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4:45 AM ET, September 25, 2024

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Financial Times:
Sources: Bari Weiss' The Free Press raised about $15M at a ~$100M valuation; Bari Weiss posted an article this week that said the outlet had 800,000+ readers  —  The fundraise values Bari Weiss's venture at $100mn  —  US media start-up The Free Press has raised a further round of funding from investors …
Discussion: @pressgazette
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Stability AI says filmmaker James Cameron has joined its board of directors; Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju was previously CEO of VFX company WETA Digital  —  The director says that “the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave” of film technology …
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
Chartbeat: Facebook traffic to 700 US news sites fell 40% from January 2023 to July 2024 to ~500M page views, as page views from Google Search grew 10% to 1.5B  —  Traffic from Google Discover now exceeds traffic from Google Search for some publishers, but what works there is a bit of a guessing game.
Discussion: @laurahazardowen
Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:
Wrapbook, which simplifies the payroll process for TV, film, and commercial productions, raised $20M from Bessemer Ventures at a $750M valuation  —  The financial services firm plans to grow by more than 100 staffers as it takes aim at private equity owned Cast & Crew and Entertainment Partners.
Discussion: FinTech Global and WKRN-TV
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 …
Discussion: Variety and Mumbrella
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: @mgeist and iPhone in Canada Blog
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 …
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: Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn and VICE
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 …
Alex Ritman / Variety:
Journalists abandon a press junket for Johnny Depp's “Modi” at the San Sebastian Film Festival, in protest of a trend of limited access to stars at festivals  —  A group of international journalists abandoned a press junket for the Johnny Depp film “Modi” at the San Sebastian Film Festival …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The NYT aims to sell podcast subscriptions via Apple Podcasts and Spotify, requiring users to pay for older episodes, starting October for $6/month 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.
 
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 More News: 
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Trending Now, which offers AI-powered B2B newsletters, changes its logo after BuzzFeed sent a cease-and-desist letter over alleged copyright infringement
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
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
WP Engine sends a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic to “retract false, harmful, and disparaging statements”, after Matt Mullenweg called it a “cancer”
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Spotify rolls out its AI Playlist feature in beta to Premium subscribers in the US, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, after launching in the UK and Australia
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Roku unveils the $100 Roku Ultra, which is 30% faster than its other streaming players and has Wi-Fi 6, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Atmos, the Voice Remote Pro, and more
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Warner Bros. Discovery partners with Google to add its “caption AI” tool built on Vertex AI to Max to automatically generate captions for unscripted programming
 Earlier Picks: 
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
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
New York Times:
How WhatsApp Channels, launched in late 2023, are driving traffic to digital news outlets, especially readers from outside the US, as social media traffic falls
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Reach CEO Jim Mullen says there is “too much power in the hands of platforms and their algorithms” and calls for regulation to make platforms pay for content
Discussion: HoldtheFrontPage
Chine Labbé / Nieman Reports:
A project that tracked 50 Ukrainian newsrooms over the past 15 months finds they are upholding high standards of journalism, some reinvented themselves, more
 

 
From Techmeme:

Lee-Anne Mulholland / The Keyword:
Google files its proposed remedies in the DOJ's search antitrust lawsuit, including letting browser companies have multiple default agreements across platforms

Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
A US judge finds NSO Group liable for exploiting a bug in WhatsApp to spy on 1,400 users and that WhatsApp is entitled to sanctions against NSO

Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI's GPT-5, codenamed Orion, is behind schedule and faces technical hurdles, including high computing costs and limited high-quality training data
 
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