Mediagazer: Crooked Media and the union representing its workers say they reached a contract deal, and the union has withdrawn a union-busting claim against the company (Todd Spangler/Variety)

10:50 PM ET, August 9, 2024

Top News:

Memo: MrBeast plans to hire an HR officer and a CFO and implement safety and sensitivity training, amid allegations of impropriety and unsafe sets — MrBeast has ordered a full assessment of the internal culture in his YouTube empire as well as an investigation into “allegations …

Discussion: Kotaku, Metro.co.uk, @dexerto, Tubefilter and Deadline

Yasmin Rufo / BBC:

The BBC asks Huw Edwards to return the £200K+ in salary he made between his November arrest and his April resignation; BBC Chair says he “behaved in bad faith” — Huw Edwards has been asked to return his salary paid since his arrest, with the BBC chair telling staff the ex-presenter acted in “bad faith”.

Discussion: BBC, CNN, Julie Temple on LinkedIn, Financial Times, Press Gazette, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian and Deadline

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Netflix strikes a deal to have CBS Sports produce the two NFL games to be streamed live on Christmas; on-air talent to call the games will be decided later — The on-air talent that will call the games will be named later — Netflix said it has struck a deal to have CBS Sports produce …

Discussion: Reuters, Fox Business, Awful Announcing, Sports Media Watch, Sportico and TVNewsCheck

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

A £350M bid for The Telegraph by ad mogul Maurice Saatchi and Lynn Forester de Rothschild fails to make it to a second round in the auction run by RedBird IMI — Sir Paul Marshall reported to be the frontrunner for The Spectator. — Former advertising mogul Lord Saatchi has had a £350m bid to buy The Telegraph rejected.

Discussion: Sky News and Financial Times

Juliana Kim / NPR:

Microsoft research details Iranian government efforts to interfere with the US election, including four fake outlets likely using AI to plagiarize news content — Groups connected to the Iranian government are using a spectrum of online tactics to interfere with the U.S. presidential election …

Discussion: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Microsoft On the Issues, The Register, UPI, Fast Company, @savokanikan and Washington Post

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Crooked Media and the union representing its workers say they reached a contract deal, and the union has withdrawn a union-busting claim against the company — Crooked Media and the union representing workers at the progressive media company, which is behind popular show “Pod Save America …

Discussion: @jonfavs, @yashar, @crooked_union, Deadline, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Eva Dou / Washington Post:

Trump Media, Truth Social's parent company that has a ~$5B market cap, reports Q2 revenue down 30% YoY to $837K; Trump owns 59.9% of Trump Media's common stock — Donald Trump's company, which operates Truth Social, said it earned $837,000 in quarterly revenue.

Discussion: CNBC, NBC News, US Securities and Exchange Commission, @washingtonpost, @brianstorms@mastodon.social and Wccftech, more at Techmeme »

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:

Sources: Hearst Television lays off dozens of employees working for its free streaming service Very Local, which launched in 2021, serving 26 US markets — Hearst Television has let go of dozens of employees working for its streaming service Very Local, sources tell Deadline.

Discussion: The Desk and TVNewsCheck

Todd Spangler / Variety:

WBD pulls the contents of cartoonnetwork.com, which featured full CN episodes and video clips, and redirects visitors to sign up for Max — Cartoon Network has been scrubbed from the web. … The shuttering of the site appears to have happened Thursday, Aug. 8.

Natalie Korach / The Wrap:

Paramount sells entertainment news websites ComicBook and PopCulture to Savage Ventures, which created a joint venture to relaunch Vice digital properties — This comes after Paramount Global's newly appointed co-CEOs detailed a plan including $500 million in cost cuts

Discussion: @jkschmidt, Breitbart, @rollinbishop, @rollinbishop, @kasey__moore, The Hollywood Reporter and Graphic Policy

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Paramount Global says it will cut 15% of its US workforce, or about 2,000 employees, in the next few weeks, after cutting about 800 positions in February

Rani Molla / Sherwood News:

A Q&A with Wikimedia Foundation executives on how AI could make knowledge more accessible to people, the possibility that it discourages volunteers, and more — We spoke with Wikipedia executives who told us AI could jeopardize the encyclopedia's connection with the volunteers who create it.

