Mediagazer: BBC Head of Product for iPlayer and Video Ankit Kumar leaves; a source says he left abruptly, and the product team is having a “turbulent time” as execs leave (Jake Kanter/Deadline)

9:30 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: The Information, Deadline, @minotimusic, @tvgrimreaper, The Desk, Jon Malone on LinkedIn, Cord Cutters News, Quartz, IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap

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: On my Om, One Man & His Blog, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, Media Voices, The Overspill, Jay Friedman on LinkedIn, @sarafischer, The Drum, @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 »

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, TheGrio, Variety, Deadline, Axios, Mediaite, The Wrap and Bloomberg

Hong Kong Free Press:

Hong Kong-based reporter Selina Cheng says she was fired by The Wall Street Journal for taking up the position of chair of the Hong Kong Journalist Association — American newspaper The Wall Street Journal has fired Hong Kong-based reporter Selina Cheng weeks she was elected chair …

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

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 …

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

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

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.

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

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More News:

Jake Kanter / Deadline:
BBC Head of Product for iPlayer and Video Ankit Kumar leaves; a source says he left abruptly, and the product team is having a “turbulent time” as execs leave

Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The EU's General Court says TikTok is large enough to fall under the DMA, rejecting ByteDance's challenge; ByteDance can appeal to the European Court of Justice

Discussion: @lewis_crofts, @samuelstolton, @eucourtpress, 9to5Mac, Euractiv, Reuters, @beuc, The Register and Semafor, more at Techmeme »

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: The Daily Beast, Associated Press, Financial Times, Mother Jones and Courthouse News Service

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

Discussion: Warren Johnson on LinkedIn and TOOLKITS

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

Earlier Picks:

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

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, Game Rant, Streams Charts, 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, @AnnemarieBridy@mastodon …, United States District Court Southern District Of New York, The Hollywood Reporter, Plagiarism Today, Rolling Stone, Digital Music News and Music Business Worldwide

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:
How Tim Cook may navigate Trump's presidency, a closer look at Apple's upcoming smart home command center, sources detail a new AirTag coming in 2025, and more

The Information:
Sources: in recent months, Nvidia has asked its suppliers to change the design of server racks for Blackwell GPUs several times to overcome overheating problems

Reuters:
Sources: Tata Electronics agrees to buy a 60% stake in Pegatron's iPhone plant in Tamil Nadu, India, forming a joint venture, and will run the daily operations

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