Mediagazer: Sources: WBD will lay off ~1,000 employees across sectors including finance, business affairs, and production; source: fewer than 10 Max staffers are affected (Jennifer Maas/Variety)

9:10 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, The Information, Courthouse News Service, Ad Age, Breitbart, Variety, Associated Press, The Verge, Axios, Deadline, The Wrap, @ednynews, Mediaite and TheGrio

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

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: Jay Friedman on LinkedIn, The Drum, @simondowens@threads.net, 9to5Mac, @sarafischer, MediaPost, @thomholwerda@exquisite.social, @benedictevans@threads.net, @joesteel@duck.haus, @counternotions@mastodon …, @crumbler@threads.net, The Verge 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, @jeffjarvis, Amy L. Kovac-Ashley on LinkedIn, @alexctaliadoros, @amanduhgomez and The 51st

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

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 …

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

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, @decka227, Nieman Journalism Lab on LinkedIn 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, @elliosch, @lyingwithstats, @cwarzel, @loudmouthjulia, @cwarzel, @tvmojoe and @DemocracyMattersALot …

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: IndieWire, @tvgrimreaper, Ars Technica, @wsjbusiness, Quartz and @gabrielmalor.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

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: @joeystipek, @sapna, @nytimes, Todd Pruzan on LinkedIn, @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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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

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Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
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Adam Crafton / New York Times:
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Miranda Murray / Reuters:
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Discussion: Deutsche Welle, Associated Press and The Guardian

Earlier Picks:

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

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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

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Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
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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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