Top News:
Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:
Some journalists call on Kamala Harris to do interviews, which can be useful for stress-testing politicians' positions, though they are not always illuminating — In the three weeks since President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek reelection, the presidential race, you may have noticed …
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Sara Fischer / Axios:
NYT plans to launch a Wirecutter podcast on August 21; its deputy publisher says the brand drove $1B in commerce in 2023 and its newsletter has 2.5M subscribers — - “Wirecutter is not only branching out in terms of its business model, it's also branching out in terms of its platforms,” …
Discussion:
The Wrap, The New York Times Company and Talking Biz News
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
SAG-AFTRA strikes a deal with Narrativ for voice replicas in digital ads, letting union members add themselves to the AI startup's database and negotiate fees — Union says agreement sets ‘a new standard’ for ethical use and makes it easy to performers to give consent and get paid
Discussion:
Reuters and SAG-AFTRA, more at Techmeme »
John Koblin / New York Times:
A look at the growth of free streaming service Tubi, which does not require an account to use, is entirely dependent on ad revenue, and is not yet profitable — Tubi has exploded in popularity over the past 18 months, outpacing some competitors with much bigger budgets.
Discussion:
Cord Cutters News, @mattyglesias, @davidlaz, r/television and r/entertainment
Shira Ovide / Washington Post:
iSpot: tech companies have spent ~$196M in 2024 through to August 8 on US TV ads related to AI, which accounts for ~50% of their total 2024 spend on TV ads — There are so. many. commercials for artificial intelligence. — If you watched the Olympics, you probably saw the commercial …
Katelyn Newberg / Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Jeff German's accused murderer waives further searches of the reporter's electronics, removing the possibility of a fight over access to confidential reporting — Las Vegas LDS Temple decision challenged in court — Ex-NFL player sentenced for death of girlfriend's daughter, 5
Discussion:
Columbia Journalism Review
Dara Kerr / NPR:
Meta shuts down CrowdTangle, less than three months before the US election, in favor of the Meta Content Library; Mozilla says 50K+ petitioned against the move — Meta has been bombarded by academics, researchers, politicians and regulators about a tool called CrowdTangle, which most people probably haven't heard of.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Apple approves Spotify updating its app to show in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the EU starting today, after Spotify's yearslong legal battle — Spotify will begin showing in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the European Union starting today, following a yearslong legal battle against Apple.
Discussion:
Reuters, TechCrunch, BGR and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »
Matt Laslo / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at right-wing lawmakers' media efforts, including guest-hosting Steve Bannon's show and producing content from their offices, like Matt Gaetz's Firebrand — Steve Bannon is in prison, but his show must go on. Lucky for him, there's a Congress for that.
Discussion:
@grammasaurus@mastodon.social
Bobby Allyn / NPR:
US District Judge Reed O'Connor recuses himself from X's advertiser lawsuit over an alleged ad boycott; O'Connor held stock in Tesla and Unilever — A U.S. District Judge in Texas has recused himself from a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X days after NPR drew scrutiny to the judge's investment …
Discussion:
Quartz, CNBC, Ars Technica, Reuters, The Verge, Los Angeles Times and Ars OpenForum, more at Techmeme »
Bloomberg:
Sources: after Google's monopoly ruling, the DOJ considers options, including forcing a breakup of the company or requiring it to share more data with rivals — - Antitrust enforcers soliciting input from outside companies — Judge ruled Alphabet unit monopolized online search, ads
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The Harris campaign is running Google Search ads with news headlines and descriptions that are edited to make articles from major publishers appear pro-Harris — - According to Google's ad transparency center, the Trump campaign isn't running these types of ads, but this technique has been used by campaigns before.
Discussion:
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