Mediagazer: Instagram updates Reels with a section for trending audio and hashtags, expands gifts to more countries, enhances its editing tools, adds new metrics, and more (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

6:35 PM ET, April 14, 2023

Top News:

Scholastic apologizes for asking a children's book author to cut language in an author's note about ongoing racism after saying the note might lessen readership — Concerns about censorship at Scholastic's Rising Voices Library, a diversity-focused provider of educational materials …

Discussion: Pretty Ok Maggie, Scholastic Media Room, @sharonreader, @veronikellymars, @pwkidsbookshelf, @rachelbitecofer, @penamerica, @lindasuepark and @joshfunkbooks

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:

Parlement Technologies sells Parler to digital media company Starboard, which plans to temporarily shut down the right-wing social network ahead of a relaunch — Social network popular with conservatives will be sold for an undisclosed amount and overhauled for a relaunch

Discussion: Reuters, Variety, The Hill, The Desk, The Wrap, Engadget, Deadline, Forbes, TheBlaze, Ars Technica, Fortune, Mediaite, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, @digiphile, The Verge, Recurrent, @starboardllc, Rolling Stone and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »

Patrick Frater / Variety:

Comcast invests $200M in James Murdoch and Uday Shankar's Bodhi Tree Systems, which will use the money to buy a minority stake in Indian media group Viacom18 — Comcast, the conglomerate behind NBCUniversal and the Sky European TV giant, is to invest $200 million in Bodhi Tree Systems …

Discussion: Reuters, Observer, The Hindu, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and TechCrunch

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Instagram updates Reels with a section for trending audio and hashtags, expands gifts to more countries, enhances its editing tools, adds new metrics, and more — As governments around the world express growing concerns about TikTok, its rival Instagram Reels is getting a series of new updates aimed at creators.

Discussion: Instagram for Creators, MediaPost, @mosseri, Tubefilter, Meta, Social Media Today, The Verge, Engadget, @lovebunnycos, @mattnavarra, @jeffveillette and @nickcicero, more at Techmeme »

Ryan Barwick / Marketing Brew:

Since cutting Taboola and open-market programmatic ads, Bloomberg has replaced those advertisers with in-house promos worth ~$7.4M over the past few months — Spring cleaning came early for Bloomberg Media. Last fall, the publisher said it would cut ties with the programmatic open marketplace …

Discussion: @outlandishjosh, @marketingbrew, @ckrewson and Media Voices

Zac Ntim / Deadline:

French fashion house Saint Laurent is launching a production banner headed by its creative director Anthony Vaccarello and debuting two short films at Cannes — French fashion house Saint Laurent is moving into the world of cinema with an official production banner headed by house creative director Anthony Vaccarello.

Discussion: WWD, @wwd, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap and Variety

Pete Pachal / CoinDesk:

CoinDesk plans to stop using generative AI images and spells out its rules for AI use in different contexts, requiring disclosure for articles but not headlines — Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are changing the way we work - especially the media. Here are the rules of the road for CoinDesk.

Discussion: @petepachal, @coindesk and @bmorrissey

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

A study of 33 UK media companies: the average median gender pay gap fell from 15.7% in 2017 to 12.1% in 2022 and the average mean gap fell from 17.7% to 13.7% — There are more men than women in the top-paid quartile at 91% of major UK media companies. — Men were paid more on average …

Discussion: @chartbeat, The Hill, @annieeaves, @dcnorg, @mattnavarra, @pressgazette and @pressgazette

Financial Times:

Sources: the European parliament is close to finalizing tough new measures on AI, including forcing chatbot makers to reveal if they use copyrighted material — Proposals include requiring chatbot makers to reveal if they are using copyrighted material — The European parliament …

Discussion: @tonyajoriley, @pt and @alexwitzleben, more at Techmeme »

Sheila Dang / Reuters:

Sensor Tower: Twitter's top 50 advertisers spent $83M over the past two months, down from $102M YoY; Mars, AT&T, Volkswagen, and Stellantis haven't returned — Twitter-owner Elon Musk has said advertisers are returning to the social media platform, but statements from several companies …

Discussion: @reuters and Media Matters for America, more at Techmeme »

Freya Drohan / Daily Front Row:

Dotdash Meredith names Sally Holmes editor-in-chief and general manager of InStyle, effective May 1; Holmes has been Marie Claire's editor-in-chief since 2020 — Dotdash Meredith has announced that Sally Holmes will assume the role of editor in chief and general manager of InStyle, effective May 1.

Discussion: MediaPost

John Boudreau / Bloomberg:

The US tells Vietnam to release blogger and Radio Free Asia contributor Nguyen Lan Thang, sentenced on April 12 to six years in prison for anti-state activities — The US called on Vietnam to release blogger Nguyen Lan Thang who was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday …

Discussion: Reuters, @southeastasiadc, @radiofreeasia, Committee to Protect …, Radio Free Asia, Agence France-Presse and USAGM

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 6:35 PM ET, April 14, 2023.

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Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Managing Editor, Remote US — Velo

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More News:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify plans to shut down Heardle on May 5, after acquiring the Wordle-inspired music guessing game in July 2022, to focus on other music discovery objectives

Discussion: @pinkelephant73, @jwjones252, @questlove, Billboard, Variety, The Verge, 9to5Mac, Engadget, @christinemhall, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Gizmodo and Fortune, more at Techmeme »

Nicholas Quah / Vulture:
A look at the Economist's aloof and listenable podcasts, which averaged ~25M downloads in March 2023 and have ~5M listeners, as the content gets more ambitious

Discussion: @natashaloder, @codendahl, @tiagodf, @birdyword and @eaterofsun

Earlier Picks:

Amanda Meade / The Guardian:
Screen Australia study: of 361 TV drama programs, 26% had entirely Anglo-Celtic main casts; First Nations main characters rose from 4.8% to 7.2% in five years

Discussion: @gregjamesbarton, @jason_om, Variety, Crikey, Mumbrella and Deadline

Brian Stelter / Vanity Fair:
Examining the key “reckless disregard” question in the Dominion-Fox trial, set to start next week; a source says Fox pursued settlement talks multiple times

From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
The Trump administration exempts smartphones, laptops, hard drives, processors, memory chips, and machines used to make semiconductors from reciprocal tariffs

Martine Paris / Forbes:
Sam Altman says ChatGPT users had doubled in the past few weeks and that “10% of the world uses our systems”, which would peg the number closer to 800M users

Kate Pickert / Bloomberg:
AI could transform medicine by helping doctors and medical students improve their empathy and bedside manner before they interact with real patients

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