Mediagazer: Hearst CEO Steve Swartz says more than 50% of Hearst's profits will come from B2B products this year; it has spent $14B on B2B acquisitions over the past decade (Sara Fischer/Axios)

Top News:

OpenAI suspends early access to Sora after ~20 artists leaked access to the tool in protest of the company's treatment of creative professionals as “PR puppets” — A group of artists created a webpage allowing anyone to make AI videos using Sora. They argue the maker of ChatGPT used artists as “PR puppets” without pay.

Discussion: The Wrap, @carnage4life@mas.to, Reclaim The Net, Entrepreneur, Ars Technica, @tsimonite, @justinhendrix.bsky.social, Variety, AV Club and Tom's Guide

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
A group published a Hugging Face project that let anyone generate videos using OpenAI's Sora, protesting what it calls the company's duplicity and “art washing”

Daniel Kaplan / Awful Announcing:

The US DOJ and 17 state attorneys general file briefs for Fubo and against Venu Sports, which is trying to get an injunction lifted that blocked Venu's launch — Fubo, Venu Sports logos. — The Department of Justice came out strongly in support of FuboTV in its battle against Venu …

Discussion: Reuters, Sportico, TVNewsCheck, The Desk, Sportico and Cord Cutters News

Frank Connelly / Bloomberg:

Vivendi says one of its small investors seeks to delay Vivendi's spinoff of Canal+, Havas, and Louis Hachette Group; shareholders were due to vote December 9 — Vivendi SE said investor CIAM has filed with the Paris Commercial Court to postpone its shareholder meeting scheduled for next month …

Discussion: Bloomberg and The Times

Bloomberg Media:

Mishal Husain, who presented the BBC's Today programme for the past eleven years, plans to leave in 2025 to launch a Bloomberg Weekend Edition interview series — Bloomberg News today announced that award-winning broadcaster and journalist Mishal Husain is joining as Editor-at-Large on Bloomberg Weekend Edition.

Voice of America:

A Russian court sentences journalist Nika Novak, who has been a freelance reporter at RFE/RL, to four years in prison for her work with foreign media outlets — In a closed-door trial Tuesday, a Russian court sentenced a journalist to four years in prison for her work with foreign media outlets.

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, USAGM and Associated Press

Associated Press:

A federal judge dismisses a defamation lawsuit against Fox News by Ray Epps, who said Fox aired conspiracy theories about his Jan. 6 Capitol riot involvement — A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a defamation lawsuit against Fox News by a former Donald Trump supporter …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Just The News, NBC News, Mediaite, @GottaLaff@mastodon.social, New York Times, The Post Millennial, Los Angeles Times, The Independent, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit and Raw Story

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

A US judge dismisses a Netflix shareholder lawsuit accusing the company of downplaying the impact of account sharing on subscriber growth — Netflix (NFLX.O) won the dismissal on Tuesday of a shareholder lawsuit accusing the streaming company of downplaying the impact on subscriber growth …

Discussion: The Desk, BGR and Los Angeles Times

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Hearst CEO Steve Swartz says more than 50% of Hearst's profits will come from B2B products this year; it has spent $14B on B2B acquisitions over the past decade — - That's up from 13% in 2013. — Swartz credits the company's B2B (business-to-business) investments for helping …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review

Lucia Moses / Business Insider:

Walmart launches its first shoppable feature film, Jingle Bell Love, produced by Roku; last year, Walmart produced a shoppable TV series — - This month, Walmart launched its first shoppable feature film, “Jingle Bell Love,” with Roku. — It's ramping up its efforts this holiday to get people to shop while watching TV.

Discussion: The Verge, Tv Technology, The Desk, Lucia Moses on LinkedIn, StreamTV Insider, Marketing Dive, MediaPost, TVNewsCheck, Media Play News and Radio & Television …

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:

Spotify will no longer allow developers building new third-party apps with its Web API to access several features, such as song and artist recommendations — Spotify will no longer allow developers building third-party apps with its Web API to access several features within the music streaming platform …

Discussion: Spotify for Developers, @mzeff.bsky.social and The Spotify Community, more at Techmeme »

John Buckley / Capital Brief:

Sources: a group of Australian media organizations including Seven West, ABC, SBS, and ACM forms an alliance to bargain collectively with AI firms — The alliance highlights Australian media companies' urgency in seeking revenue from AI firms using their content to train large language models.

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Charlie Rose settles with three former CBS employees who sued him in 2018 for sexual harassment; CBS fired Rose in November 2017 after a Washington Post report — Charlie Rose has reached a settlement with three former CBS employees who sued him in 2018 for sexual harassment.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Post, People and TVNewsCheck

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

Disney hires Sky CFO Karl Holmes to run Disney+ in the EMEA, replacing Luke Bradley-Jones, who left to become president of The Economist earlier in 2024 — Holmes has spent the last decade at Sky in a variety of senior roles, leading teams across functions including marketing, operations, finance, commercial and data.

Discussion: Variety