Mediagazer: Sources: Disney is working on features to increase the hours viewers spend on streaming, including pop-up live channels and more-tailored recommendations (Wall Street Journal)

7:25 AM ET, July 17, 2024

Top News:

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Sources: WBD will lay off ~1,000 employees across sectors including finance, business affairs, and production; source: fewer than 10 Max staffers are affected — Sources tell Variety that nearly 1,000 employees will be laid off across a few sectors in a new cost-cutting move at WBD …

Discussion: Deadline, Quartz, @minotimusic, Jon Malone on LinkedIn, @tvgrimreaper, The Desk, Cord Cutters News, IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap

Jack Queen / Reuters:

A jury convicts Ozy Media and its founder Carlos Watson of fraud, in a case accusing them of lying to investors about the startup's finances and sham deals — Ozy Media and founder Carlos Watson were convicted of fraud by a Brooklyn federal jury on Tuesday, in a case accusing them of lying …

Discussion: New York Times, Courthouse News Service, Associated Press, Breitbart, @ednynews, The Information, The Verge, Variety, TheGrio, Axios, Deadline, Mediaite, The Wrap and Bloomberg

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Taboola CEO Adam Singolda says the company has struck a deal with Apple to power native advertising in the Apple News and Apple Stocks apps; TBLA jumps ~5% — - Taboola's effort to build trust with Apple across its various teams and stakeholders was “a multiyear process,'” Singolda said.

Discussion: Media Voices, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, @sarafischer, The Drum, The Overspill, Jay Friedman on LinkedIn, @counternotions@mastodon …, @thomholwerda@exquisite.social, The Verge, MediaPost, 9to5Mac, @simondowens@threads.net, @benedictevans@threads.net, @crumbler@threads.net and @joesteel@duck.haus, more at Techmeme »

Annie Gilbertson / Proof:

Investigation: Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic, and others trained their AI on a dataset that contained YouTube video transcripts, including from the WSJ, NPR, and BBC — AI companies are generally secretive about their sources of training data, but an investigation by Proof News found …

Tim Reynolds / Associated Press:

The NBA's Board of Governors approves the league's next media rights deals with Disney, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video; WBD could still match one of the deals — The NBA's Board of Governors approved the league's next media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video at its meeting Tuesday …

Discussion: Puck, The Desk, @sherman4949, @mikevorkunov, NBA.com, New York Times, Awful Announcing and The Streamable

Elahe Izadi / Washington Post:

Six journalists who worked at DCist, closed by WAMU earlier in 2024, launch the 51st, a worker-run local news site for DC, and a $250K fundraising campaign — The worker-run newsroom will attempt to fill a niche its founders say opened when WAMU closed DCist.

Discussion: @51stnews, @colleengrablick, @taramfrancis, @gaufre, @maustermuhle, @amanduhgomez, @petitephd, @moorehn, @51stnews, @51stnews, @danvock, @alexctaliadoros, @elaheizadi, @jeffjarvis, @ernie@writing.exchange, Ottilie Mitchell on LinkedIn, The 51st and Amy L. Kovac-Ashley on LinkedIn

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Deezer debuts Playlist with AI in beta, where users can create playlists from text prompts, powered by Google's Gemini 1.5, following rivals' similar offerings — Deezer is the latest music streaming app to introduce an AI playlist feature. The company announced on Monday that a select number …

Discussion: Deezer Newsroom, Digital Music News, Music Ally and Music Business Worldwide

Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:

The editorial union at Ziff Davis' Mashable, Lifehacker, and PC Mag agrees to a tentative contract prohibiting layoffs or salary cuts due to generative AI — Ziff Davis can't lay off workers or decrease their salary due to generative AI, according to the tentative contract.

Discussion: @beep@follow.ethanmarcotte.com, @decka227, Nieman Journalism Lab on LinkedIn, Talking Biz News and The NewsGuild

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough says that he was “surprised” and “disappointed” after NBC leadership pulled his show on Monday — The MSNBC host returned to the channel Tuesday, saying he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by the decision to preempt his show Monday.

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Disney is working on features to increase the hours viewers spend on streaming, including pop-up live channels and more-tailored recommendations — Entertainment giant makes technical improvements meant to retain subscribers and encourage longer viewing sessions

Discussion: Cord Cutters News, Ars Technica, @tvgrimreaper, IndieWire, @wsjbusiness, @gabrielmalor.bsky.social and Quartz

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Nate Silver joins Polymarket, a predictions market startup that has raised $70M since 2020, as an adviser; he'll continue to produce his Substack newsletter — - “Probabilities really matter when you're trying to make plans,” Silver said in a phone interview.

