Mediagazer: A senior US official confirms that journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich will be released under a multi-country prisoner swap with Russia (BBC)

10:45 AM ET, August 1, 2024

Top News:

Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:

Sources: Russia releases WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich as part of a major multi-country prisoner swap; prisoners are en route to destinations outside Russia — Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a major prisoner swap with the US …

BBC:

A senior US official confirms that journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich will be released under a multi-country prisoner swap with Russia — Three US citizens imprisoned in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, are expected to be released on Thursday under a prisoner exchange deal.

Discussion: CBS News, Variety, The Wrap, Fox News, Committee to Protect …, New York Times, Rolling Stone, Associated Press, TMZ.com, Meduza.io, Politico, The Mirror, ABC7, The Hill, TVNewsCheck, Deadline and Voice of America

Dan Sabbagh / The Guardian:

In a letter to ex-prime minister Gordon Brown, the UK's Met police say a special team is examining claims that Will Lewis helped cover up phone hacking claims — Exclusive: Scotland Yard move on complaint by ex-PM Gordon Brown, who accuses Will Lewis of phone hacking ‘cover-up’ in 2011

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @heerjeet, @froomkin, @heinendevon@threads.net, New York Times, @jackshafer, @bgrueskin, The Daily Beast, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @jeffjarvis, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, NPR and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Lawyers for Prince Harry and others accused WaPo CEO Will Lewis of fabricating a fake security threat 13 years ago in order to delete emails at Murdoch tabloids — LONDON — Attorneys for Prince Harry and prominent U.K. politicians today accused Washington Post chief executive and publisher …

Discussion: The Guardian, Media Nation, @northernlights@mstdn.ca and MediaPost

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

WBD, Disney, and Fox plan to launch their joint sports streaming venture Venu for $42.99 per month initially, with a seven-day free trial, expected fall 2024 — Streaming sports on a stand-alone basis won't be cheap. … The service is expected to debut in the fall in conjunction with the start of the next NFL season.

Discussion: IndieWire, Business Insider, The Wrap, TVLine, Awful Announcing, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, The Verge, 9to5Mac, CNBC, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Consequence and Media Play News, more at Techmeme »

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:

Ligue de Football Professionnel confirms a five-year deal with DAZN to broadcast the majority of France's Ligue 1 soccer; BeIN has rights to one match per week — Sports streamer DAZN is the new home of top-division soccer in France after tying up a five-year deal worth a reporting €500M ($540M).

Discussion: Advanced Television

John Koblin / New York Times:

CBS News names John Dickerson, its lead political analyst, and Maurice DuBois, an anchor for an NY affiliate, as Evening News anchors replacing Norah O'Donnell — The pair are part of a broader shake-up at the show, which includes the addition of Lonnie Quinn as a regular weather anchor.

Discussion: TVLine, The Wrap, Variety, Next TV, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, Paramount Press Express, TVNewsCheck, New York Daily News, Adweek and WXIA-TV

Natalie Korach / The Wrap:

SiriusXM plans to launch a premium podcast subscription service through Apple Podcasts for $5.99 per month or $44.99 annually, starting August 5 — The offering is intended to diversify the platform's podcast revenue stream while expanding the listener base

Discussion: Radio Ink and The Hollywood Reporter

Alyssa Boyle / AdExchanger:

Outbrain confirms plans to acquire Altice-owned Teads, in a transaction valuing the SSP and video monetization company at $1B+; Outbrain will pay $725M in cash — The rumors are true: Outbrain is buying Teads. — On Thursday, the content recommendation platform announced it will acquire Teads …

Discussion: Adweek, The Media Leader, Digiday, Axios and Outbrain Inc., more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

RAJAR: in Q2, GB News Radio reached 518K people per week on average, overtaking Times Radio for the first time; BBC Radio 2 had a weekly reach of 13.3M people — GB News Radio has overtaken Times Radio's weekly reach for the first time according to the latest RAJAR radio listening figures for Q2 2024.

