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.
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.
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.
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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
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
Discussion:
New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, Axios, TVNewsCheck, Newser, The Wrap, TVLine, Mediaite, The Guardian, HuffPost, ComingSoon.net, Politico, New York Post, Adweek, @ted_scheinman, @ryanjthomas83, @nh_homebrewer, @ngrossman81, @dkthomp, @dominiccampbell, @vinodsreeharsha, @will_bunch, @lailaalarian, @rolandsmartin, @nycsouthpaw, @esaagar, @austinahlman, @wajahatali, @gbbranstetter, @kenklippenstein, @byronyork, @doughenwood, @heerjeet, @jayrosen_nyu, @maxwelltani, @jeffjarvis, @markjacob16, Page Six, @jeffjarvis, @michaeldsgro, @jeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, Fox News, The Daily Beast, Washington Examiner, New York Daily News, New York Times, The Desk, Breitbart, Variety, Deadline, @sauthoff.bsky.social, Poynter and USA Today
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.
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.