Top News:
Victoria Gomelsky / New York Times:
Watches of Switzerland Group, one of the world's largest watch retailers, acquires the watch enthusiast website Hodinkee, says coverage will remain independent — Neither Benjamin Clymer, its founder, nor the Watches of Switzerland Group would disclose terms, but they stressed that coverage would continue to be independent.
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The Mirror, MarketWatch, Fortune, London Evening Standard, City A.M., @robbreport, @aspeciale, @kstahl, WWD, Forbes Australia, @will__stern, cllct, Hodinkee, Daniela Morena on LinkedIn, Benjamin Clymer on LinkedIn, @hiddenvaluegems, Lorcan McCabe on LinkedIn, Katie Reed on LinkedIn, Adam Schoenberg on LinkedIn, Bloomberg, @etkeld, @penttijokinen, @reb40, @ilyakan2004, @rafat, @cllctmedia and Robb Report
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
An interview with ex-NBCUniversal executive Evan Shapiro on why streaming is a “shitty” business, Netflix ads, and why Hollywood must band together to thrive — After an Iberseries & Platino Industria keynote, the “media universe cartographer” explains why streaming is a “sh**ty” …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Mullenweg says WordPress.org “belongs to me personally”, as his WP Engine feud blurs the lines between WordPress.org, the WordPress Foundation, and Automattic — The lines between the WordPress open-source project, the nonprofit backing it, and the commercial arm owned by Automattic are blurring.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Meta unveils Movie Gen, which creates up to 16-second videos from a text prompt, available to some staff and partners; Meta plans to add it to its apps in 2025 — Movie Gen tool can create short videos from a text prompt — Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. debuted a new artificial intelligence tool …
Discussion:
Meta, Andrew Weld-Moore on LinkedIn, Mike Hollander on LinkedIn, Siddharth Bhattacharya on LinkedIn, iPhone in Canada Blog, @jimclydego, @soumithchintala, @dr_cintas, @prashant_1722, @ahmad_al_dahle, @koltregaskes, @prashant_1722, @nearcyan, @kimmonismus, @reece___rogers, @arankomatsuzaki, @soumithchintala, @_akhaliq, @prashant_1722, TechRadar, DNyuz, AV Club, Futurism, ZDNET, MediaPost, Ars Technica, Financial Times, Gizmodo, CNET, PetaPixel, The Information, Engadget, Digital Trends, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Neowin, The Verge, Reuters, New York Times, @aaldahle@threads.net, @jakebailey@threads.net, @aiatmeta@threads.net, @evolving.ai@threads.net, @chriscox@threads.net, Wired and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
ProPublica:
Sources and records: Trump Media has forced out its COO, CPO, and other executives after internal allegations that CEO Devin Nunes is mismanaging the company — Several people involved with the former president's company, operator of Truth Social, believe the departures …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Newsweek, Barron's Online, Fortune, New York Magazine, CNBC, Gizmodo, New Republic, DNyuz, TVNewsCheck, The Daily Beast, CBS News, New York Post, @jdluckenbach, @robertfaturechi, @brianstelter, @devincow, KSTP-TV, @JenniferSlack@mastodon.social and @ProPublica@newsie.social
Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Google NotebookLM's Audio Overview feature, which was built by Google Labs and has gone viral for its AI-generated “deep dive” podcasts with two hosts — With this Google tool, you can now listen to a show about any topic you could possibly imagine. You won't believe your ears.
Discussion:
@ericjorgenson, @davetroy, @karpathy, @cnbctechcheck, @karpathy, @stevenbjohnson, @omartosca, @stevenbjohnson, @omarsar0, @firstadopter, @ambermac, @elonmusk, Barron's Online, @karpathy, MIT Technology Review, Forbes, MIT Technology Review, Axios and Hard Fork on YouTube, more at Techmeme »
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Filing: Nexstar cuts its chief revenue officer position, and CRO Michael Strober will leave the company on October 30; he was hired after Nexstar bought The CW — Nexstar Media Group, which hired Turner veteran Michael Strober as EVP and Chief Revenue Officer in 2022, has eliminated his position.
Discussion:
The Desk, TVNewsCheck and Variety
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Leading UK cultural figures decry Observer's planned sale to Tortoise as “a betrayal” of liberal journalism; Guardian, Observer staff consider striking — Guardian and Observer journalists have agreed they may take industrial action in protest at plans to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.
Karen Raugust / Publishers Weekly:
Penguin renews its master publishing deal with BBC Studios for Bluey books; the books have sold 20M+ copies in 22 languages worldwide, including 8.5M in the US — Penguin has renewed its master publishing deal with BBC Studios for the hit preschool animated series Bluey.
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica:
YouTube says it fixed an issue that appeared to affect thousands of accounts, incorrectly flagging channels as spam, removing them, and disabling subscriptions — YouTube confirmed Friday that a bug mistakenly removing seemingly thousands of accounts wrongly marked as sharing spam and deceptive content was finally fixed.
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A UK judge rules that GB News can challenge an Ofcom ruling about a Q&A show with Rishi Sunak in a court hearing, but says Ofcom can keep pursuing sanctions — But the broadcaster failed in its bid to temporarily block Ofcom from publishing a sanction against it.
Discussion:
Financial Times, Financial Times and Broadband TV News
Dan Rys / Billboard:
Warner Music Group and Meta strike a multiyear licensing deal across all Meta platforms, including WhatsApp for the first time — The deal will cover WhatsApp for the first time and includes an agreement to jointly tackle issues around generative AI on Meta's platforms.
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