Discussion: Diff

Reuters:

Rappler wins an appeal to restore its corporate license as a court rules that the Philippines' SEC overstepped in ordering the outlet's shutdown in 2018 — Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa's news website Rappler won an appeal to restore its corporate licence after a court overturned …

Discussion: The Guardian, Rappler, Reuters, Al Jazeera, @kenroth, Reporters Without Borders and Committee to Protect …

Rishav Chatterjee / Reuters:

News Corp puts its 65% interest in Australian pay TV company Foxtel up for sale, citing third-party interest and a strategic review — Australian pay television company Foxtel, controlled by the Murdoch family and partly by local telecom firm Telstra (TLS.AX), has been put …

Discussion: Mumbrella, Sydney Morning Herald, Broadband TV News, Deadline, RTÉ, Advanced Television, The Desk, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, ABC and Australian Financial Review

Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:
News Corp reports Q4 revenue up 6% YoY to $2.58B vs. $2.49B est., net income of $71M, Dow Jones revenue up 4% to $566M, and book publishing revenue up 15%

Discussion: News Corporation, New York Post, Talking Biz News and The Wrap

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Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

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Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

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More News:

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
AMC Networks reports Q2 net loss of $29.2M, revenue down 7.8% YoY to $625.9M, streaming subscribers up 5% YoY to 11.6M, and streaming revenue up 9% YoY to $150M

Discussion: Media Play News, Advanced Television, Next TV, Variety and Deadline

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
President of Disney EMEA Jan Koeppen says the company plans to spend at least $5B on content production in the UK and continental Europe in the next five years

Discussion: Variety, Martin S. on LinkedIn, Craig Higgins on LinkedIn, John Mahtani on LinkedIn, Reuters, Deadline, Deadline and TVNewsCheck

Reuters:
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blocks X in the country for 10 days, accusing Elon Musk of using X to incite hate after Venezuela's disputed election

Discussion: The Information, The Hill, CNN, Financial Times, @kennysmith.bsky.social, Agence France-Presse, UPI, CNBC, Engadget, TechRadar, Al Jazeera, Xataka On, Deutsche Welle and Associated Press, more at Techmeme »

The Hollywood Reporter:
A look at the battle among streamers for stand-up comic specials, as Amazon, Hulu, and Max challenge Netflix's dominance of the genre

Discussion: AV Club and TVNewsCheck

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Lionsgate reports a Q1 net loss of $59.4M vs. a $70.7M net loss a year ago and revenue down 8% YoY to $834.7M vs. $857.5M est.; Starz shed 500K subscribers

Discussion: Broadband TV News, Advanced Television, TVNewsCheck, WORLD SCREEN, Jericho Wilson on LinkedIn, Deadline, Media Play News, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Earlier Picks:

Theo Wayt / The Information:
Amazon partners with TikTok and Pinterest to let users buy items from Amazon ads without leaving the social media apps, expanding on deals with Meta and Snap

Discussion: Engadget, Tubefilter, Quartz, Malte Karstan on LinkedIn, esports.gg, Affiverse and Bloomberg

Sheena Vasani / The Verge:
Substack now lets users publish posts and collect subscribers directly from their profile without setting up a publication, on the web or in its app

Discussion: Substack Reads, TechCrunch and @simondowens@threads.net

Bloomberg:
Sources: the UK is considering revisiting parts of the Online Safety Act to give authorities more power to force social media companies to curb harmful content

Discussion: Rolling Stone, Reuters, The Guardian and Deadline, more at Techmeme »

Emilia Otte / CT Examiner:
Hearst Connecticut Media Group workers plan to form a union; despite support from some politicians, management said it would not voluntarily recognize the group

Discussion: @ctnewsguild, The NewsGuild, The Boston Globe, @davidfolkenflik, @ctsenatedems, @bostonglobe, @newsguild, @juliann_ventura and The NewsGuild

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
Similarweb: Bluesky app usage in the US and UK grew ~300% to 3.5M DAUs after Nov. 5; Threads now has 1.5x Bluesky's DAUs in the US, down from 5x before Nov. 5

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: TikTok CEO Shou Chew, who has known Elon Musk for several years, has sought Musk's counsel in recent weeks on the incoming Trump administration

New York Times:
Sources: the US government launched an investigation into the Salt Typhoon hack after Microsoft alerted it and telecom companies about anomalies

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