Top News:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google rolls out ads in AI Overviews when a user's question has a “commercial angle”, and identifies the ads with a “sponsored” header, on mobile in the US — Google is rolling out ads in AI Overviews, which means you'll now start seeing products in some of the search engine's AI-generated summaries.
Discussion:
PRWeek, 9to5Google and Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »
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Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out AI-organized Search results in the US on mobile, showing users AI-aggregated pages of content from forums, articles, YouTube videos, and more — Google will begin to show ads in AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries it supplies for certain Google Search queries …
Discussion:
Ad Age, SE Ranking Blog, Adweek, The Drum, Semafor, The Information, @dshieldspgh.bsky.social, @mizshellytee.bsky.social, @wagatwe.com, @xodaniwrites.bsky.social, 9to5Google, @feralhattie.bsky.social, Search Engine Land, @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social and Android Authority, more at Techmeme »
Bloomberg:
Sources: the NFL is in talks with Skydance Media and its major investor RedBird Capital Partners that could result in a sale of NFL Media and NFL Network — - Discussions revolve around the league's media assets — Earlier conversations with ESPN are said to have stalled
Discussion:
Business Insider, The Desk, TVNewsCheck, The Streamable, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn and Randall Williams on LinkedIn
Amanda Meade / The Guardian:
A study finds Australia has the second-highest media concentration in the world after Brazil; in the newspaper sector, four companies control 84% of the market — Google and Meta should fund traditional public interest journalism, a new international study reports
Discussion:
Caroline James-Garrod on LinkedIn, @simon_rosenberg, @ruthmahalia, @mediamorphis and Global Media …
CNN:
Melania Trump's book publisher asked CNN to sign an NDA and pay $250K to interview her, but then called the request a “miscommunication” — Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump's book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir.
Discussion:
New York Post, Mediaite, @heinendevon@threads.net, Metro.co.uk, Vanity Fair, The Hill, The Wrap, @weathersbywi, Boing Boing, DNyuz, @joshtpm, @lesliestreeter, @claytravis, @dfriedman33 and @hadas_gold
Martyn Ziegler / The Times:
Reuters withdraws two stories on the World Anti-Doping Agency after it was found that WADA's media head received a Reuters press pass for the Masters golf event — World Anti-Doping Agency media chief James Fitzgerald accredited for golf event via Reuters, who have admitted to ‘a violation of our journalistic standards’
Discussion:
The Guardian, KSTP-TV, Talking Biz News, Reuters, Reuters, @tariqpanja, @tariqpanja, @2xaught7.bsky.social and @tariqpanja
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Spotify launches Offline Backup, which automatically makes recently streamed and now playing queued songs available as an offline playlist for Premium users — Spotify introduced a new feature today called Offline Backup. This feature for premium users is essentially a list of songs …
Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter:
Meta streamlines monetization for Facebook creators by merging programs for in-stream ads, Reels ads, and performance bonuses into one invite-only beta program — Facebook creators have multiple monetization options to choose from, and Meta is now uniting its revenue streams within a single, centralized program.
Discussion:
Meta, PetaPixel, TechCrunch, Digiday and Engadget
Lauren Watson / Columbia Journalism Review:
How Meta's Canada news ban affected the town of Squamish and how outlets are working around the ban, including through paid posts on Meta — Meta's Canadian news ban, as told through my small town — In March of 2021, a set of Facebook pages showed up in the feeds of my neighbors in Squamish …
Discussion:
Lauren Watson on LinkedIn, Phaedra de Saint-Rome on LinkedIn and @cjr
Sara Fischer / Axios:
A look at James McDonald's Access Global, which has bought seven local news sites and launched eight in Philadelphia and on the Jersey Shore over the last year — McDonald thinks there's a viable business model for hyper-local sites if they're tied to coverage from a broader region or city.
Discussion:
Simon Owens on LinkedIn
Patrick Frater / Variety:
Samsung TV Plus adds about 4,000 hours of ad-supported, free-to-stream Korean shows and movies, following deals with CJ ENM and others — Leading Korean content owners including CJ ENM and NEW ID have struck supply deals with Samsung TV Plus, a U.S. free ad-supported TV (FAST) channel.
Mark Trevelyan / Reuters:
Russian journalists Antonina Favorskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov, and Artem Kriger go on trial in Moscow over their alleged links to Alexei Navalny — Four Russian journalists went on trial in Moscow on Wednesday on charges of involvement in an “extremist” group after authorities accused …
Discussion:
Adweek, DNyuz and Associated Press