Mediagazer: Spotify prioritizes what a user has recently listened to and recommended content, encouraging users to become passive listeners, a form of enshittification (Kyle Chayka/New Yorker)

2:50 PM ET, July 31, 2024

Top News:

An Israeli airstrike kills Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Refee in the Gaza Strip — Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Refee killed in Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. — Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Refee …

Discussion: The Desk, Mediaite, Committee to Protect …, @mkpetkova@mastodon.world, @hadas_gold, The Times of Israel and Reuters

Carly Thomas / The Hollywood Reporter:

A TikTok account leaks 12+ videos of HBO's House of the Dragon finale, filming the screen with another device; the season one finale also leaked in October 2022 — Several clips from the finale were uploaded on TikTok ahead of its debut on Aug. 4. — It happened again …

Discussion: Variety, Comic Book, Deadline, Screen Rant, Forbes, The Mirror, TVLine, ComingSoon.net, Metro.co.uk, TV Insider, Dexerto, AV Club and The Wrap

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu / Financial Times:

Ofcom: in 2023, 48% of UK 16- to 24-year-olds watched broadcast TV in an average week, a record low and down from 76% in 2018, as TikTok and YouTube dominate — Less than half of 16- to 24-year-olds are tuning in every week, Ofcom finds — Less than half of young audiences …

Discussion: ofcom.org.uk, The Guardian, @michellemanafy@journa.host, ofcom.org.uk and Press Gazette

Radio Ink:

Magellan AI: US podcast advertising rose 22% YoY in Q2 with the top 500 podcasts averaging $252K/month each; episode ad loads rose 5.95% YoY to 9.11% — After an unsure 2023, podcasting is seeing an advertising boom, according to Magellan AI's latest analysis of podcast advertising trends.

Discussion: Inside Radio, Barrett Media, Podnews and RADIO ONLINE

Kyle Chayka / New Yorker:

Spotify prioritizes what a user has recently listened to and recommended content, encouraging users to become passive listeners, a form of enshittification — The platform interface has gradually made it harder to find the music I want to listen to. With the latest app updates, I'd had enough.

Discussion: Spotify

Tyler Falk / Current:

Survey: noncommercial radio news pay fell 8% YoY and commercial radio news salaries rose 23%+ between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023 in major US markets — A survey of radio news salaries showed a 2.5% decline compared to last year's survey, led by a substantial drop among noncommercial stations.

Discussion: @currentpubmedia

Calum Jaspan / Sydney Morning Herald:

Australia's Nine publishing staff return to work after a five day strike and accept an improved pay offer of 11.5% over three years, an AI code, and more — Nine's publishing staff have accepted an improved pay offer from management, just hours after returning to work following the first strike across the newspapers since 2017.

Discussion: The Guardian

Matt Stevens / New York Times:

Court filings: in Fiona Harvey's defamation lawsuit, Richard Gadd, who created Netflix's Baby Reindeer, says the show is “emotionally true” but “fictionalized” — Richard Gadd, the show's creator, said in a court filing that Fiona Harvey, who is suing Netflix for defamation …

Discussion: TMZ.com, The Mirror, AV Club, Dexerto, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, GoldDerby, TV Insider, Entertainment Tonight, Business Insider, PinkNews, ComingSoon.net, TVLine, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and Variety

Axios:

NABJ faces backlash after announcing Trump will be interviewed at its convention by ABC News' Rachel Scott, Fox News' Harris Faulkner, and Semafor's Kadia Goba — - President Biden addressed a joint NABJ and NAHJ conference virtually in 2020. — Hillary Clinton spoke at a joint conference between …

Discussion: @karenattiah, NABJ, The Wrap, NPR, Media Matters for America, Deadline, The Guardian, @imarajones, @symonedsanders, The TRiiBE, Poynter, @jimtrotter_nfl, Vibe, CBS News, @karenattiah, The Wrap, @thewayoftheid, @corbinbolies, @andrewfeinberg, Poynter, @rachelbitecofer, @curiousscout, @toure, ABC7, @debholleync@threads.net, @oliverdarcy@threads.net, @djnyc1, @broadcastbev, @djnyc1, @ashnicolemoss, @bgrueskin, @hangleyjr, Politico, @onpointpress_, @jalexander1079, @reichellaw, @rolandsmartin, @rolandsmartin, @naima, @naima, @sarafischer, New York Post, CNN, Donald J. Trump …, @IveyJanette@mastodon.social, Page Six, @johnmcquaid@threads.net, Mediaite, Reuters, Mediaite, WTTW News, @kimberlyeatkins@threads.net, USA Today, @elmcitytree.bsky.social, The Daily Beast, @annatarkov.bsky.social, @heathercherone.bsky.social, @adr1600@threads.net, @keithboykin@threads.net, @heatherrosemarie_92 …, @crgibs.bsky.social, @joshuajfriedman.com, The Hill, New York Daily News and The Hollywood Reporter

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Reach reports overall H1 revenue down 5.2% YoY to £265M, print revenue of £204M, digital revenue of £60M, and adjusted operating profit up 23.1% YoY to £44.5M — The UK's largest commercial publisher, Reach, has reported growth in its digital revenues for the first time since 2022.

