Mediagazer: Elon Musk's intent in buying Twitter wasn't only to dismantle a tool he perceived as empowering the media but also to turn the app into a right-wing heavyweight (Philip Bump/Washington Post)

4:35 PM ET, May 24, 2023

Top News:

Elon Musk's intent in buying Twitter wasn't only to dismantle a tool he perceived as empowering the media but also to turn the app into a right-wing heavyweight — It was only a year ago that Elon Musk, then simply the guy who was hoping to buy Twitter, insisted that his politics sat squarely at the center of the national spectrum.

NBC News:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis plans to launch his presidential bid on Twitter Spaces on May 24, in a discussion with Elon Musk moderated by David Sacks — The Florida governor will announce he is running for president on Twitter Wednesday evening in a conversation with Musk.

Discussion: Axios, Insider, Quartz, Semafor, New York Times, The Hill, Mediaite, @brianstelter, TechCrunch, Reuters, Fox News, CNN, Garbage Day, Axios, Politico, @cwarzel, Vanity Fair, @jbouie, @semaforben, Slate, TIME, Media Matters for America, Poynter, @svdate, The Source, Reason, @jordanbpeterson, NBC Bay Area, @jaynordlinger, UPROXX, The Daily Signal, @tfl1728, @wholemarsblog, ABC7, @michaelkruse, @joncoopertweets, The Messenger, @digiphile, @digiphile, The Verge, Boing Boing, @briannawu, @rmac18, @joohnchoe, @christinapushaw, @ozraeliavi, @simonwdc, @lanceulanoff, @rubinreport, @bakari_sellers, @emeriticus, @cwarzel, @mattbinder, @rachelbitecofer, @chrislhayes, @warddpatrick, @scalzi, @shanegoldmacher, @jamesrbuk, @vabvox, @sparrowmedia, @sparrowmedia, @vabvox, @ewong, @brianstelter, @ambernoelle, @jakelahut, @jakelahut, @rachelsklar, @aishacounts, @nbcnews, @blake_allen13, @tripgabriel, @imillhiser, @benjysarlin, @_cingraham, @curtishouck, @radiofreetom, @donmoyn, @smotus, @mehdirhasan, @sarafischer, New York Post, The Guardian, NPR, CBS News, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, The Information, The Wrap, Forbes, Gizmodo, Deadline, Associated Press, TMZ.com and Bloomberg

Todd Spangler / Variety:

After backlash, Max will change back film credit listings to break out directors and writers, blaming a technical “oversight” for grouping them under “creators” — Now the company says it is changing the listings back to how they were presented on HBO Max, blaming the issue on a technical “oversight.”

Discussion: @jfrankensteiner, Los Angeles Times, @anoushasakoui, @empirestatebldg, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, The Streamable, The Verge, @snoodit, TVLine, @zackbornstein, IGN, @benmullin, @davidaugust, TVNewsCheck, The Messenger, @kelleent, @emtothea, @terri_white, @kavehtaherian, @mikeisaac, The A.V. Club, @zachsilberberg, @jfrankensteiner, @mikeisaac, Deadline, @jfkenney, @itsmecarolamptp, @justysilverman, @jeffjarvis, @mjmckean, @agraybee, @mileskahn, Dark Horizons, @pattymo, @derrific, @geoffwilt, @glenmazzara, @scottemovienerd, IndieWire, @kirkwrites79, @nicksharafinski, @kimmasters, @sautterdays, @kaludiasays, @cwarzel, @johnsemley3000, @nycsouthpaw, @scottderrickson, The Wrap, @imjohnleary, @megjameslat, @vincenzo_natali, @brennancaldwell, @jfruh, @acuna_mattata, @kabirakhtar, @peterapeel, @fb_bmb, @fb_bmb, @norazuckerman, @jbflint, @imohumoren, @jcampanellinyc, @janefriedman, @jakelawler42, @johnlevenstein, @trulyrick, @jasondashbailey, @alishagrauso, @nkulw, @carolinerenard_, @jamessabata, @jayhasrajani and Rolling Stone

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Semafor raised $19M from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and others, replacing the $10M from Sam Bankman-Fried, and says the outlet has $10M+ in 2023 revenue so far — The media start-up's new backers include Henry Kravis, a founder of the private-equity giant KKR, and Jerry Yang, a Yahoo founder.

Discussion: Variety, @om, @seangriffey, @maggieseverns, The Information, @eliotwb, @bmorrissey, @viajoshhunt, @sdkstl, @jimlaporta, @justin_b_smith, @benmullin and @hkanji

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

The New York Times reaches a tentative deal with the NewsGuild of New York that would set a salary minimum of $65K; a vote is expected in the coming week — The new agreement, if ratified, will give union members immediate salary increases of up to 12.5 percent.

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Hands-on with Sudowrite's Story Engine, a generative AI tool for writing long-form fiction novels that works better than expected but still has big limitations — Thoughts are swarming my mind like a nest of cyber-rats. — Last week, generative fiction tool Sudowrite launched a system for writing whole novels.

