Top News:
Katie Robertson / New York Times:
NYT reports 12.33M subscribers in Q3 after adding 460K digital subs, total revenue up 9.5% YoY to $700.8M, and adjusted operating profit up 26.1% YoY to $131.4M — The Times now has 12.33 million total subscribers to all of its products. It has said it is aiming for 15 million by the end of 2027.
Discussion:
The Wrap, The New York Times Company, @hblodget and @katie_robertson
Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Letter: the MPA sent a cease-and-desist to Meta over Instagram's use of PG-13 for teen content restrictions, calling it “literally false and highly misleading” — Meta says it never claimed or implied that its teen accounts were officially PG-13 rated or certified by MPA
Alex Reisner / The Atlantic:
A profile of nonprofit Common Crawl, which has scraped billions of webpages since 2013, including paywalled ones, to build an archive used by OpenAI and others — “You shouldn't have put your content on the internet if you didn't want it to be on the internet,” Common Crawl's executive director says.
Gina Kolata / New York Times:
Letters to the editor from writers using AI chatbots are flooding scientific journals, likely written by writers seeking to boost their number of citations — The rise of artificial intelligence has produced serial writers to science and medical journals, most likely using chatbots to boost the number of citations they've published.
Discussion:
@dannygroner.bsky.social and @jswatz.bsky.social
The Intercept:
YouTube confirms it removed 700+ videos from three prominent Palestinian human rights groups in early October to comply with US State Department sanctions — The tech giant deleted the accounts of three prominent Palestinian human rights groups — a capitulation to Trump sanctions.
Discussion:
@jonahmv, @_zachfoster, @falasteen47, @receipts_lol, @jonahmv.bsky.social and @nickturse.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »
Tarpley Hitt / The Guardian:
How “porno-troll” Strike 3, owner of porn production company Vixen, made millions by filing copyright suits accusing users of illegally downloading its videos — A company called Strike 3, owner of Vixen and Tushy, has clogged US courts with lawsuits, mostly against porn watchers who feel shamed into settling privately
Discussion:
@glynmoody@mastodon.social and @davelee.me, more at Techmeme »
Anthony Vargas / AdExchanger:
IAB announces a tool that lets device manufacturers confirm that ad impressions are associated with real devices; Google, Apple, and Amazon have signed on — How do you make sure you're serving ads to real connected TVs and not spoofed devices? Get the manufacturers to confirm they're legit.
Discussion:
TechCentral.ie
Julian Wyllie / Current:
PBS SoCal laid off 10% of staff, amounting to 10 positions, in October, citing the loss of $4.3M in federal funding — PBS SoCal in Los Angeles laid off 10% of staff last month, amounting to 10 positions across the organization. — “Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed …
Discussion:
@current.org
Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak:
Google removed 749M URLs linked to Anna's Archive, a popular shadow library for pirated books, over copyright claims, representing ~5% of all takedown requests — Popular shadow library Anna's Archive has become a top target for copyright holders. In just three years …
Discussion:
Neowin, more at Techmeme »
Clare Armstrong / ABC:
Australia broadens its social media ban for under-16s to include Reddit and Kick, which join Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube — In short: — Reddit and Kick will be included in Australia's social media ban for children under 16.
Discussion:
BBC, Billboard, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Capital Brief, 7NEWS, thenewdaily.com.au, Insider Gaming, The West Australian, Sky News Australia, Reuters, eSafety Commissioner, Bloomberg, @manjusrii.bsky.social, The Guardian, Dexerto, eSafety Commissioner, Australian Financial Review, The Saturday Paper and ABC, more at Techmeme »
Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
The Philadelphia Citizen, a decade-old nonprofit dedicated to solutions journalism, acquires Philadelphia Magazine, another instance of nonprofit consolidation — The Philadelphia Citizen, the decade-old nonprofit dedicated to solutions journalism and civic engagement, has acquired Philadelphia Magazine.
Discussion:
@jeffjarvis
Simon Goodley / The Guardian:
Sources: some Telegraph directors alerted the UK government that RedBird's Gerry Cardinale may have breached rules protecting the paper's editorial independence — UK government alerted after RedBird Capital's boss allegedly threatened to ‘go to war’ with the title's newsroom
