Top News:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
TelevisaUnivision reports Q3 revenue down 3% YoY to $1.3B and $90.5M net income, down from $190.3M YoY; subscription and licensing revenue rose 3% YoY to $493M — Spanish-language giant TelevisaUnivision said third-quarter profit declined as the company continued its efforts to streamline operations …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
BBC Strictly Come Dancing presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are leaving at the end of this season after 10+ years; Strictly is the BBC's biggest show — Strictly Come Dancing presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are exiting at the end of this season.
Discussion:
HELLO!, The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Star, E! Online, GB News, Mirror, closeronline.co.uk, RTÉ, The Guardian, Variety, TheJournal.ie and Just Jared
Janko Roettgers / The Verge:
Microdrama platforms borrow aggressive, user-hostile monetization and retention tactics from free-to-play mobile gaming to fuel in-app purchases and ad revenue — Apps like ReelShort and DramaBox have seen strong growth and huge revenue numbers by embracing user-hostile design choices.
RELATED:
Angela Fu / Poynter:
How Chicago journalists are covering the ICE raids, a task made more difficult by the agencies' unpredictability, lack of transparency, and attacks on press — 'It's really exhausting, mentally and physically. But somebody has to record history' — Ever since federal agents arrived …
Discussion:
Chicago Sun Times, The Independent, HotAir, Block Club Chicago and American Prospect
Marine Doux / Columbia Journalism Review:
Meta's removal of all ads on “political, electoral, and social issues” in response to an EU law has swept up thousands of promotional posts from news outlets — When outlets depend on a single platform, what works to reach readers today can vanish tomorrow. — Read this article in French in Médianes.
Discussion:
MediaNama
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
MuckRock and Sunlight Research Center merge; Sunlight provides training, tools, and support for investigative reporting, with a focus on local news — A merger between MuckRock and Sunlight Research Center will help slimmed-down newsrooms investigate local governments, public officials, and more.
Discussion:
Brandi Grissom Swicegood on LinkedIn, MuckRock, @niemanlab.org and @sarahscire.com
Tania Myronyshena / The Kyiv Independent:
Journalists Olena Hramova and Yevhen Karmazin of Ukraine's Freedom TV were killed in a Russian drone strike Thursday in Donetsk; Oleksandr Kolychev was injured — Freedom TV journalist Olena Hramova and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin were killed in a Russian drone strike on Kramatorsk …
Discussion:
Committee to Protect … and Reuters
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The UK's Observer signs a commercial partnership deal with AI-powered news reader Particle News, joining Time, the LAT, Fortune, and The Atlantic — The Observer has signed a commercial partnership deal with AI-powered news platform Particle News as it ramps up its digital presence as a standalone brand.
Seb Joseph / Digiday:
Amazon Web Services announces AWS RTB Fabric, a real-time bidding service for ad buyers and sellers, aiming to cut integration hours between ad tech partners — The ad dollars are nice but the real prize for Amazon is the infrastructure itself - the rails on which the entire system runs.
Discussion:
The Hill, Variety, Amazon Web Services, AdExchanger, TVNewsCheck and The Register
Natalie Korach / Status:
Sources: WaPo is planning newsroom cuts to the audio, sports, and metro teams, and Opinion Editor Adam O'Neal said WaPo is in “severe financial distress” — On Tuesday morning, staffers at The Washington Post received a memo from Executive Editor Matt Murray …
New York Times:
In a letter, David Ellison told the WBD board that Paramount was WBD's only viable suitor, as offers from bigger companies would invite regulatory scrutiny — A letter from Paramount's chief executive, David Ellison, to Warner Bros.' board of directors reveals weeks of talks between the two companies.
Discussion:
CNN, The Information, The Movie Blog, New York Post, @futurexander.bsky.social, Media Play News, Reuters, C21Media, Screen, @laurenshirsch, @brianstelter, MacDailyNews, Wall Street Journal, Puck, TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, Motley Fool, Mediaweek, Variety, The Ankler, CNBC, TheStreet, The Streamable, Straight Arrow News, Euronews, France 24, Times of India, RTÉ, Benzinga and Deadline
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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Source: WBD plans to require potential bidders to sign NDAs before it shares sensitive financial data; sources say Amazon and Apple have shown an interest
Source: WBD plans to require potential bidders to sign NDAs before it shares sensitive financial data; sources say Amazon and Apple have shown an interest
Discussion:
The Verge, BGR, CNBC, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, New York Times, iClarified, The Wrap, TheDesk.net and Daily Mail, more at Techmeme »
Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:
VideoShops, an affiliate retail platform that lets creators start personalized storefronts with no minimum follower count, raised a $42M seed — Abra Potkin and Nicole Winnaman are changing that — When you think of the most basic definition of an influencer — a person whose recommendations …
Discussion:
Shop My Shelf, INC. and The Business of Fashion, more at Techmeme »
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Source: Suno hit ~$150M in ARR from subscriptions to its app, up nearly 4x YoY; it has $10 and $30 per month subscription tiers, implying 5M+ subscribers — You can count the number of breakout consumer AI applications on the fingers of one hand. There's OpenAI's ChatGPT and...that's about it, at least so far.
James Hibberd / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix plans to release the Stranger Things S5 finale in 350 US and Canadian movie theaters at 5pm PT December 31 through January 1 despite previous statements — The streamer has confirmed that the hit show's finale will be in theaters after previously seeming to shoot down the idea …
Discussion:
New Jersey Online, Rolling Stone, Variety, Screen Rant, IGN, UPI, Den of Geek, @thespaceshipper.com, Spyglass, Media Play News and Sherwood News
