Mediagazer: 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 (Andrew Deck/Nieman Lab)

6:55 PM ET, July 16, 2024

Top News:

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, Variety, The Wrap, Ad Age, Mediaite, Axios, Courthouse News Service, The Verge, Deadline, TheGrio and @ednynews

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

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Taboola's CEO says the company has struck a deal with Apple to power native advertising within the Apple News and Apple Stocks apps; TBLA stock jumps 9%+ — - Taboola's effort to build trust with Apple across its various teams and stakeholders was “a multiyear process,'” Singolda said.

Discussion: The Drum, @counternotions@mastodon …, The Verge, @simondowens@threads.net, 9to5Mac, @sarafischer, MediaPost, @thomholwerda@exquisite.social, @benedictevans@threads.net, @joesteel@duck.haus, @crumbler@threads.net and Reuters, more at Techmeme »

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

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.

Oliver Darcy / CNN:
MSNBC pulled Morning Joe on Monday, a source says due to worries that a guest might make an inappropriate comment about Donald Trump's attempted assassination

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

Discussion: The Wrap, The Hill, Deadline, Washington Examiner, @theharryshearer, Washington Post, @thedailyshow, CBS News, New York Post, Fox News, New Republic, ABC News, The A.V. Club, Los Angeles Times, WTMJ, IndieWire, Breitbart, NPR, Associated Press and Next TV

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 …

Discussion: The Verge, SWAMY WORLD, Ars Technica, Quartz, Engadget, Dexerto, @mkbhd, @juliaangwin, @neilturkewitz, @mkbhd, 9to5Mac, Nieman Lab, @juliaangwin, Digital Trends, Craig Newmark on LinkedIn, @benlovejoy and @carnage4life@mas.to, more at Techmeme »

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

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

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

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 — 'Frankly, they're doing the kind of digging and comprehensive work that the rest of us ought to be doing'

Discussion: NewsLab and Silas Joseph Morgan on LinkedIn

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 — Pete Wells is moving on from his role as the Times restaurant critic, a job with many rewards and maybe too many courses.

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

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Michael Forsythe / New York Times:
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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

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Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
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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, @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

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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, Associated Press and The Guardian

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, Streams Charts, Insider Gaming, Sportskeeda, 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, The Verge, Clayton Durant on LinkedIn, Engadget, Music Ally, 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, more at Techmeme »

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

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
YouTube Music tests “AI-generated conversational radio”, which lets Premium users in the US create a custom radio station by “describing exactly what they want”

Discussion: Music Ally, Music Business Worldwide, The Verge, TechCrunch and Engadget

From Techmeme:

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders that were set for April 9 due to concerns about Trump's tariffs but the June 5 launch date remains unchanged

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Microsoft Copilot adds support for memory, personalization, web-based actions, podcast creation, camera and screen analysis, deep research, and more

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman says OpenAI plans to release o3 and o4-mini “after all” and GPT-5 “in a few months”, citing challenges in “smoothly integrating everything”

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