Top News:
Financial Times:
GB News and UnHerd owner Paul Marshall acquires The Spectator for £100M and plans to expand the magazine overseas; Spectator chair Andrew Neil resigns — Acquisition bolsters hedge fund boss's position as one of UK's most influential right-leaning media barons
Discussion:
The Independent, New York Times, London Evening Standard, Press Gazette, @semaforben, BBC, Spectator, @frasernelson, @rowandean, The Spectator Australia, @afneil, White \u0026 Case, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Irish News, @ian_fraser, @afneil, Bloomberg, The i Paper, Sky News, Telegraph, The Times, @peterjukes, @semaforben, @colinbraziertv, @nfmusic, @montie, @aphclarkson, @danwootton, @peterjukes, @aphclarkson, @jamesrbuk, @sangitamyska, @peterjukes, @jdportes, @mattwridley, @peterjukes, London Evening Standard, @notthatbigian, @lefoudubaron, Reuters, @twlldun, @danielthomasldn and Guido Fawkes
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy is considering mutualizing the BBC, giving direct ownership to license-fee payers, as part of a review of funding options — Culture secretary Lisa Nandy says ‘nothing off table’ as government and broadcaster prepare for talks over funding
Discussion:
@mediareformuk and London Evening Standard
New York Times:
Business Insider names Jamie Heller, the business editor of The Wall Street Journal, to lead its newsroom as its next editor in chief — Ms. Heller spent two decades at The Wall Street Journal, most recently leading corporate coverage. — Business Insider is expected to name Jamie Heller …
Jack Apollo George / The Guardian:
A writer who works for a tech company describes how he helps train AI models how to write, by making up pretend responses to hypothetical chatbot questions — Journalists and other writers are employed to improve the quality of chatbot replies. The irony of working for an industry …
Discussion:
@rosenzweigjane, @timkendall_path, @niemanlab, @martyswant and Mark Little on LinkedIn
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Jorge Ramos, one of the best-known Spanish-language TV journalists in the US, plans to leave Univision at the end of 2024 — Jorge Ramos, a news anchor who is perhaps the best-known Spanish-language TV journalist in the United States and who has grilled top politicians and covered top world events …
Brian Stelter / CNN:
The Washington Post launched a redesigned homepage last week and plans “several” enhancements; reporters and editors have long complained about its dated nature — New York CNN — — The Washington Post is trying to fix one of its biggest problems: an outdated homepage loathed by its own staff.
Discussion:
@fletchtopper, @jakewilkns, @patrickdehahn and @brianstelter
Ben Smith / Semafor:
Former SI and The Players' Tribune executives launch OffBall, a site, newsletter, and social feed with curated sports news from social media and other sources — The Scoop — A new brand is hoping to provide a hub for the booming conversation around the culture of sports.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The Los Angeles Local News Initiative, which plans a nonprofit news org to support local newsrooms in LA, raised $15M from media leaders and philanthropists — - The research included input from 900 L.A. residents about gaps in community coverage, said Monica Lozano, the Initiative's board chair …
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
Ofcom: internet replaced TV as UK's most popular news source; 71% of adults get news online, vs. 70% via TV; 52% use social media for news, up from 47% in 2023 — Media regulator describes change as a ‘generational shift in the balance of news media’ — Online platforms have overtaken TV channels …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Mike Krieger on his new role as chief product officer at Anthropic, co-founding and selling news app Artifact, copyright issues, AI content, and more — Anthropic's new chief product officer on the promise and limits of chatbots like Claude and what's next for generative AI.
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Audible plans to invite some US-based audiobook narrators to train AI on their voices, to clone the voices for recordings through a royalty-sharing model — The audiobook service is inviting some US-based narrators to train artificial intelligence on their voices
Discussion:
Publishers Weekly, ACX, TechCrunch and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
The WSJ offers advertisers a performance guarantee between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15 to dissuade them from pausing ad campaigns during the US presidential election — Some brands are going dark for the presidential election. WSJ has data to convince them otherwise.
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
In the first day of the antitrust trial focused on ads, US prosecutors allege Google abused its size to dominate the sector through acquisitions and more — Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google sought to dominate all sides of online advertising technology by controlling competitors and customers …
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