Mediagazer: Sources: WBD looks to avoid breaking up the company by offloading smaller assets, such as selling Polish broadcaster TVN or a stake in WBD's gaming business (Financial Times)

10:55 AM ET, August 6, 2024

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Red Ventures sells CNET, an early pioneer of online tech coverage, to Ziff Davis, which owns Mashable, PC Mag, and other brands, a source says for $100M+ — Ziff Davis is acquiring CNET for more than $100 million. Its chief executive thinks more acquisitions are on the horizon.

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Adweek, @dctrjack, @ldignan, @photomatt, The Verge, @seangriffey, @rafat, Axios, @felixsalmon, @jeffjarvis, @danackerman, @saschasegan, @film_girl, @rhunwords, @benmullin, @rafat, @tsuvik, @tvgrimreaper, @rogerwcheng, @bombur and TVNewsCheck, more at Techmeme »

Katie Robertson / @katie_robertson:

Internal memo: Axios CEO Jim VandeHei says the company is laying off ~50 people as part of “changes to adapt fast to a rapidly changing media landscape” — NEW: Axios is laying off 50 people across the company. CEO @JimVandeHei just sent out this note — which says the layoffs are because of “changes in the media business” [image]

Charlie Nash / Mediaite:

Jennifer Jacobs, the Bloomberg News reporter fired for allegedly breaking Russian prisoner swap story embargo, suggests she didn't decide to publish prematurely — Bloomberg News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs shot back at the news outlet on Monday after she was fired …

Alex Griffing / Mediaite:
Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait says he has apologized to the freed prisoners and to the Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief over breaking the embargo

Discussion: Poynter, The Guardian, New York Post, Talking Biz News and TVNewsCheck

Josh Dickey / The Wrap:
Email: Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait says the outlet has taken disciplinary action against those involved in breaking the Russia prisoner swap embargo

Discussion: CNN, @jayrosen_nyu, @deggans, @parismartineau, @weareyourfek, @taliaotg, @dpd_, @jimlaporta, @dnvolz, @maxwelltani, @warondumb, @benadida, Associated Press, @dan_munz, @bgrueskin, Newser, @katie_robertson, The Hill, Fox News and Deadline

Lauren Feiner / The Verge:

A US federal judge rules Google has a monopoly in “general search text advertising” and Google's exclusive agreements enabled it to raise prices on that product — A federal judge ruled that Google violated US antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.

Discussion: US District Court for the District of Columbia, CNN, The Media Leader, Politico, One Man & His Blog, New York Times, TechRadar, Android Central, Beyond Search, 9to5Mac, Sportico, Ars Technica, Boing Boing, Engadget, PhoneArena, AV Club, Financial Times, @digitalsamiam, @jason_kint, Jill Caren on LinkedIn, @jason_kint, AdExchanger, @marie_haynes, The Information, UPI, TVNewsCheck, @jeff@newsie.social, ScheerPost.com, W Media Research, MediaPost, Reuters, @SomeGadgetGuy@techhub.social, Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, @parismarx@mastodon.online, MarTech, 9to5Google, BGR, CNBC, @theory@xoxo.zone, Quartz, The Wrap, @webology@mastodon.social, WTOL-TV, Ad Age, @kottke@mastodon.social, New York Post, The Drum, Fox Business, @Nonya_Bidniss@mas.to, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and News/Media Alliance, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:

Sources: WBD looks to avoid breaking up the company by offloading smaller assets, such as selling Polish broadcaster TVN or a stake in WBD's gaming business — Executives fear ‘years of legal challenges’ if they split its TV and movie studio businesses — Warner Bros Discovery's senior management …

Discussion: The Wrap, @tvgrimreaper, PlayStation LifeStyle, Broadband TV News, @meowzawowza_ and @annaknicolaou

Kathryn Lundstrom / Adweek:

Uber says its Advertising annual revenue run-rate passed $1B in Q2, up from $650M+ in Q2 2023; Uber began selling in-app Journey Ads programmatically in June — The company broke out its ad revenue in quarterly earnings today and based the estimate on 2024 results to date

Discussion: Business Insider, Fast Company, Uber, New York Post and @thetranscript_, more at Techmeme »

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Google unveils the $100 Google TV Streamer, with better performance than Chromecast with Google TV, Thread and Matter support, and more, shipping September 24 — Google isn't waiting for its upcoming hardware event to announce the Chromecast's successor. Alongside the new, sleeker Nest Thermostat …

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Fox Corp reports Q4 revenue up 2% YoY to $3.1B, affiliate fee revenue up 5% YoY to $1.9B, ad revenue flat YoY at $1B, and $320M net income, vs. $369M in Q4 2023 — The company said that revenue rose slightly in the quarter thanks to its carriage agreements, but that the election and Super Bowl are setting it up for a big year.

