Top News:
Abid Rahman / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD launches Max in Japan via local partner U-Next and plans to roll out the streaming service direct-to-consumers in Australia and New Zealand in H1 2025 — Max officially launched in Japan via local partner U-Next. … On the day that Max launched in Japan via local partner U-Next …
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Vice relaunches its print magazine, on hiatus since 2019, and debuts $10 per month and $4 per month subscriptions with access to paywalled content — The publisher hopes to reach 10,000 subscribers by next spring — The digital media company Vice relaunched its print magazine and debuted …
Discussion:
Mumbrella, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, VICE and Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The NYT aims to sell podcast subscriptions via Apple Podcasts and Spotify, requiring users to pay to access older episodes, starting Oct. for $6/mo. or $50/year — - “A big part of our strategy is building direct relationships with our customers,” said Ben Cotton, The Times' head of subscription growth.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Koch's PE arm is in talks with a media entrepreneur to partner on a bid for Forbes valuing the company at ~10% less than its $630M 2021 SPAC valuation — The firm often targets companies that are poorly managed or undervalued. — It will often partner with a strategic buyer …
Discussion:
Sara Fischer on LinkedIn and Talking Biz News
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: OpenAI agrees to give representatives for authors suing the company access to review its training data to see if OpenAI used authors' copyrighted works — At a secure room in its San Francisco office, representatives for authors suing OpenAI will examine materials that were used to train its AI system.
Barry Hertz / Globe and Mail:
Netflix pauses funding for some professional development programs in the Canadian film and TV industry as Canada imposes a 5% tax on foreign streamers' revenue — /arts/arts/arts//artsThe future of several professional development programs crucial to the health of the Canadian film …
Discussion:
iPhone in Canada Blog and @mgeist
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
Sources: UK's Evening Standard has made plans to use AI to write reviews under the name of its former art critic of 30 years Brian Sewell, who died in 2015 — Deadline understands that London's historic Evening Standard newspaper has been making plans to revive its former writer using artificial intelligence.
Discussion:
Empire, @jscalzi@threads.net, @_zeets, @eddiehenryjames, @siddhantadlakha, @chrismoranuk, @sturgios, @wendyide, @willardfoxton and @nina_metz
Alex Ritman / Variety:
A group of journalists abandons a press junket at the San Sebastian Film Festival, in protest of a larger trend of limited access to stars at film festivals — A group of international journalists abandoned a press junket for the Johnny Depp film “Modi” at the San Sebastian Film Festival …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and Deadline
Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
SAG-AFTRA calls a strike against League of Legends, formerly exempt from the video game strike, alleging parent Formosa Interactive tried hiring non-union labor — The union charges one of the multiplayer game's producers, Formosa Interactive, with attempting to work around its ongoing video game strike …
Discussion:
SAG-AFTRA, Reuters, Associated Press, Variety, The Verge, Engadget and Los Angeles Times, more at Techmeme »
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Memo: Paramount unveils “phase two” of layoffs and says 90% of them will be complete after this round, following its August plan to cut 15% of its US workforce — Paramount Global unveiled a second wave of staff cuts Tuesday morning, part of a larger bid by the owner of CBS …
Discussion:
@dylanbyers, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, TVLine, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, Variety, New York Post, Deadline, Deadline, Adweek, AV Club, Next TV, TVNewsCheck, Bloomberg and Advanced Television
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
TikTok says it plans to shut down TikTok Music on November 28 and will delete customer data; the app, originally called Resso, first launched in 2019 — TikTok Music will go offline on Nov. 28 and customer data will be deleted, the music division said in a post on its website.
Krystal Scanlon / Digiday:
TikTok launches its Search Ads Campaign tool in the US, letting advertisers pick specific keywords to target ads appearing in search results — After months of will-they-won't-they, TikTok is finally getting serious about turning user searches into ad dollars.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, The Drum, MediaPost, MarTech and Ad Age