Top News:
New York Times:
Sources: Washington Post CEO Will Lewis criticized Sally Buzbee's judgment in publishing a May 2024 article about a UK phone-hacking lawsuit that involved him — Will Lewis, the chief executive of The Washington Post, objected to coverage of a legal development involving him in a phone hacking case.
Discussion:
Media Nation, Talking Points Memo, @pkafka, @paulvieira, @benmullin, @katie_robertson, @harrymccracken, @nick_field90, @sulliview, @peterjukes, @karaswisher@threads.net, @tvhilton, @farnazfassihi, @edmundlee, @emilybell, @eisingerj, @nick_field90, @rcmacleod, @eisingerj, @janecoaston, @fredvultee, @silvermanjacob, @farhip, @kevinmdraper, @davidbeard@threads.net, @geisler_jill@threads.net, @davidbeard@threads.net, @jswatz_tx@threads.net, The Wrap, @kennysmith@mstdn.social, @edmundlee@threads.net, Digiday, @mattdpearce@threads.net, Puck, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @ChrisBoese@newsie.social and @rogerford.org
New York Times:
A look at the now-shuttered news site BNN Breaking, which former staff say mostly published AI-generated content; Microsoft had licensed BNN content for MSN.com — The news was featured on MSN.com: “Prominent Irish broadcaster faces trial over alleged sexual misconduct.”
Discussion:
@structstories and The Desk, more at Techmeme »
CNN:
The WSJ article on Biden's mental acuity relies largely on comments from Republican sources and Kevin McCarthy, who praised Biden's performance a year prior — The Wall Street Journal owes its readers — and the public — better. — The business broadsheet published and hyped …
Discussion:
Talking Biz News, Fox News, Mediaite, @karlbode.bsky.social, @johnjharwood, @bgrueskin, Poynter, @jonfavs, @hadas_gold, Axios, Media Matters for America, @radiofreetom, @tomricks1, @jrothfeder, @tvmojoe, The Independent, Raw Story, New Republic, HuffPost, NewsNation, The Daily Beast, who13.com and Deadline
New York Times:
Sources: Costco plans to stop selling books regularly at US stores year-round from January 2025, and will instead sell them during the holiday shopping period — The decision, which will be implemented in January 2025, could significantly impact publishers.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Amazon acquires key assets of Indian video streaming service MX Player; a source says the deal values the streamer at <$100M, below its $500M valuation in 2019 — Amazon has agreed to acquire key assets of Indian video streaming service MX Player from the local media powerhouse Times Internet …
Nikkei Asia:
An analysis finds 90K+ images of popular anime characters on generative AI image sharing sites; ~2.5K images had multiple similarities to the original artwork — —An animator working for a Tokyo-based production company — “This Pikachu” was drawn by generative AI.
Discussion:
Nikkei Asia and @hrfm_yamamoto
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Regional UK news startup Mill Media, which offers online newsletters, plans to launch in London, as the Evening Standard scales back, and open a Glasgow office — Regional UK news start-up says there is an opportunity after years of savage cutbacks in local media industry
Discussion:
City A.M.
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
How New Zealand's Stuff is using a sentiment tracker, which asks readers for their response to stories, and a softer explainer-style for contentious stories — New Zealand's Stuff “abandoned” the traditional inverted pyramid structure for its “most contentious” stories as part of its battle against news avoidance.
Discussion:
@pressgazette
The Wall Street Journal:
Vice founder Shane Smith returns as Vice News EIC, but with no management responsibilities, and will host a series of shows and create social media content — Shane Smith is sorry, but not sorry. The 54-year-old co-founder of Vice Media said he has few regrets as he embarks on a new role at the company …
Discussion:
The Ankler, Columbia Journalism Review, @iboudreau.bsky.social, @noescapevg.bsky.social, @hadas_gold, The Wrap, @karlbode.bsky.social, Deadline, Rolling Stone, @bold.bsky.social, @mobute.bsky.social, @lifewinning.com, @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, @davidjroth.bsky.social and @lopatto.bsky.social
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Four educational publishers sue Google, accusing it of promoting pirated copies of their textbooks and ignoring copyright infringement notices — Google (GOOGL.O) was hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday by educational publishers Cengage, Macmillan Learning, McGraw Hill and Elsevier accusing …
Discussion:
Publishers Weekly, Publishing Perspectives, Bloomberg Law and Search Engine Land
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Stability AI releases Stable Audio Open, a text-to-audio model for generating up to 47 seconds of samples and sound effects, prohibited for commercial use — Stability AI, the startup behind the AI-powered art generator Stable Diffusion, has released an open AI model for generating sounds …
Discussion:
Music Ally, @iscienceluvr, @stabilityai, @hugovntr, @benjedwards, @andymac3d, @minimaxir, @simonw, @nickadobos, @Tamasg@mindly.social and Stability AI, more at Techmeme »
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson shares details on the OpenAI deal: publishers can benefit from tech platforms as long as they avoid becoming wholly dependent — Shortly before The Atlantic announced “a product and content” partnership with OpenAI, the magazine published a piece …
Discussion:
@sarahscire, The Atlantic, @jessicalessin, LinkedIn and Business Insider