Editor, OR — 
Editor, Remote US — 
Business Reporter, WA — 
Editor-in-Chief, AZ — 
