Mediagazer: The National Music Publishers' Association sends a cease-and-desist letter to Spotify over its use of lyrics in its videos feature, remix tool, and more (Jem Aswad/Variety)

7:05 PM ET, May 15, 2024

Top News:

Joe Biden proposes two debates with Trump, ditching the bipartisan commission that has conducted presidential debates since the late 1980s; Trump accepts — During recent weeks, both the Trump and Biden campaigns held behind-the-scenes talks about debate planning.

ABC News:

Joe Biden and Donald Trump agree to an ABC News presidential debate on September 10 — Biden challenged Trump to two debates, Trump said he's “ready and willing.” — President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore at Bowie State University on Nov. 7 …

Discussion: Mediaite, @joebiden, The Hill, Deadline, Fox News, @maggienyt, CNN, Arizona Mirror, NPR, @dylanbyers, New York Times, @alexthomp, Al Jazeera, New York Post, Forbes and Breitbart

CNN:

CNN plans to host the Joe Biden and Donald Trump presidential debate in Georgia on June 27, after both accepted CNN's invitation — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he's accepted an invitation from CNN to debate former President Donald Trump on June 27 - challenging the former president …

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the June 27 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in Atlanta — Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the June 27 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the network said. — Both candidates said today …

Discussion: The Desk, Mediaite, Breitbart, The Hill, Politico and HuffPost

Washington Post:
Biden's debate proposal asks for broadcast networks that hosted GOP debates in 2016 and Democratic debates in 2020: CNN, ABC News, Telemundo, and CBS News

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix strikes a three-year deal with the NFL to stream two new Christmas Day games this season, and “at least one game” in 2025 and in 2026 — The streaming giant lands the league's two new Christmas Day games, beginning this season. — Netflix will stream live NFL games, beginning this season.

Discussion: Netflix Tudum, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, StreamTV Insider, Reuters, Deadline, IndieWire, The Streamable, Business Insider, New York Times, Fox Business, Barrett Media, Fast Company, The Guardian, Forbes, How-To Geek, Associated Press, Financial Times, Light Reading, Kelly Toye on LinkedIn, SlashFilm, City A.M., Mitzi Reaugh on LinkedIn, Alex Lowry on LinkedIn, Damien Bernet on LinkedIn, @sherman4949, Front Office Sports, @alexweprin, Adweek, Doug Brodman on LinkedIn, TVLine, Engadget, CNN, The Hill, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn, @sherman4949, The Information, WDTN-TV, @pkafka, Victoria Morris on LinkedIn, Jared Naylor on LinkedIn, Awful Announcing, The Wrap, CNBC, USA Today, Screen Rant, The Verge, KNSD-TV, Advanced Television, Variety, KTLA, WKBN-TV, Cord Cutters News and Sports Media Watch, more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg:

Sources: Paramount has had talks with Amazon about expanding ties, including bundled sales of channels; one source said the talks also involved advertising — The discussions may not amount to anything, but are said to include bundled sales of channels, according to the people …

Discussion: Deadline and Ad Age

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon made its debut Upfronts pitch on May 14, competing with major media networks and highlighting its push beyond digital ads and into traditional media

Discussion: @sherman4949 and AdExchanger

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

News/Media Alliance CEO Danielle Coffey says Google's AI Overviews rollout will be catastrophic, as the little traffic publishers get will be further diminished — Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

Discussion: @knittingknots2@mstdn.social and News/Media Alliance

Casey Newton / Platformer:

The arrival of AI search bodes ill for everyone who relies on web search to have their business discovered, their blog post read, or their journalism funded — When Sundar Pichai took the stage at Google I/O on Tuesday morning, he said that the rise of generative artificial intelligence …

Jem Aswad / Variety:

The National Music Publishers' Association sends a cease-and-desist letter to Spotify over its use of lyrics in its videos feature, remix tool, and more — Spotify was hit with a cease-and-desist letter from the National Music Publishers Assn. over its use of lyrics in its recently launched video function …

Discussion: Bumper, Digital Music News, Aaron Dowd on LinkedIn, Rolling Stone, Music Ally, Billboard, 9to5Mac, Music Business Worldwide and CMU

CNBC:

Netflix says its ad tier has 40M MAUs, up from 23M in January, and it will launch its own ad platform and no longer partner with Microsoft for that technology — Netflix's cheaper, ad-supported tier has amassed 40 million global monthly active users, the company said Wednesday.

Discussion: AdExchanger, The Streamable, The Desk, Adweek, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Reuters, The Verge, MobileSyrup, Quartz, Yahoo Finance, Deadline, Matthew Keys on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, StreamTV Insider, @sherman4949 and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Marie Woolf / Globe and Mail:

The CRTC delays Online Streaming Act enactment until late 2025; the law sets how much streamers and broadcasters pay to support Canadian and Indigenous content — ////The timetable for implementing the online streaming act has been delayed by a year, according to a new regulatory plan published …

Discussion: MobileSyrup

Sonia Pérez D. / Associated Press:

