Mediagazer: Q&A with Bryan Curtis, editor at large at the Ringer, on why podcasts are dominating the 2024 US election, covering the podcast sector, and more (Erik Wemple/Washington Post)

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Source: Trump is planning to record an interview for Joe Rogan's podcast on October 25; Harris has also reportedly been in talks to go on Rogan's podcast — Former President Donald Trump is expected to record an interview with podcasting behemoth Joe Rogan on Friday.

Stephen Totilo / Game File:

Netflix shut down AAA game studio “Team Blue”, which hired industry veterans and seemed set to pursue a big-budget multi-device strategy, amid a gaming shake-up — The SoCal studio boasted senior veterans from Halo, God of War and Overwatch — One of Netflix's most intriguing video game studios is no more.

Dan Milmo / The Guardian:

Penguin Random House, UMG, and SAG-AFTRA join 11.5K+ signatories of an open letter saying the “unlicensed use of creative works” to train AI must not be allowed — Statement comes as tech firms try to use creative professionals' work to train AI models

Discussion: The Verge, @drrimmer@aus.social, AV Club, The Wrap, Financial Times, @JulianOliver@mastodon.social, The Hill, Washington Post, @JulietEMcKenna@wandering.shop, Digital Music News, Martin S. on LinkedIn, TechCrunch, Engadget, Stereogum and The Bookseller, more at Techmeme »

Lori Lewis / Inside Radio:

Insignia Capital Group strikes two deals targeting audio and advertising, agreeing to acquire Veritone One, for as much as $104M, and ad agency Oxford Road — Insignia Capital Group, a San Francisco Bay Area private equity firm focused on lower middle-market companies …

Discussion: MediaPost, Veritone, Radio Ink, Barrett Media and Bloomberg

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Q&A with Bryan Curtis, editor at large at the Ringer, on why podcasts are dominating the 2024 US election, covering the podcast sector, and more — Candidates are changing the way they try to reach new audiences. Traditional media need to keep up. … Monopolies and oligopolies don't yield courteously to competition.

Max Tani / Semafor:

Sources: Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong decided the Los Angeles Times will not endorse a presidential candidate; it also didn't endorse from the mid-1970s until 2008 — The Scoop — The owner of the Los Angeles Times has blocked the paper from endorsing a candidate for president this year.

Discussion: Deadline, Mediaite, Daily Mail, Fox News, SFGATE, Blaze Media, Breitbart, Townhall, RedState, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, @mediaite, @joelvanderwerf@mastodon …, @semaforben, @maxwelltani, @dylanbyers, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Twitchy

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Internal memo: Morning Brew is rebranding its corporate name to Morning Brew Inc., and says its new B2B products and events generated $4.5M in 2024 revenue — - “We decided that we had built too much affinity for the Morning Brew name and brand to start fresh.

Discussion: Siri Cosper on LinkedIn and Talking Biz News

New York Times:

The US charges a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards in connection with a failed plot to kill Iranian American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad in 2022 — The failed plot to kill Masih Alinejad, a human-rights activist, has already led to murder-for-hire charges against members …

Discussion: Agence France-Presse, Voice of America, New York Post, KDFX-TV, Associated Press, The Hill, US Department of Justice, Axios, Semafor and Reuters

Financial Times:

Documents show Dish creditors pushed DirecTV to increase the amount of Dish's debt DirecTV would take on, but DirecTV has refused, leading to an impasse — New correspondence between DirecTV and Dish creditors shows the two are stuck at an impasse — TPG's bid to form a $23bn US satellite …

Discussion: Light Reading and Bloomberg

Jamie Lang / Variety:

Rakuten TV unveils new B2B services to help content owners and distributors set up FAST channels and video apps on Tizen, webOS, Fire TV, Roku, and more — Rakuten TV, a leader in European streaming and FAST channels, will unveil its new business line, Rakuten TV Enterprise Services, from Mipcom today.

Discussion: Advanced Television, The Desk, Broadband TV News, TVNewsCheck and WORLD SCREEN

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

TelevisaUnivision reports Q3 revenue up 2% YoY to $1.3B, operating expenses up 1% YoY to $878M, and says its DTC business is now profitable after two years — Gains in U.S. advertising revenue and the sale of a set of broadcasting towers helped Spanish-language giant notch increase profits …

Discussion: The Desk, Inside Radio, MediaPost, TVNewsCheck, Radio Ink, TelevisaUnivision, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Sources: Spotify is piloting its own supply-side platform, starting with video ad inventory, and began testing its SSP plugin with The Trade Desk last week — - Those improvements will help the Swedish audio giant compete against bigger platforms like Meta and Google for ad dollars.

Discussion: Bill Roche on LinkedIn, Jeff Green on LinkedIn and @sarafischer