Discussion: @elliosch, @lyingwithstats, @cwarzel, @zbs.bsky.social, @loudmouthjulia, @cwarzel, @tvmojoe and @DemocracyMattersALot …

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

A survey of 1,500 Britons: 7% pay for news subscriptions, 87% say they prefer ads to paying for content; overall, respondents said only 5% of ads were relevant — Two-thirds of Britons expect to access online content about current affairs and their special interests without paying for it, according to new research.

Discussion: Warren Johnson on LinkedIn and TOOLKITS

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 7:25 AM ET, July 17, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Local Government Reporter, IA — The Gazette

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Editorial Assistant, Remote US — Launch Potato

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
GB News plans to add AI-generated, 30-second sports updates at the end of the main news bulletins on GB News Radio, as the broadcaster expands sports coverage

Michael Forsythe / New York Times:
A US jury finds exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui guilty of defrauding investors; he was found not guilty on three counts tied to his media company GTV

Discussion: Associated Press, Mother Jones, Financial Times and Courthouse News Service

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Paul Webster, the editor of The Guardian's Sunday newspaper The Observer, plans to retire in the fall after six years at the helm and 28 years at the paper

Discussion: @janemartinson and @soniasodha

Pete Wells / New York Times:
Pete Wells steps down as the New York Times' restaurant critic after 12 years, citing the toll of the job on his health, but will stay at the paper

Discussion: @joeystipek, Marc Lacey on LinkedIn, @sapna, @nytimes, @davidshepardson, Todd Pruzan on LinkedIn, @kottke@mastodon.social, The New York Times Company and @ankegroener@fnordon.de

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
PA Media Editor-in-Chief Pete Clifton says he is stepping down at the end of 2024, after joining the UK's national news agency in 2014 from MSN

Discussion: Pete Clifton on LinkedIn, HoldtheFrontPage, @domponsford, @domponsford and @domponsford

Adam Crafton / New York Times:
FIFA launches an invitation to tender for media rights covering Americas, Asia, and MENA for its Club World Cup, effectively ending its proposed deal with Apple

Discussion: Sports Business Journal, @fifamedia, @martingrantross, @alexmsilverman, @mjshrimper, @tariqpanja, The Streamable, TVNewsCheck, Associated Press, SportBusiness and Inside FIFA

Earlier Picks:

Miranda Murray / Reuters:
Germany bans right-wing extremist magazine Compact, saying it works against the constitutional order, and authorities in four states search its properties

Discussion: Deutsche Welle, The Guardian and Associated Press

Gabrielle Russon / Poynter:
A look at Fresh Take Florida, a University of Florida-run news service that shares content by its student journalists for free with ~100 outlets like CNN and AP

Discussion: NewsLab and Silas Joseph Morgan on LinkedIn

Adam Bumas / Wired:
Twitch streamer Ibai Llanos' fourth boxing tournament in Madrid, with matches between influencers, set a record 3.85M+ concurrent viewers at its peak on July 13

Discussion: @twitch, Insider Gaming, Sportskeeda, Streams Charts, Game Rant, Tubefilter, Dexerto and IGN

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
UMG, Sony, and other record labels sue Verizon for $2.6B+ over allegations of violating copyright law by continuing to serve customers accused of pirating music

Discussion: MediaPost, Clayton Durant on LinkedIn, Engadget, Music Ally, The Verge, The Register, Plagiarism Today, @AnnemarieBridy@mastodon …, United States District Court Southern District Of New York, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Digital Music News and Music Business Worldwide

Wall Street Journal:
Nullbulge, a hacktivist group critical of AI art, leaks Disney's alleged Slack messages over “how it handles artist contracts” and AI; Disney is investigating

Edward Segarra / USA Today:
The Daily Show scraps its on-the-ground reporting at RNC, citing “logistical issues and the evolving situation”, following the assassination attempt on Trump

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Donald Trump announces that Sriram Krishnan, until recently a general partner at a16z, will serve as senior policy advisor for AI at the White House OSTP

Financial Times:
Sources: Palantir and Anduril are in talks with OpenAI, SpaceX, and more to form a consortium to bid for US defense contracts and plan to announce it in January

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page