Mediagazer: A profile of TollBit, which has raised $7M and aims to create a marketplace where AI companies can pay publishers for their content on an ongoing basis (Pranav Dixit/Engadget)

10:40 AM ET, August 24, 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 …

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

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, Too Much TV Newsletter, @tvgrimreaper, TVLine, CBR, Deadline, Screen Rant, Dean Devlin on LinkedIn, The Wrap and Variety

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: Status, Variety, @xdata, @mulvihill79, New York Times, @oliverdarcy@threads.net, Politico, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Daily Kos, Raw Story and MediaPost

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: @oliverdarcy@threads.net and Talking Biz News

Sportico:

Diamond Sports reaches deals to continue broadcasting games for 13 NBA teams and nine NHL teams through the leagues' 2024-2025 seasons in their local markets — Nearly a month to the day after a Houston court agreed to postpone a crucial confirmation hearing in the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy case …

Pranav Dixit / Engadget:

A profile of TollBit, which has raised $7M and aims to create a marketplace where AI companies can pay publishers for their content on an ongoing basis — So far though, its business model of becoming a marketplace where AI companies can pay publishers directly for their data is a complete hypothetical

Discussion: @pranavdixit, @pranavdixit, @pranavdixit and Observer

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

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

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Filing: the NBA seeks to dismiss WBD's lawsuit over the league's media rights, detailing how WBD had failed to match the terms of Amazon's offer — This game may never start. … Spokespersons for the NBA and Warner's TNT Sports were not able to respond immediately to queries seeking comment.

Discussion: The Wrap, The Desk, Sports Media Watch, @bristei, Front Office Sports, Awful Announcing, Front Office Sports, Awful Announcing and TVNewsCheck

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

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, PlanetF1, Motorsport Week, Sports Illustrated and Motorsport.com

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, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and Slate, more at Techmeme »

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 10:40 AM ET, August 24, 2024.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

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

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

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More News:

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

more at Techmeme »

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

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+

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

Earlier Picks:

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

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, The Guardian, Deadline, Variety, 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

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

Hannah Lang / Reuters:
Sources: a16z, Ripple, Kraken, and Circle are jostling for a seat on Trump's promised crypto advisory council, which is expected to set up a bitcoin reserve

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