A Guatemalan court orders the release of journalist José Rubén Zamora, who was jailed for nearly two years on money laundering charges; he awaits a new trial — A Guatemalan court ordered the release Wednesday of journalist José Rubén Zamora, jailed for nearly two years on money laundering charges.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, @pressfreedom and Committee to Protect …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Bob Iger says Disney is “pretty dramatically” reducing its spending on traditional TV content and Disney+'s overinvestment “resulted in volume, not quality” — Company originally ‘invested too much’ in streaming content, which ‘resulted in volume, not quality,’

Discussion: Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter and Yahoo Finance

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

The New Yorker published an article about convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby in its UK print edition, after blocking the story online due to a court order — A New Yorker story revisiting the conviction of Lucy Letby has been published in the title's print and mobile app editions despite …

Discussion: @jon_allsop, ITV News and @jon_allsop

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More News:

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Politico rolls out its first consumer registration wall, as part of Axel Springer's plans to gather more reader data to use for ad and product strategies

Discussion: David Smydra on LinkedIn, @politicopress and Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn

New York Times:
Sources detail the tensions at NBC and its parent company Comcast over MSNBC's embrace of progressive politics, as NBC News strives to appeal to a mass audience

Discussion: @markhisted.org, @mrhoward.bsky.social, @jeffjarvis and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Lineup Publishing says Deadspin will include “betting content” but insists the outlet won't become an SEO clickfarm, and restores deleted posts

Discussion: Awful Announcing

David Bauder / Associated Press:
An interview with veteran entertainment journalist Jed Rosenzweig about LateNighter, his news site and newsletter launched in February to follow late-night TV

Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Q&A with Nicholas Kristof on how security for foreign correspondents has changed, the need for more reporting and less punditry, protecting sources, and more

Discussion: Poynter

Michael Schneider / Variety:
Streamers are ordering linear-esque content, like procedurals and sitcoms, with 15- or 16-episode seasons, as they seek to avoid churn and emulate broadcasters

Discussion: H Schuster on LinkedIn, Inside the Magic, Morad Koufane on LinkedIn and Herman Phillips on LinkedIn

Clara Aberneithie / Press Gazette:
Interviews with journalists from BBC Russia, BBC Persia, and BBC Arabic about BBC World Service's 310 exiled journalists, fighting censorship, and more

Discussion: @bluechalkmedia

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Adam Mosseri says Threads “recently rolled out” its own fact-checking program after piggybacking on Instagram and Facebook's network for a few months

Discussion: Engadget and @mosseri@threads.net

Earlier Picks:

Nidhi Subbaraman / Wall Street Journal:
Fake studies have flooded publishers of scientific journals, resulting in retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue; Wiley plans to close 19 journals

Discussion: STAT, The Overspill, @ianrosewrites@scicomm.xyz, @Wolven@ourislandgeorgia.net and @cbecker@hci.social

Max Tani / Semafor:
NYT reporters are circulating a draft of an open letter to Joe Kahn, criticizing the editor over recent comments they said were dismissive of young reporters

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @emptywheel, @gregtsargent, @meyer_hm and New York Post

Anthony DePalma / New York Times:
Canadian author Alice Munro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 and was referred to as “a master of the contemporary short story”, dies at 92

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Sources: Jimmy Finkelstein met with potential investors to drum up interest in a new venture, which is in the planning stages, after The Messenger's failure

Discussion: @michaelroston and @mediaevan

Washington Post:
Eight TikTok creators sue the US government over the law forcing a sale or ban of TikTok, arguing the move violates their First Amendment rights

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, MediaPost, Tubefilter, New York Times, The Hill, CMU, MediaNama, @artofangles, @taylorlorenz, @yoda, @taliacadet, Engadget, CBS News, The Verge, CNBC, NBC News, Reuters, The Information, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg, Associated Press, MarTech, NPR and Techdirt, more at Techmeme »

Ty Pendlebury / CNET:
Google unveils Music AI Sandbox, a suite of music tools that include the ability to create loops via text, without disclosing when it will be publicly available

Discussion: Digital Music News, Music Business Worldwide, Music Ally, @facesofhaiti_, @reach_vb, @googledeepmind, @googledeepmind, @aggualaqisaaq@mastodon …, BGR and Engadget

Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
YouTube says it will comply with a Hong Kong court order to block 32 video links, after the government sought to ban the Glory to Hong Kong protest anthem

Discussion: Hong Kong Free Press HKFP, Reuters, Voice of America, City A.M., Music Ally, CNN, Financial Times, Associated Press, New York Times and Bloomberg

Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:
Nielsen launches The Media Distributor Gauge, showing TV usage ranked by company: Disney accounted for 11.5% of TV viewing in April, YouTube accounted for 9.6%

Discussion: Nielsen, MediaPost, Adweek, Amit Ghorawat on LinkedIn, Brian Fuhrer on LinkedIn, Radio & Television …, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes and Wall Street Journal

From Techmeme:

Lee-Anne Mulholland / The Keyword:
Google files its proposed remedies in the DOJ's search antitrust lawsuit, including letting browser companies have multiple default agreements across platforms

Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
A US judge finds NSO Group liable for exploiting a bug in WhatsApp to spy on 1,400 users and that WhatsApp is entitled to sanctions against NSO

Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI's GPT-5, codenamed Orion, is behind schedule and faces technical hurdles, including high computing costs and limited high-quality training data

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