Discussion: The Guardian

K.J. Yossman / Variety:

Former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards pled guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children in a court hearing; Edwards spent 40 years at the BBC — A spokesperson said the corporation was “shocked” to hear of the details that emerged in court on Wednesday and that Edwards …

Discussion: The Wrap, The Guardian, People, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, The Mirror, New York Daily News, The Hollywood Reporter, Fox News, CNN, Deadline, Reuters, The Guardian, Newser, New York Times and New York Post

Noam Scheiber / New York Times:

Interviews with Hollywood sound and picture editors, artists, and others detail their fears of AI replacing much of their work, despite a new IATSE contract — Actors and writers won strict limits on artificial intelligence in last year's contract negotiations, but editors and artists face a growing challenge.

Discussion: The Information, The Ankler, @noamscheiber and @ichbinilya, more at Techmeme »

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More News:

Ananya Bhattacharya / Rest of World:
A profile of Bengaluru-based Pocket FM, which has 2,000+ audio shows with 10- to 15-minute episodes and is working with ElevenLabs to convert scripts into audio

more at Techmeme »

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
The Guardian Political Media Editor Jim Waterson and several other journalists plan to leave the Guardian after accepting voluntary redundancy packages

Discussion: @alexschristian, @mrianleslie and @jackcarterbenjamin …

ProPublica:
A look at Trump Media and Technology Group's potential conflict of interest involving a deal with a little-known streaming TV company tied to a big GOP donor

Discussion: @justinelliott, @justinelliott, @justinelliott, @justinelliott, @justinelliott, @justinelliott, @justinelliott, @justinelliott, @justinelliott, Trump Media & Technology Group and @annmlipton@esq.social

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix files to raise $1.8B in a new debt offering, its first since the company was elevated to investment-grade status by Moody's and S&P Global in 2023

Discussion: Variety, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg and Deadline, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:
How Elon Musk and X's division of labor stymied some of Linda Yaccarino's plans, like a Visa deal; internal figures show X had 250.8M DAUs in Q2, up 1.56% YoY

Discussion: Business Insider, Mediaite, Barrett Media, @barbariancap, @wsjbusiness, @karaswisher@threads.net, Momo J. on LinkedIn and Angel Au-Yeung on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Alt-weeklies Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Riverfront Times are running seemingly AI-generated listicles about OnlyFans performers; OF says it's not involved

Discussion: Ali Shahriyari on LinkedIn

Earlier Picks:

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Comcast's NBCU expects to surpass $1.25B in ad sales tied to the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, setting a record in the history of the games

Discussion: The Media Leader, Media Play News, Front Office Sports, @bristei, MediaPost, Advanced Television, Next TV, The Wrap, Deadline, Adweek and The Hollywood Reporter

Kate Bartlett / Nieman Lab:
A look at South African investigative nonprofit amaBhungane, which helped oust the country's ex-president in 2018, and its efforts in a hostile media landscape

Discussion: @humanityunited, @gijnafrica, @gijn and Semafor

The Information:
Meta scraps its celebrity AI chatbot feature less than a year after launch and now expects people to use Meta's new AI Studio to customize their own AI avatars

Discussion: @kennysmith@mstdn.social, The Verge, Kaya Yurieff on LinkedIn, Engadget and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Internal memo: Norah O'Donnell plans to step down as CBS Evening News' anchor after the 2024 US presidential election and become a senior correspondent

Rachel Cooke / The Guardian:
A profile of Joshi Herrmann and his outlet Mill Media, which publishes local longform journalism in four UK cities via newsletters with 100K subscribers overall

Discussion: The Mill and @michael@newsmast.social

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
Gina Raimondo says holding back China in the chips race is a “fool's errand”, and investment, more than export controls, will keep US ahead of Beijing

Paresh Dave / Wired:
Google says it wouldn't force its device makers, browser, and wireless carrier licensees to distribute Gemini to US users for three years, in a proposed remedy

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Exploring the scaling challenges of transformer-based LLMs in efficiently processing large amounts of text, as well as potential solutions, such as RAG systems

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