Discussion: Reuters, The Wrap, Variety, Next TV, Fox Corporation and WORLD SCREEN

Andrew Bucholtz / Awful Announcing:

FAST channels NEWSnet and SportsNewsHighlights, owned by Manoj Bhargava's Bridge Media, abruptly shuts down, resulting in the layoffs of 80 employees — Manoj Bhargava at a NewsNet desk. (NewsNet.) — The strangeness around former Sports Illustrated publisher Arena Group and its majority owner …

Discussion: Crain's Detroit Business, NEWSnet National, Cars 108, Jay Plyburn, @byajperez, Ruby Shane, @byajperez, @barak_shapiro, @sdavis60, @andrewbucholtz, Facebook, @kurt_nagl, @joepallozzi42, @sdavis60, @nickrmanes, MediaPost, The Desk and Radio & Television …

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

FuboTV reports Q2 North America revenue up 26% YoY to $383M vs. $368M est., North America paid subscribers up 24% to 1.45M, rest of world revenue up 2% to $8.3M — The streaming platform trimmed its overall losses on increased subscription and advertising revenue.

Discussion: Advanced Television, The Streamable, Next TV, @fubotv_pr, FuboTV and Cord Cutters News

Sara Fischer / Axios:

ProRata.ai, which aims to attribute and share revenue with content owners from AI chatbot subscriptions, raised a $25M Series A, inks deals with media companies — A handful of major news and music companies have agreed to license their content to ProRata.ai, a generative AI startup that claims …

Discussion: Gabriel Brotman on LinkedIn, @danprimack and @sarafischer

Lili Bayer / The Guardian:

Critics say Hungary's new sovereignty protection office, set up to monitor foreign influence, has been targeting independent journalism and watchdog groups — The country's new sovereignty protection office was set up to quieten anti-government voices, critics say

Discussion: @worstall, @tobyvogel and @roberthm75

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Bill Grueskin / Columbia Journalism Review:
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Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
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Alex Griffing / Mediaite:
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Emma Roth / The Verge:
WBD says it has seen a “meaningful lift” in how long viewers watch content on Max after rolling out a new “whole page optimization” system in the US last month

Discussion: Variety, TechRadar, Broadband TV News, Next TV, @tvgrimreaper, Cord Cutters News and The Streamable

Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
Sources: Nvidia scraped sources like Netflix and YouTube to train an unreleased foundational model; concerned staff were told they had full clearance to do so

Earlier Picks:

Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:
CBS News names Adrienne Roark as president of editorial and newsgathering and Jennifer Mitchell as president of stations and digital, as part of a restructuring

Discussion: Next TV, Adweek, The Desk, CBS News, New York Post, Radio & Television …, Deadline, TVNewsCheck, Barrett Media and The Hollywood Reporter

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Crooked Media Workers Union members stage a one day walkout after more than a year of contract negotiations with the network behind Pod Save America

Discussion: Writers Guild of America East, Deadline and The Wrap

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
BuzzFeed issues a “cease and desist” to Trending Now, which uses AI to aggregate B2B stories, accusing the startup of copyright infringement with its logo

Bart Meijer / Reuters:
The European Commission says TikTok agreed to permanently withdraw and not replace TikTok Lite's “Task and Reward Programme” in the EU to comply with the DSA

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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Music streaming has exited its high-growth era, as big streaming services pick up fewer new subscribers, causing revenue shortfalls for music labels

Discussion: PhoneArena, @lucas_shaw, @rezendi, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, 9to5Mac and Billboard

Josh Noble / Financial Times:
How YouTube, NBC, Eurosport, and others are enlisting creators to cover the Paris Olympics, to fill in storytelling gaps and captivate a younger generation

Discussion: The Information, MediaPost and Rob Pilgrim on LinkedIn

Max Tani / Semafor:
The WSJ's explosive report from January 2024 about UNRWA's alleged links to Hamas were based on Israeli intel reports that the WSJ has been unable to confirm

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Reuters:
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Wayne Ma / The Information:
A look at the internal chaos behind Apple's Siri failure, in part due to poor leadership, with John Giannandrea's AI/ML group dubbed “AIMLess” internally

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
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