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Aaron Royce / Daily Front Row:
Anna Wintour told staffers she is stepping down as American Vogue's EIC but will remain Condé Nast's chief content officer and Vogue's global editorial director — Surprise! Anna Wintour is stepping down from her role at American Vogue. Wintour—who's led American Vogue as editor …
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Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
The BBC launches a subscription of $49.99 per year, or $8.99 per month, for US users to get unlimited access to its news, features, and a BBC News livestream — Move is significant step forward in driving overseas revenue for the UK's public service broadcaster
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Isaiah Poritz / Bloomberg Law:
A US judge rules that Meta's use of books to train Llama is protected by fair use but says his opinion is more a reflection of the plaintiffs' poor arguments — Meta Platforms Inc. escaped a first-of-its-kind copyright lawsuit from a group of authors who alleged the tech giant hoovered …
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Blake Brittain / Reuters:
A group of authors sue Microsoft in a NY federal court, claiming the company used nearly 200,000 pirated books without permission to train its Megatron AI model
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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple execs discussed starting their own theatrical distribution unit; Warner Bros. is distributing the F1 movie and getting a share of the box office — Six years after getting into entertainment, Apple lags behind its rivals in streaming subscribers and mainstream appeal, despite lavish spending on A-list stars
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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall, a Google Ad Manager tool to help publishers generate revenue beyond ads, including via micropayments — Google's AI search features are killing traffic to publishers, so now the company is proposing a possible solution.
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Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
How brands are helping finance Hollywood projects in the planning stages and collaborating more closely with talent, distributors, and production companies — Marketers are pushing for their brands to appear in more movies and TV shows, and entertainment execs are adjusting the way things are done to let them in
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Marketing Dive, @mediaevan, TVNewsCheck and Adweek
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Amazon says Prime Video in India caters to “subscription-ready” customers while Amazon MX Player is aimed at those transitioning from traditional media — Amazon is playing a dual-platform game in India's competitive streaming landscape, with Prime Video targeting subscription-ready consumers …
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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Audacy says it will close its Pineapple Street podcast studio, exiting the business of distributing shows for outside parties and leading to job cuts — Audacy, the radio station owner backed by billionaire George Soros, said Thursday it will close its Pineapple Street podcast studio …
Scott Nover / Washington Post:
Testifying before Congress, Kari Lake said reform at USAGM “was not possible” but the CEOs of RFE/RL, RFA and MBN said she had not met with them even once — The senior adviser to the the U.S. Agency for Global Media said that she's rooting out waste and abuse.
Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
DirecTV strikes a distribution agreement with Paramount Global, and unveils a $20/month MyKids plan with content from Paramount, Disney, WBD, and more — CBS-owned broadcast stations and cable networks like MTV, Paramount Network, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon are joining DirecTV's streaming genre-based packages.
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Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
YouTube launches an AI Overviews-like carousel for searches related to shopping, places, and things to do in a specific place, for Premium users in the US — YouTube is rolling out new AI-powered features to help users find content and information more easily, the company announced on Thursday.
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Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
Report finds extensive overlap between colleges and public media outlets: 59% of public media orgs provide regular opportunities for college students — How much overlap and collaboration is there between public media and higher education? — That's the question a new report from the Center …
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Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News:
DirecTV experiments with discontinuing satellite TV subscriptions for new customers in several US regions and directing subscribers toward its streaming option — DIRECTV, a leading provider of television entertainment, has announced a significant shift in its service offerings …
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The Wrap, The TV Answer Man!, How-To Geek, TVNewsCheck, Variety and Market Research Reports
