Mediagazer: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appears in a Russian Court for the start of his closed-door trial on espionage charges, which he denies (Ann M. Simmons/Wall Street Journal)

1:17 PM ET, June 26, 2024

Top News:

Trevor Timm / The Guardian:

Assange's plea deal doesn't create an official precedent, but he still had to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act for a “crime” outlets commit regularly — Instead of just dropping the case, the Biden administration got a guilty plea and set a dangerous tone for reporters everywhere

Associated Press:

Julian Assange pleads guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with the US, letting him go free after spending five years in a British prison — A plane believed to be carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday. Assange will plead guilty to a felony charge …

Discussion: @wikileaks, Gizmodo, ComingSoon.net, The Guardian, Reuters, @stella_assange, US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, Mediaite, @thomasreporting, ABC7, The Register, Irish Examiner, @thomasreporting, @thomasreporting, New York Times, Fox News, Engadget, Washington Post, Dr. John Bruni on LinkedIn, BBC, New York Times, Fox News, Associated Press, @jimwaterson, @robertkennedyjr, @jamesrbuk, @jack, @jamesrbuk, @jeffjarvis, @jeremyscahill, ABC News, Semafor, CBS News, The Hill, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg.com, Committee to Protect …, The Atlantic, Ars Technica, ScheerPost.com, The Reporters Committee …, @mbrauchli@threads.net, @naughtfollowers@threads.net, The Intercept, The i Paper, 9to5Mac, Al Jazeera, NBC News, Financial Times, The Wrap, Deadline, The Daily Beast, Washington Examiner, Axios and Wall Street Journal

Andrew Chung / Reuters:

SCOTUS declines to impose limits on the way Biden administration may communicate with social media platforms in the First Amendment case of Murthy v. Missouri — The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to impose limits on the way President Joe Biden's administration may communicate …

Ann M. Simmons / Wall Street Journal:

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appears in a Russian Court for the start of his closed-door trial on espionage charges, which he denies — Proceedings lack due process, at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appeared …

Max Tani / Semafor:

In the last month, Sam Stein, Burgess Everett, and now Jack Shafer have decided to leave Politico; sources: Alex Ward and Lara Seligman are leaving for the WSJ — The Scoop — The unfolding internal crisis at the Washington Post has obscured drama playing out across the river in Rosslyn, Virginia.

Discussion: Mediaite, @semaforben, @scottnover, @dylanbyers, @maxwelltani, @alexheard, @leighgiangreco, @vincentmorris, @bgrueskin, Talking Biz News, @dankennedy_nu@journa.host, @brianvastag@sciencemastodon …, @vruz@mastodon.social and TVNewsCheck

Financial Times:

Sources: YouTube is in talks with Sony, Warner, and Universal to license their songs for AI music generation tools coming in 2024 that mimic artists' music — Licensing negotiations come as music industry wrestles with legal and creative impact of artificial intelligence

Discussion: Media Play News and @annaknicolaou, more at Techmeme »

Zoe Samios / Australian Financial Review:

Australia's Seven West axes three top executives amid 150 job cuts at the company, as its commercial deal with Meta, estimated to be worth ~$15M annually, ends — Seven West Media chief executive Jeff Howard has lost some of his most senior lieutenants including the head of sport …

Discussion: Mumbrella, Mediaweek, Mediaweek, Mumbrella and Sydney Morning Herald

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: The New York Times is working to move its top podcasts behind a paywall, with the goal of eventually tying most, if not all, to a subscription service — Publisher plans to limit access to shows like ‘Serial’ to subscribers, cap number of free episodes of ‘The Daily’

Discussion: The Ankler, @ericfingerhut, @alasdairjohnstone@threads.net, Stuart Coxe on LinkedIn, Podnews, @paulconstant.com, @balsam.bsky.social and TVNewsCheck

Paul Farhi / Columbia Journalism Review:

Nonresponses from sources to requests for comment in news stories are rife, and growing rapidly; some PR reps defend the silence, depending on circumstances — As the author of CNN.com's daily newsletter about the news and entertainment industries, Oliver Darcy regularly reports …

Discussion: C. Mark Brinkley on LinkedIn, Daniel McFadden on LinkedIn, @rachelmlenzi, @olympiajoe, @adelacruznyc, @aaronblake, @halijohnmcphee, @jbalderman, @corbinbolies, @floorcharts, @rf_journo and @sarahkarlin

Jay Peters / The Verge:

NBCU says an AI-generated voice of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels is going to give daily, personalized recaps of the Paris Olympics on its streamer Peacock — Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels is going to give daily, personalized recaps of the Paris Olympics on Peacock — well, an AI-generated Al Michaels voice will.

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, TVLine, Variety, CNET, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, Deadline, TechRadar, NBCSports.com and Digital Trends

Christopher Grimes / Financial Times:

Independent film company A24 raised $100M led by Josh Kushner's Thrive Entertainment at a $3.5B valuation, up 40% from its first fundraising in 2022 — The movie house that produced ‘Uncut Gems’, ‘Lady Bird’ and other critical hits is suddenly a favourite with investors too

Discussion: IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, Variety, @kateclarktweets, The Information, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline

Laura Dobberstein / The Register:

In a rare admission of ad fraud, Yahoo Japan to waive $189M ad revenue, or ~1.6% of parent company LY Corp's FY 2023 revenue, after detecting fraudulent clicks — Admits it's not sure some clicks from from humans, points to bettter quality as sign not all is rotten

Discussion: LINE Yahoo Co., Ltd.

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Jon Allsop / Vanity Fair:
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Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
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Karissa Bell / Engadget:
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Earlier Picks:

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
The RIAA's lawsuit against generative music startups will be the bloodbath AI needs and an object lesson in hubris for similarly unethical AI companies

Discussion: The Wrap, Digital Music News, Digital Scholarship, The Verge, Digital Journal, Music Ally, CMU, @erisianrite.com, Shane Zammit on LinkedIn, @lowpass@defcon.social, Music Business Worldwide, Washington Examiner, Boing Boing and The Register

Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
ElevenLabs debuts its first iOS app, which turns any English-language text, including from PDFs and ePubs, into narrations by one of its “human-like voices”

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Smashing, a content recommendation app that uses AI to offer news summaries and key excepts, launches into an invite-only beta with $3.4M in seed funding

Tim Ingham / Music Business Worldwide:
Create Music Group, which operates a record label, distribution company, and entertainment network, raised $165M led by Flexpoint Ford at a $1B valuation

Discussion: Music Ally, Digital Music News, Zach Victor on LinkedIn, Adam Shomer on LinkedIn, Eric Nguyen on LinkedIn, Create Music Group and Billboard

Oliver Wiseman / The Free Press:
Former NPR editor Uri Berliner, who wrote a Free Press essay criticizing NPR, is joining The Free Press as senior editor, after resigning from NPR in April

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Sara Fischer / Axios:
The Associated Press is launching The AP Fund for Journalism, an independent 501(c)3 charitable organization to raise $100M+ to expand state and local news

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From Techmeme:

Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
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Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
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The Verge:
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