Top News:
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
The Washington Post's new Your Personal Podcast, which offers AI-generated customizable podcasts, was developed under a multiyear agreement with ElevenLabs — The Washington Post has used AI to build a pick-your-own-format news podcast, letting listeners choose the topics, hosts and length to create custom versions.
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Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: WaPo's top standards editor decried “frustrating” errors in its new AI-generated personalized podcasts, announced this week for users of its mobile app — The Scoop — The Washington Post's top standards editor Thursday decried “frustrating” errors …
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The Wrap, Press Watch, TVNewsCheck, @claytonguse, @ericfingerhut, Simon Owens on LinkedIn, @maxwelltani, Podnews, @jimantle, @mugrimm.bsky.social, Mediaite and Raw Story
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost — The loss of federal funding forced a difficult decision, the executive director of Arkansas TV said: Cut PBS, or go off the air entirely.
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney will make a $1B investment in OpenAI and become a major OpenAI customer — The Walt Disney Company on Thursday announced it will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and will allow users …
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
In a message to members, the WGA says Disney's licensing deal with OpenAI “appears to sanction” OpenAI's “theft of our work”, and it plans to meet with Disney
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney sends Google a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Google of “massive scale” copyright infringement and using AI to “exploit and distribute” its content
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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Bob Iger says the OpenAI deal “does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all” because it doesn't include name, likeness, or character voices
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Axios:
The OpenAI deal gives Disney a fair amount of oversight and control over how its IP is used, including a joint steering committee to monitor user creations
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Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources: the tenure of Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, Fortune's outgoing CEO, was marked by turmoil over a clash with Victor Pang, a lawyer for the company's owner — Last week, the financial news publisher Fortune abruptly parted ways with chief executive Anastasia Nyrkovskaya.
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Sources: DMGT has locked down funding for its £500M acquisition of the Telegraph, in a funding package expected to comprise equity and debt — Daily Mail owner to submit deal for approval as rival suitor Dovid Efune gets new backing from Baltimore Sun's David Smith
Discussion:
Sky News
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Amazon Prime Video pulls its AI recaps, which it began testing in November, for Fallout, Bosch, and other shows after users noticed errors in the Fallout recaps — Fallout's season one recap wrongly stated that The Ghoul's flashback takes place in the 1950s, rather than the year 2077.
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Ben Weiss / Fortune:
YouTube launches an option for US-based creators to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD — Big Tech continues to tiptoe into crypto. The latest example is a move by YouTube to let creators on the video platform choose to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin.
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Jonathan Cordeau on LinkedIn, PYMNTS.com, Coin Edition, Coinpedia Fintech News, Coinspeaker, Bitcoinist.com, Bitcoin Insider, Blockonomi, BeInCrypto, Decrypt, COINOTAG, crypto.news, The Crypto Basic, The Block, The Crypto Times, Blockchain.News, Cryptonews, Cointelegraph, Benzinga and Crypto Briefing, more at Techmeme »
Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz:
[Thread] Substack quietly added a feature that forced subscribers to download the app to read full newsletters but say they've rolled it back after complaints — I love Substack. Always have. Their team is great. But a silent change could force me off the platform if it stays. They broke email. My paid subscribers cannot read today's paid newsletter on mobile without downloading the Substack app. @SubstackInc: roll this back. Now. [image]
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@tkwoncpa, @selviano, @precious_m_e, @denk_tweets, @staysaasy, @gergelyorosz, @raulriera, @dceddia and @leozera, more at Techmeme »
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The Guardian names Netflix's former director of product Allan Donald as its first VP of product; Donald oversaw the content discovery operation at Netflix — Netflix's former director of product has been appointed for newly created position. — Netflix director of product Allan Donald …
Discussion:
InPublishing and Journalism.co.uk
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service launches on “eligible” Comcast and Rogers X1 and Xfinity stream boxes in the US and Canada — Luna relaunched earlier this year, and now, it will be available on more devices. … Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service is coming to cable boxes from Comcast and Rogers.
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Ubergizmo, Business Wire, Notebookcheck, Streaming Better, CNET, Cord Cutters News, The Streamable, Financial Post and TheDesk.net
Alex Heath / Sources:
An interview with Nikita Bier, who wants to lure journalists back to X with a rebuilt recommendation algorithm with no keyword suppression or manual downranking — X wants its haters back Product chief Nikita Bier on journalists who left: “We have to earn their trust.”
Discussion:
Implicator.ai and @alexeheath.com, more at Techmeme »
Reuters:
Reddit files a lawsuit against Australia to overturn its social media ban for under-16s, saying it “infringes the implied freedom of political communication” — Message board website Reddit (RDDT.N) on Friday filed a lawsuit asking the High Court to overturn Australia's social media ban …
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