Top News:
BBC:
A Russian court convicts Evan Gershkovich of espionage and sentences him to 16 years in prison; Wall Street Journal calls the trial a “sham” — US journalist Evan Gershkovich has been sentenced by a Russian court to 16 years in prison on espionage charges, after a secretive trial decried as a “sham” by his employer.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, @wsjpr, Dow Jones, @justinbaragona, New York Post, HuffPost, @teroterotero, Politico, @davidfolkenflik, @kimzetter, Washington Post, @jtoonkel, @jrezaian, @maxseddon, @jaketapper, @brettbruen, @bbcstever, Reuters, @potus@threads.net, @senatorwarner@threads.net, CBS News, Alistair MacDonald on LinkedIn, Lynn Cook on LinkedIn, Axios, Brian Tierney on LinkedIn, Courthouse News Service, Lucy Knight on LinkedIn, Al Jazeera, CNN, Nora Eckert on LinkedIn, Breitbart, Euractiv, Associated Press, Raw Story, Voice of America, The Wrap, Newser, Mediaite, Business Insider, NPR, @sylkegruhnwald@infosec …, Semafor, Politico, The US Sun, Bloomberg, The White House, SWAMY WORLD, The Guardian, New York Times, Committee to Protect …, Reuters, Fox News, Talking Biz News, SPJ News and News/Media Alliance
Selina Cheng / Columbia Journalism Review:
Selina Cheng says her editor told her that staff advocating for press freedom publicly would create a conflict with WSJ's reporting of the issue in Hong Kong — After 2019, as China tightened its grip on Hong Kong and mass protests gripped the city, police raided the Apple Daily …
Discussion:
@joshgerstein, @gaufre, @jennyabamu, @sewellchan, @lathram, @bkesling, South China Morning Post, Talking Biz News, Hong Kong Free Press HKFP and Semafor
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Los Angeles Times:
LA County Sheriff's Department secretly investigated and urged the state AG to prosecute an LA Times reporter who wrote about a leaked list of problem deputies — For at least three years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department secretly investigated — and ultimately urged …
Discussion:
@keribla, @mayalau and LA Public Press
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen: the Republican National Convention's final night averaged 25.38M US viewers over 14 outlets, up 7% from 2020; people 55+ were about 72% of the audience — Thursday's multi-network coverage beats the final night from four years ago, but the four-day average is lower.
Jim Milliot / Publishers Weekly:
AAP: in May, book sales rose 10.9% YoY, after an 18.3% gain in April, and adult fiction digital audio sales rose 24.1% YoY; sales rose 5.5% YoY for January-May — Despite a string of dispiriting developments—including the ongoing restructuring of Hachette Book Group, the collapse …
Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
A year after the start of the double strike, SAG-AFTRA and WGA members, studio executives, and agents have mixed responses on whether the strikes were worth it — While some of the creatives that shut down the entertainment industry in 2023 say the fight was absolutely worth the sacrifice …
Discussion:
@chuckslavindotcom@threads.net, @thr, Raw Story, AV Club, @thr, @nelsoncarvajal, @patrickbigpix and @aworkmanwriter
Alexandra Canal / Yahoo Finance:
Netflix says India brought in the second-highest net subscriber additions in Q2 and was the third highest-country in revenue growth — Netflix (NFLX) is all in on a country that's been historically difficult for its competitors: India. — The country brought in the second-highest net subscriber additions …
Discussion:
Seeking Alpha, WORLD SCREEN, The Information and Next TV
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Reuters:
Netflix added 8.05M subscribers in Q2, vs. 5M est., as it benefited from its crackdown on password sharing and popular titles like Bridgerton and Baby Reindeer
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q2 revenue up 16.8% YoY to $9.56B, vs. $9.53B est., paid memberships up 16.5% YoY to 277.65M, vs. 274.4M est., net income up 44% YoY to $2.15B
Discussion:
Variety, Tubefilter, NPR, ABC7, Associated Press, StreamTV Insider, MediaPost, RTÉ, AdExchanger, Advanced Television, Next TV, Netflix, The Information, Axios, Lillian Rizzo on LinkedIn, Fortune, The Drum, Deadline, IGN, The Wrap, Quartz, New York Times, @ainemacdermot.bsky.social, Ad Age, Variety, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter
Patrick Smith / NBC News:
BSODs hit thousands of Windows PCs due to a defective update from CrowdStrike, disrupting TV broadcasters, including Sky News and NBC News — Major carriers, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, all issued ground stops Friday morning citing communications issues.
Discussion:
@george_kurtz, The Guardian, NewsBTC, @davidgrayrhodes, @matthewkeyslive, NPR, @aidanfitzryan, @netcapgirl, @vxunderground, @tomwarren, @tomwarren, @troyhunt, @troyhunt, @trungtphan, @skysportsnews, NBC Bay Area, Financial Times, Mashable, The Sun, SWAMY WORLD, The US Sun, Ars Technica, Quartz, Gizmodo, Associated Press, The Record, Politico, The Daily Beast, Broadband TV News, Variety, Deadline and HuffPost, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney announces that Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, is departing its board of directors after six years — Disney announced that Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, is departing its board of directors after six years. — Disney and Catz did not provide an explanation for why she stepped down from the Mouse House's board.
Hurubie Meko / New York Times:
A Manhattan judge sets a tentative date for Harvey Weinstein's retrial for November 12, 2024, after Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction was overturned in April — Manhattan prosecutors are proceeding with new charges against the disgraced movie mogul after his previous conviction was overturned.
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, Associated Press, The Independent, ABC News, BBC, Breitbart, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Washington Examiner, Al Jazeera, The US Sun, Reuters, The Wrap, ABC7, Fox News and New York Post
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A study of 14K domains used in the C4, RefinedWeb, and Dolma datasets finds a dramatic drop in content available to train AI models as publishers tighten access — New research from the Data Provenance Initiative has found a dramatic drop in content made available to the collections used to build artificial intelligence.
Alexa Corse / Wall Street Journal:
X's Grok AI model struggles to generate accurate headlines and news summaries, especially for breaking news, elevating jokes and rumors into some X news items — Grok posted incorrect information, amplified unverified claims and failed to identify sarcasm as details of Trump shooting unfolded
Discussion:
New York Post, @alexacorse, @alexacorse, @rachaelmyrow, Wired, Forbes and The Wrap
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
In an interview, Metro executives say the free newspaper is now profitable in both print and digital, after it underwent a major restructuring in March 2023 — Metro is growing commercially even as free London rival Evening Standard forced to reduce print output.
Discussion:
Sofia Victoria Delgado on LinkedIn, Emily Shackleton on LinkedIn and Media Voices
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Podcasts seem to be recovering: Audacy's podcast business is profitable, iHeartMedia's and Acast's Q1 podcast revenue grew 18% YoY and 25% YoY, respectively — The dark days of financial and legal woes appear to be ending as the industry sees signs of revival — Hello, hello, and welcome back to Soundbite.
Discussion:
Molly DeMellier on LinkedIn, @ashleyrcarman, The Information and Press Gazette
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