Mediagazer: Q&A with The New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin about building relationships with sources, challenges of the media beat, social media, and more (Josh Ocampo/New York Times)

5:15 PM ET, October 2, 2024

Top News:

Diamond Sports Group, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, says in 2025 it will stop carrying all but one of the 12 MLB teams it now televises — Embattled broadcaster Diamond Sports Group says in 2025 it will stop carrying all but one of the 12 MLB teams it now televises …

Discussion: CNBC, TVNewsCheck, Awful Announcing, The Desk, Sportico, KSTP-TV, Front Office Sports, Orange County Register, Streaming Better, The Streamable, Radio & Television …, @vtuss, @jluckhaupt.bsky.social, Cord Cutters News, @crupicrupicrupi, @matthewkeyslive, @2xaught7.bsky.social and @jasoncollette.bsky.social

Josh Ocampo / New York Times:

Q&A with The New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin about building relationships with sources, challenges of the media beat, social media, and more — To report on the business of media, the journalist Ben Mullin says he is “endlessly curious” about the people populating his own industry.

Discussion: @benmullin and @semaforcomms

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Memo: Disney's ABC News and local TV stations cut staff; source: about 75 staffers will be let go, split about evenly between national news and the TV stations — Employees were notified Wednesday of the staff reductions, according to a person familiar with the matter …

Discussion: Adweek, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, The Desk, @jbflint, The Wrap, TVNewsCheck and Deadline

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

YouTube channel Dude Perfect hires former NBA executive Andrew Yaffe as CEO; Yaffe had been the NBA's head of social, digital, and original content — - Ex-NBA executive Andrew Yaffe to lead digital media company — The channel has more than 60 million followers on YouTube

Discussion: Variety, Andrew Yaffe on LinkedIn, @danprimack, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Joe Mandese / MediaPost:

Sources: ad-tech startup Hudson MX, controlled by UK holding company Ascential, discontinues operations; Ascential had been trying to find a buyer for Hudson MX — Editor's Note: An initial version of this story incorrectly reported that Comcast's FreeWheel division had acquired certain assets …

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:

TechCrunch unveils a redesign with a better UI, fresh color palette, more modern aesthetic, and new ways to show breaking news, after its last redesign in 2018 — Sometimes, you have to start from scratch to make something amazing. Sometimes, you already have most of the ingredients …

Discussion: @zeffmax

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

Q&A with Matthew Yglesias about leaving Vox, launching his own Substack, and more; Yglesias says Slow Boring has ~18,000 subscribers paying ~$80 per year — - Matthew Yglesias, a prolific political writer, co-founded Vox in 2014. Six years later, he left to run his own Substack newsletter.

Discussion: Washington Post, @pkafka@threads.net, @renee.diresta@threads.net, @pkafka, @pkafka, @pkafka@threads.net and @renee.diresta@threads.net

Neel Dhanesha / Nieman Lab:

The New York Times launches its biggest app overhaul since 2008, adding personalized recommendations and content from The Athletic, The Wirecutter, and others — It's the first major redesign since the app launched in 2008. — I've had the New York Times app on my phone for pretty …

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, @michaelsocolow, @duncanwc and Fast Company

Mark Yarm / Depth Perception:

Q&A with Ben Collins on moving from a disinformation reporter to running The Onion, reviving its print edition and video newscast, expansion plans, and more — In April, the archly named company Global Tetrahedron, owned by Jeff Lawson, a co-founder and former CEO of the tech company Twilio …

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

Amazon plans to increase the number of ads on Prime Video in 2025 after not seeing a sharp drop in subscribers since adding advertisements in January 2024 — Ecommerce group attempting to win over more brands as it steps up push into ad-funded streaming services in 2025

Discussion: Quartz, Digiday, Engadget, @raydouglasuk, Deadline and The Media Leader, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:

Livestream marketplace Whatnot says its GMV passed $2B+ in 2024 and its top 500 sellers each sold $1M+ on the platform; 66% of its sellers earn $10K+ per month — Whatnot, the livestream marketplace platform for trading card collectors and sneakerheads alike, is offering a bit of positive news …

Discussion: News & Whatnot

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Automattic demanded an 8% cut of WP Engine's monthly revenue to use the WordPress trademark in a seven-year deal proposed on September 20; WP Engine declined — Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, asked rival hosting service WP Engine to hand over 8 percent of its revenue each month …

Discussion: Automattic and @j12t@j12t.social, more at Techmeme »

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China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

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Maxwell Tani / @maxwelltani@threads.net:
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
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Andreo Calonzo / Bloomberg:
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signs a law imposing a 12% value-added tax on non-resident digital service providers, such as Netflix, HBO, and Disney

more at Techmeme »

Janya Sundar / Fast Company:
A look at Local Lede, an AI tool from AP and startup AppliedXL that helps journalists sift through large datasets from federal agencies to find local news tips

Discussion: @SuffolkLITLab@esq.social, Francesco Marconi on LinkedIn, Orange County Register and TVNewsCheck

Earlier Picks:

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Sara Fischer / Axios:
Duke Reporters' Lab: the number of fact-checking sites has declined globally; North American active sites have fallen from 94 to 90 from 2020 to 2023

Discussion: MPR News, @seangraf, @axios, Politico, The Wrap, Eric Anderson on LinkedIn, Associated Press, Truthout and The Hill

Brian Stelter / CNN:
CBS says Trump backed out of an interview with Scott Pelley for a special 60 Minutes edition on October 7; the show will go forward with a Harris interview

Discussion: @60minutes, Washington Post, Poynter, @juddlegum, @joshtpm, @svdate, @timobrien, @danpfeiffer, @leslieproll, @jtaylorskinner, @rolandsmartin, Forbes, New York Post, Politico, NPR, CBS News, New York Times, TVNewsCheck, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, DNyuz, The Hill, Variety, Newser, Adweek, Fox News, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, TVLine and Deadline

Ryan Christoffel / 9to5Mac:
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From Techmeme:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
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Ellen O'Regan / Politico:
Ireland's DPC opens an investigation into how personal data in public X posts was used to train xAI's Grok, which could stoke tensions between the EU and the US

Financial Times:
Sources: Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence raised $2B led by Greenoaks at a $32B valuation; SSI last raised $1B at a $5B valuation in September 2024

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