Mediagazer: Source: Penske Media has laid off dozens of staff over the last several weeks; Penske says it's grown its total headcount in 2022, 2023, and 2024 (Oliver Darcy/Status)

8:40 PM ET, August 23, 2024

Top News:

Buffy Wicks, who dropped her effort to make Big Tech pay California news orgs after Google agreed to give to a nonprofit supporting local news, defends the deal — The California legislator at the center of a first-in-the-nation deal between Google and the state to help fund local news organizations …

Discussion: The Verge, @mattdpearce, Ars Technica, Raw Story, Tim Griggs on LinkedIn, Associated Press, The Desk, Blood in the Machine, New York Post, Media Nation, a14.asmdc.org, MediaPost, Los Angeles Times and Engadget

Liam Reilly / CNN:

Unions and some state senators criticize Google's plan for a California local news fund, which stalled bills that would have forced Big Tech to fund journalists — New York CNN — — Google struck a first-in-the-nation deal with California lawmakers on Wednesday to fund newsrooms …

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: WBD has started working on creating more original programming for TNT and rebooting series and made-for-TV movies, albeit with smaller budgets — Entertainment company is plotting ‘high-adrenaline’ dramas for a cable channel that has become closely associated with reruns

Discussion: Deadline, TVLine, Deadline, @tvgrimreaper, CBR, Dean Devlin on LinkedIn, The Wrap, Variety and Screen Rant

Oliver Darcy / Status:

Source: Penske Media has laid off dozens of staff over the last several weeks; Penske says it's grown its total headcount in 2022, 2023, and 2024 — The layoffs at Penske's media empire comes as his company faces tough headwinds, many of them industry wide.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Wall Street Journal:

In a letter, Skydance lawyers accuse Paramount's special committee of breaching its terms with Skydance by extending the time it can talk with other bidders — In a letter from its lawyers, Skydance accuses Paramount's committee of directors of violating the terms of its deal

Discussion: Reuters, CNBC, Variety, Eva Davis on LinkedIn, Dylan Jones on LinkedIn, Ian Whittaker on LinkedIn, The Streamable, The Media Leader, Media Play News, Deadline, The Desk, TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, TrekMovie.com, The Verge and The Hollywood Reporter

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, and Danielle Strle, chief product officer, on how they bought the outlet, why they're making a print version, and more — The new owners of the satire site rescued it from content farm hell. Now, they're relaunching its newspaper.

Discussion: @mvario@mastodon.social, Jordan LaFlure on LinkedIn, Christina Child on LinkedIn, @verge@mastodon.social, @hack13@cyberfurz.social and Chicago Sun Times

Katie Campione / Deadline:

Nielsen: the Democratic National Convention's final night averaged 26.2M US viewers over 15 networks; the RNC's final night drew 25.4M viewers over 14 networks — The final night of the Democratic National Convention, buoyed by a speech from Vice President Kamala Harris accepting …

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Wrap, Politico, @xdata, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Kos, Raw Story and MediaPost

Advanced Television:

Disney says it is expanding availability of its ad-supported Disney+ plan to Finland, the Netherlands, and Portugal on October 17 — Following the launch of its ad-supported plan in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK in 2023 …

Discussion: The Desk and UK Press

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

A look at Apple Podcasts' fading dominance, as an April 2024 study of 603 podcast consumers found 31% use YouTube, 21% use Spotify, and 12% use Apple's app — Hello! Welcome back to Soundbite. Today we're looking at the fading dominance of Apple Podcasts.

Discussion: The Information, Cult of Mac, Slate, 9to5Mac and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

Colin Mann / Advanced Television:

Liberty Media announces plans to sell F1 shares worth $825M to partially fund its 86% stake in Dorna Sports, the MotoGP commercial rights holder valued at $4.2B — Liberty Media has revealed plans to sell F1 shares worth $825 million (€742m) in order to ‘partially fund’ its planned acquisition of MotoGP.

Discussion: Inside Radio, Motorsport Week, Motorsport.com, PlanetF1 and Sports Illustrated

Aisha Counts / Bloomberg:

Reddit is winning over advertisers using interest-based targeting via subreddits, instead of personal data; analysis: Reddit's ad revenue may pass $1.1B in 2024 — Without as much personal information, Reddit lures marketers by touting interests and conversations

more at Techmeme »

Hayden Field / CNBC:

In a pitch deck, AI search engine Perplexity told advertisers it plans to start running ads in Q4; a source says Perplexity's CPM prices will be $50+ — Perplexity AI, the artificial intelligence startup that's been embroiled in controversy due to accusations of plagiarizing content from media outlets …

Discussion: Digiday, TVNewsCheck, @haydenfield, @researchbuzz@researchbuzz …, Adweek, The Indian Express, @vortexegg.regretfully.online and Hayden Field on LinkedIn

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More News:

Lacey Rose / The Hollywood Reporter:
Study: women accounted for 23% of creators working on original programs on TV and streaming in the US in 2023-24, down from 26% in 2022-23 and 30% in 2021-22

Advanced Television:
Survey: 66% of US TV viewers use FAST platforms, 53% of them have cut down on paid streaming, and 43% signed up to a pay service to continue watching a show

Pete Brown / Columbia Journalism Review:
Star Spangled Media, behind websites posing as news outlets, such as The Morning Mirror, appears to have close ties to pro-Democratic super PAC Forward Majority

Discussion: Sinclair Cornell on LinkedIn

Maria Iu / The Media Leader:
WARC: global ad spending will grow by 10.5% to $1.07T in 2024; Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta will account for 43.6% of global ad spending in 2024 and 46% by 2026

Discussion: WORLD SCREEN, Inside Radio, Media Makers Meet, Radio & Television … and Advanced Television

The New York Times Company:
The NYT hires Vox Media exec Amanda Kludt, who built up Eater, as senior editor overseeing Projects and Initiatives, working across the newsroom and company

Discussion: @nytimespr and @edmundlee@threads.net

Evelyn Okakwu / Committee to Protect Journalists:
In Nigeria, Kenya, and Senegal, journalists have been targeted, assaulted, and detained by security forces as they covered anti-government protests

Discussion: CNN, Freedom of the Press …, Voice of America, Reporters Without Borders and The Intercept

Earlier Picks:

Clemmie Moodie / The Sun:
The BBC says soccer presenter Jermaine Jenas is “no longer part of the presenting line-up”; source: the BBC terminated his contract after behavior complaints

Discussion: London Evening Standard, Variety, The Guardian, HuffPost, @scotteaglen, @julian5news, The Mirror, BBC, Sky News, Daily Express, The Independent, Telegraph, Metro.co.uk and Deadline

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
TV and film productions are turning away from California to countries and US states with looser restrictions and limitations on their tax incentive programs

Discussion: Associated Press and TVNewsCheck

Patrick Frater / Variety:
Chinese streamer iQiyi reports Q2 revenue down 5% YoY to ~$1.04B and net profit down 80% YoY to ~$9.6M, as subscription revenue shrinks for a second quarter

Reuters:
Russia's FSB opens criminal cases against British CNN reporter Nick Paton Walsh and two Ukrainian journalists for illegally entering Russia to report from Kursk

Discussion: National Union of Journalists …, New York Times, The Moscow Times, CNN, Al Jazeera and Politico

Amanda Meade / The Guardian:
David Anderson, head of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, plans to step down in 2025 after ABC finds a managing director, after a 35-year career at ABC

Discussion: Mumbrella and Deadline

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

The Information:
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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