Mediagazer: Spotify adds new audiobook features for Premium users: video clips up to 30 seconds long, Author Pages, and visuals that appear while users listen (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)

10:20 AM ET, November 21, 2024

Top News:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate — Comcast shares posted modest gains Wednesday after the company announced its plan to spin off all of NBCUniversal's cable networks …

Discussion: Alex Sherman on LinkedIn, Business Insider, Associated Press, The Streamable, Reuters and MediaPost

CNBC:
Comcast confirms plans to spin off its NBCUniversal cable TV networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, with Mark Lazarus as CEO; the separation may take about a year

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Comcast, Deadline, Raw Story, CNN, Doug Herzog on LinkedIn, New York Times, Engadget, @brianjmoylan.bsky.social, Marketplace, @sherman4949, Los Angeles Times, Variety, RetailWire, @mediaite, @brianstelter, @benmullin, @colbyhall, @sarafischer, @benmullin, @brianstelter, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, @jeffjarvis, AV Club, Radio & Television …, @nemalki.bsky.social, Philadelphia Business Journal, One America News Network, The Wrap, Front Office Sports, Forbes, Ars Technica, IJR, Axios, Breitbart, Fast Company, @great_katzby, USA Today, Total Telecom, TechCrunch, acecomments.mu.nu, Washington Examiner, Adweek, The Guardian, Media Play News, Stephani Shelton on LinkedIn, Newser, HotAir, Cord Cutters News, The Desk, NBC News, @stark.soy, The Hollywood Reporter, Mediaite, Bloomberg, @joshuabenton.com, Fox Business, The Verge, HuffPost, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, Fortune, Barron's Online, Talking Biz News, Benzinga, Financial Times, The Hollywood Reporter, The Information, @amolsharma.bsky.social, NBC News, Media Play News, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, Variety, Ad Age, CNN, Awful Announcing, Cord Cutters News, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Business Insider and Wall Street Journal

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Sources: Comcast execs told staff that MSNBC may have to change its identity as part of the spinoff, including losing access to NBC News' newsgathering process

Liz Hoffman / Semafor:
Sources: under current plans, Comcast's new spun off entity would carry little of its $101B of debt, giving it the ability to borrow for acquisitions

Discussion: @semaforben and Bloomberg

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Comcast's spinoff is essentially a garage sale of its basic cable TV networks, as the number of people paying for and watching cable networks falls every year

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @pkafka, @pkafka.bsky.social, Advanced Television, Reuters, MediaPost and WHEC.com

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:

Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery — Tubi, the free ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox, has unveiled a new feature designed to set it apart from its rivals …

Discussion: CNET, Tom's Guide, Cord Cutters News and @2xaught7.bsky.social

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian — James Harding confronts fierce opposition but says sale to his digital start-up only way for Sunday title to thrive

Discussion: The Times, The Guardian, National Union of Journalists …, Telegraph and New Statesman

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Tortoise says it plans to invest £25M in Observer over five years, aiming to turn it into a self-funded, paywalled newsbrand with 100K new digital subscribers

Discussion: Telegraph, @danielthomasldn, @jobmaynooth.bsky.social, @carolecadwalla.bsky.social, @dominicponsford.bsky.social, @jacksommers.bsky.social, @shattenstone.bsky.social, @shattenstone.bsky.social, @shattenstone.bsky.social, @annafazack.bsky.social, @pressgazette.co.uk, @michaelgoodier.bsky.social and Guido Fawkes

James Warrington / Telegraph:
Almost 93% of 600 Guardian and Observer staff organized by the NUJ vote in favor of strike action over the proposed sale of The Observer to Tortoise

Discussion: @pressgazette, @carolecadwalla, @martinbright, @soniasodha, The Independent, The New European, National Union of Journalists …, Financial Times and The Times

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:

Filing: the US DOJ's proposal requires Google to allow websites more ability to opt-out of its AI products and provide more ad placement controls to advertisers — - Antitrust officials propose options in historic lawsuit — Google says government pushing ‘radical agenda’ beyond case

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:

Spotify adds new audiobook features for Premium users: video clips up to 30 seconds long, Author Pages, and visuals that appear while users listen — Spotify is enhancing the audiobook experience for premium users through three new experiments: video clips, author pages, and the ability to add visuals that appear while users listen.

Discussion: Spotify

Guthrie Scrimgeour / Wired:

Hawaii's The Garden Island discontinues the use of AI-generated newscasters on YouTube and Instagram after two months, likely due to negative public response — A local newspaper in Hawaii experimented with AI-generated presenters to engage and boost its readership. After two months, the bots have been shelved.

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack — I am upset by the above, but only insofar as I'm jealous that I had never thought to make the analogy to an author telling people to “read my Amazon”.

Discussion: @inscho.org, @kyleboas.com, @daringfireball@mastodon …, @anildash.com, @laminda.bsky.social, @bcmerchant.bsky.social, @m2m@sonomu.club, stevegattuso.me and Anil Dash

Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter:

Streamlabs: Twitch accounted for 82.3% of total Q3 streaming hours, with YouTube Gaming in second place at 5.6%; Kick grew 204% from Q2 2023 to Q3 2024 — For years, the Logitech-owned creator dashboard Streamlabs and its data partner Stream Hatchet have compiled quarterly progress reports for the streaming industry.

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper and Streamlabs, more at Techmeme »

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Trump says Republicans must kill the PRESS Act, which would protect journalists' records and sources from the US government; the bill is stalled in the Senate — The bill, known as the PRESS Act, would codify protections against federal investigators seizing reporters' records.

Discussion: CNN, @slbuffington.bsky.social, Freedom of the Press …, The Daily Caller, @kgosztola.bsky.social, Media Nation, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, Crooks and Liars, @freedom.press and @freedom.press

Terry Gross / NPR:

Excerpts from a Q&A with Marty Baron and David Remnick on coming retribution against media: prosecutions for posting government leaks, public media cuts, more — Heading into a second term, New Yorker editor David Remnick says Donald Trump's anger “has been never so intense as it's been against the press.”

Discussion: The Conversation

Manuela Vega / Toronto Star:

Rogers Sports & Media lays off more than two dozen employees in its radio and podcasting divisions, citing declining revenue and challenges in advertising — The company has said there will be no closures or terminations of stations, programming or podcasts.

Discussion: Inside Radio, CBC News and Globe and Mail

Harrison Smith / Washington Post:

Reg Murphy, an editor and publisher in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Baltimore, died Nov. 9 at 90; he was kidnapped in 1974 by a man angry at “liberal news media” — As a top editor at the Atlanta Constitution, he was held for a $700,000 ransom. He was later the publisher …

Discussion: New York Times, @tomsherwood, @slbuffington.bsky.social and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social