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Wall Street Journal:
Russia frees Evan Gershkovich, RFE/RL reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, and others as part of a prisoner swap involving 24 prisoners and at least six countries — Release of 32-year-old American from Russia secured as part of largest East-West prisoner swap since Cold War
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Wall Street Journal:
A detailed timeline of Evan Gershkovich's arrest and release and the months of negotiations involving spy agencies, billionaires, politicians, and his mother — The secret negotiations to free The Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich unfolded on three continents, involving spy agencies …
Discussion:
Washington Post, @davidgura@threads.net, Mediaite, New York Times, New York Post, New Yorker, The Hill, Fox News, The Sun, ABC7, Semafor, @efindell, Associated Press, Florida Phoenix, Reuters, @Nonilex@masto.ai, Jamie Heller on LinkedIn, Ben Eisen on LinkedIn, @mikeisaac, Slate, NPR, Radio Free Europe/Radio … and Talking Biz News
Wall Street Journal:
WSJ Editor Emma Tucker thanks the Biden administration, other governments, especially Germany's, and Evan Gershkovich in the effort to release him and others — Today is a joyous day for the safe return of our colleague Evan Gershkovich, who left a Russian aircraft moments ago in Turkey's capital …
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Fox News, New York Times, Washington Post, Mediaite, @edmundlee@threads.net, @jbillinson@threads.net, New York Post, Press Gazette, Associated Press, The Guardian, TMZ.com, The Hill, Nikhil Deogun on LinkedIn, Gordon Friedrich on LinkedIn, Talking Biz News, The Wrap, Politico, TVNewsCheck, CBS News, ABC Columbia, Boston Herald and NPR
Bill Donahue / Billboard:
Court filings: AI startups Suno and Udio respond to copyright lawsuits from major music labels, saying their use of proprietary music to train AI is fair use — In their first responses to the sweeping copyright lawsuits that could define AI music, lawyers for Suno and Udio don't exactly hold back.
Discussion:
Suno, TechCrunch, 404 Media, Axios, Deadline, TorrentFreak, Reuters, CMU and Rolling Stone, more at Techmeme »
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Don Lemon sues Elon Musk and X, arguing Musk refused to pay him after a $1.5M/year exclusive X content deal fell apart; Lemon did not sign a formal contract — The former CNN reporter said in a lawsuit that X had refused to pay him after a testy interview with its billionaire owner.
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MediaPost, The Verge, Business Insider, Variety, Vibe, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Engadget, Bloomberg, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, CNN, Page Six, Reuters, The Wrap, The Hill, TVLine, Quartz, TMZ.com, Mediaite, @kurtwag8@threads.net, Newser, TVNewsCheck, Barrett Media and Deadline, more at Techmeme »
Ciara Linnane / MarketWatch:
Gannett Q2: revenue down 4.8% YoY to $639.8M, vs. $645M est., $13.7M net income, vs. $12.7M loss in Q2 2023, digital subs revenue up 22.3%; GCI closed down ~8% — Digital revenue rose 6.2% to account for 44% of all revenue — Gannett Co. Inc.'s stock shed early losses to trade down 10% Thursday …
Discussion:
Providence Business News and Gannett
David Shepardson / Reuters:
A US appeals court blocks the FCC's reinstatement of net neutrality rules, saying broadband providers are likely to succeed in a legal challenge — A U.S. appeals court on Thursday blocked the Federal Communications Commission's reinstatement of landmark net neutrality rules …
James Hibberd / The Hollywood Reporter:
Amazon MGM Studios names Colin Jost as host of its new Jeopardy spinoff show, Pop Culture Jeopardy; production starts in September — The ‘Saturday Night Live’ star has been cast as the host of Prime Video's new ‘Jeopardy!’ series. — Colin Jost's new TV gig: Jeopardy! host.
Discussion:
Deadline, AV Club, Rolling Stone, LateNighter, Consequence, TVLine and TV Insider
Murad Hemmadi / The Logic:
Email: Google is adding a 2.5% “Canada DST fee” for ads served in Canada starting October 1 to cover “part of the costs” of new digital services tax legislation — The search giant will start taking an additional 2.5 per cent “Canada DST fee” beginning in October …
Discussion:
Chris Krewson on LinkedIn, @muradhem, All The Way Up Media, Chuck Lapointe on LinkedIn and r/PPC
Noah Shachtman / Vanity Fair:
Entertainment news outlets like Pop Base, the Shade Room, and more have been posting nonstop about Kamala Harris, and her campaign aims to leverage the coverage — Celeb-news-only accounts like Pop Crave are suddenly coconut-pilled, posting religiously about the Harris campaign to their millions of followers.
Discussion:
@noahshachtman, @dougheye and Cartoons Hate Her
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Apple reports Q3 revenue from Services, which includes Apple TV+ and Apple Music, rose 14% YoY to $24.21B, vs. $23.96B estimated, an all-time record — The company is seeing double digit year growth in its services division, which includes Apple TV+.
Discussion:
Variety, CNBC, The Information, Apple, Deadline, BGR and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
Roku reports Q2 revenue up 14% YoY to $968.2M vs. $935.3M estimated, a net loss of $33.95M vs. $107.6M in Q2 2023, and 83.6M streaming households, up 2M from Q1 — Shares rose over 6% in after-hours trading as the company posted a smaller than expected loss of 24 cents per share and better than expected revenue of $968 million
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Advanced Television, Variety, The Desk, Reuters, Roku, Next TV, Media Play News, Deadline and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »
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