Discussion: adambowie.com and Press Association

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

Sources: hedge fund tycoon and GB News shareholder Paul Marshall is close to a deal to buy The Spectator, separate from The Telegraph, as soon as this month — The GB News shareholder is now the frontrunner to buy one of Britain's most influential political magazines amid an ongoing auction …

Discussion: City A.M., @markkleinmansky, @janemartinson and @markkleinmansky

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Midia Research: songwriters average 9.5% of the $0.004 Spotify pays per stream, and of the over 300 songwriters surveyed, only 10% earn over $30K annually — Back in the days when “music” meant CDs and vinyl, a songwriter could make a decent living: their percentage of a song or songs on the average $18.99 …

Discussion: MIDiA Research Blog and Music Ally

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Tales Azzoni / Associated Press:
The Premier League, Bundesliga, DAZN, Sky, UEFA, CONMEBOL, and others write to X CEO Linda Yaccarino demanding more action against illegal soccer content on X

Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Global Project Oasis study: the number of launches of digital news startups has been slowing since 2022 in Europe, Latin America, and North America

Discussion: Global Project Oasis, @joao_f_pinto, @mattdpearce, @niemanlab, @mattdpearce@threads.net and LatAm Journalism Review

Anna Washenko / Engadget:
A group of US senators unveils the NO FAKES Act, which would make individuals and companies liable for producing, hosting, or sharing unauthorized AI deepfakes

Discussion: Human Artistry Camp, U.S. Senator Christopher Coons …, 9to5Mac, Inside Radio, @amyklobuchar@threads.net, Variety, Rolling Stone, CMU, Consequence, Billboard and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Sports rights deals are moving money out of Hollywood to leagues: sports make up 40% of Disney's content budget, NBC's NBA deal will replace 150+ hours of shows

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, @alexweprin, TVNewsCheck and Associated Press

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says Microsoft, Anthropic, and Perplexity need to pay to scrape Reddit's data, and blocking them has been “a real pain in the ass”

Discussion: Engadget, Bloomberg, Business Insider, @jwherrman, @jwherrman, Ars Technica and Prof. Ahmed Banafa on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
A press release, now killed, said “Apex Capital Trust” put in a bid for Paramount, prompting multiple news stories, but background info on the org looks sketchy

Earlier Picks:

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Disney is cutting about 140 jobs at Disney Entertainment Television, or about 2% of staff; cuts will fall hardest on NatGeo, Freeform, and ABC stations

Discussion: Reuters, The Wrap, New York Post, Cord Cutters News, Deadline, Quartz, AV Club, Adweek, The Desk, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, Los Angeles Times and TVNewsCheck

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
In a Q&A at the NABJ convention, Trump questions Kamala Harris' racial identity, calls ABC News' Rachel Scott “very rude”, and complains about audio problems

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hollywood Reporter, @abbydphillip, TheGrio, New Republic, PinkNews, @jeffstorobinsky, TV Insider, ABC News, NPR, @kamalahq, Fox News, Axios, New York Times, @natashasalford, Poynter, TIME, CBS News, @kamalahq@threads.net, @brianstelter, @cd_hooks, @noahcrothman, @graceokoro2, @willsommer, @emoltzen@threads.net, @moniquepressley, @chenueher, @griffinkyle@threads.net, @abcworldnewstonight …, @cbcpac, @sulliview, @steven_beschloss@threads.net, @aprildryan, @errinhaines, @griffinkyle@threads.net, @keithedwards@threads.net, @corbinbolies, @brianstelter, @semaforben, @acyn, @parkermolloy, PolitiFact, @trumpstaxes, @hadas_gold, @hadas_gold, @hadas_gold, @hadas_gold, @mossbergwalt@threads.net, Washington Post, @timothystamm101@threads.net, @kenpopehat@threads.net, @kbode@threads.net, WXIA-TV, @goodyk@threads.net, Axios, @dkiesow@threads.net, The Daily Beast, Iowa Capital Dispatch, The Guardian, Slate, The 19th, Media Matters for America, Shari Dunn on LinkedIn, Mother Jones, New York Daily News, TMZ.com, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, NABJ, Variety, Barrett Media, Semafor, Associated Press and ABC7

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

Discussion: Digital Music News, Spotify, The Verge, Jarrett Fuller on LinkedIn, Jon Goldmann on LinkedIn, Dan Klyn on LinkedIn and Kyle Austin on LinkedIn

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

Discussion: @currentpubmedia

Al Jazeera:
An Israeli airstrike kills Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Refee in the Gaza Strip

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, @brizzyc, @pressfreedom, UPI, @hadas_gold, @cfahey@berlin.social, Jacobin, The Desk, Committee to Protect …, @mkpetkova@mastodon.world, Mediaite, The Times of Israel and Reuters

From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

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Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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