Discussion: @iethics, @jjvincent and @shakeelhashim, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Fedorov / The Fine Print:

A Forbes contributor sent two story drafts to his source “for approval and changes”; other writers are criticizing the practice as damaging to all journalists — A publicist's email snafu reveals the lax editorial standards — allowing sources to review copy before publication …

Discussion: @hernameisjae, @hernameisjae, @dariccott, @kathmschmidt, @dancow, @andrewfed, @imgarysuarez, @justicar, @parismartineau, @lisaofu, Debate Me, @chashomans, @gerrickkennedy, @jbenton, @jbenton and @thefineprintnyc

Perry Bacon Jr / Washington Post:

How The American Prospect, Balls and Strikes, Bolts, The Guardian US, Hammer & Hope, Popular Information, and States Newsroom are changing political journalism — Political journalism is in crisis. Over the past few months, BuzzFeed News, FiveThirtyEight, Vice and a number of other outlets …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, American Press Institute, @postopinions, @amyhanauer, @chrisgeidner, @jmshumway and The Rural Blog

Sara Fischer / Axios:

BuzzFeed launches a Verishop-powered online store for lifestyle commerce brand Goodful, launched in 2016, its first store combining licensed and curated goods — BuzzFeed on Tuesday will debut a new online retail storefront for Goodful, a lifestyle commerce brand it launched in 2016 initially …

Discussion: MediaPost, @sarafischer and @dottkhan

Georgetown University:

Georgetown and the Knight Foundation commit $30M to establish the Knight-Georgetown Institute to connect researchers, journalists, and tech leaders on policy — Georgetown has partnered with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to invest $30 million in a nonpartisan institute …

Discussion: @datasociety, @grahambrookie, @craignewmark, @emilytav, @paulohm, @paulohm, Knight Foundation, @blackamazon, @jcperrino, @techgeorgetown, @ashleyzohn, @iohnsands, @csetgeorgetown and @lauradenardis

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

A look at New York Magazine's investment in newsletters, growing its subscribers from ~500K in 2019 to pass 1M across its 30 email products in December 2022 — The publisher has used pop-up, subscriber-only newsletters to boost retention — Since retooling its newsletter strategy in 2019 …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and @markstenberg3

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Linda Yaccarino's main challenge will be improving Twitter's advertiser relationships while keeping Elon Musk happy; sources say she wants to raise her profile — Elon Musk joked in December that he'd step down as Twitter's chief executive officer once he found someone “foolish enough” to take his place.

Discussion: @sarahfrier, @profgalloway, CNN and The Messenger, more at Techmeme »

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 4:35 PM ET, May 24, 2023.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Senior Data Journalist, NY — WSJ

Manager - Publishing Editorial, Manila — Reuters

Oil Reporter, Singapore — Bloomberg

Newsperson - State Govt. & Politics, CA — AP

Business Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

State Government Reporter, WA — Seattle Times

Climate Crisis Columnist — Prospect UK

Multimedia Journalist, CA — Paramount

Community Engagement Mgr., DC — Freedom Forum

Senior California Politics Reporter, CA — SFGATE

Staff Writer - Business, NY — WIRED

Team Editor - Opinion, ON — Toronto Star

Assistant Correspondent, DC — Kyodo News

Climate & Weather Reporter, MN — Star Tribune

Senior Tech Editor, Remote US — The Verge

Lead Business Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Managing Editor, WA — Everett Herald

Private Credit Reporter, NY — Debtwire

City Correspondent, London — Financial News

Legislative Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Reporter, PA — Tribune-Review

Visual Editor, Remote — Rest of World

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Senior Political Reporter, DC — The Lever

California Playbook Writer, CA — Politico

National Investigative Reporter, NY — HuffPost

Business & Gaming Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Coastal Climate Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Environment & Energy Reporter, CT — CT Mirror

Coordinating Editor, OR — OPB

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

Business Reporter, WA — Longview Daily News

Editor-in-Chief, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Andrew Higgins / New York Times:
Belarus pardons Roman Protasevich, the journalist sentenced to eight years after he was arrested on a Ryanair flight; former allies say he has turned on them

Discussion: BBC, @kenroth, @philippe_dam, @velvetblade, @emanuelderman, Washington Post, @velvetblade, @prof_kennedy, @stevenerlanger, @peterbakernyt, Politico and Reporters Without Borders

Molly de Aguiar:
How $2M from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation had a sprawling impact on local journalism, and how civic impact grew when local people had room to experiment

Discussion: @gteresa and @mollydeaguiar

Michael Paulson / New York Times:
How playwrights worked to find a compromise with the WGA amid the writers' strike to allow the Tony Awards on June 11 to go on, without a written script

Discussion: @dramatistsguild, @newyorktheater, @hesherman, @joeycsims, @froomkin, The Hollywood Reporter, The Messenger and Observer

Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:
A US West Coast editor quit before The Messenger launched; she said she was hired for long-form journalism but the job demanded aggregated content and clickbait

Discussion: @benmullin, @jayrosen_nyu, @matthewkeyslive, @matthewkeyslive, @matthewkeyslive, @devonheinen and @justinbaragona

Jay Peters / The Verge:
News sharing app Artifact now lets users flag articles as clickbait, monitoring reported articles to potentially reduce distribution or change their headlines

Discussion: @davezatz and Gizmodo

Earlier Picks:

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
The BBC plans to move Desert Island Discs and other Radio 4 shows to BBC Studios, from its public service unit, to try to capitalize on podcasting's popularity

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Complete Music Update and @legalstyleblog

Will Gendron / Insider:
Spotify is building AI tools trained on its hosts' voices to create targeted ads, per Bill Simmons, the founder of the Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer

Discussion: Max Piquette, Wired, @nickrob, @exavierpope, @claywinstead, @elite_gz, @daveholmes, @melissajpeltier, @johngary, @mattdpearce, The Ankler, @nina_metz, Gizmodo and TechCrunch

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
The UK's News Media Association launches the Public Notice Portal, an online service that aggregates the numerous public notices published by local newspapers

Discussion: Media Voices and @pressgazette

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
In Mirror Group Newspapers' phone hacking trial, Alastair Campbell says he believes Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan ordered reporters to hack his bank account

Discussion: @theonlypeterkay, @peterjukes, @peterjukes, @jolyonmaugham and Press Gazette

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix cracks down on password sharing in the US and offers paid sharing, which lets some accounts add an extra member outside their household for $7.99/month

From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page