Mediagazer: Federal authorities charge three men with insider trading, alleging they used information about the planned DWAC-Trump Media merger to make $22M+ in profits (Dan Primack/Axios)

11:05 PM ET, June 29, 2023

Top News:

Kent Walker / Google:

Google tells Canada's government it will remove Canadian news links from Search, News, and Discover and close Google News Showcase when Bill C-18 takes effect — President of Global Affairs, Google & Alphabet … The Government of Canada has enacted a new law called Bill C-18 …

New York Times:

A look at Linda Yaccarino's first three weeks at Twitter; sources say NBCUniversal's noncompete clause, which prevents ad deal negotiations, hindered her work — Linda Yaccarino, who initially could not take ad sales meetings because of a noncompete clause, is adjusting to her new role reporting to Elon Musk.

Discussion: @rmac18, @jayrosen_nyu, @karaswisher, Wall Street Journal, @rmac18, @bobbybigwheel, @nancylevine, @bgrueskin, @bungdan, @sarafischer, @evilgalprods, @froomkin, @scottemovienerd, @davidcorndc, The Wrap, @christaylornyc.bsky.social, @sarahposner.bsky.social and @wagatwe.bsky.social

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Sources: Linda Yaccarino plans to add full-screen, sound-on video ads to Twitter's short-video feed and is wooing celebrities in the hopes of selling more ads

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:

Advertisers demand significant refunds from YouTube after an Adalytics report found millions of ads served via YouTube's TrueView system are hidden from users — Study shows millions of ads are hidden away in violation of Google-owned group's policies — Advertising industry figures …

Sharon Knolle / The Wrap:

Unionized G/O media staffers blast the company, which owns The Onion, Quartz, The Root, Deadspin, and more, over its plans to test AI-created content next week — “Cease [your] plans to litter our websites with AI-generated content,” unionized editorial employees at The Onion, Deadspin and The Root say

Discussion: @corbinbolies, @bakkooonn, @russfischer, @tape, @mediaevan, @brionykidd, @thejewishdream, @dharnanoor, @aleksnotalex, @laracroftbarbie, @sorayaroberts, @ryanvailbrown and @summeranne

Dan Primack / Axios:

Federal authorities charge three men with insider trading, alleging they used information about the planned DWAC-Trump Media merger to make $22M+ in profits — Federal authorities on Thursday arrested and charged three men with insider trading, related to a blank-check company's planned merger …

Discussion: US Department of Justice, Washington Post, CNN, The Messenger, U.S. Securities …, New York Daily News, WPRI.com, Bloomberg, New York Magazine, Reuters, The Hill, @danprimack, Associated Press, New Republic, @wendysiegelman@mastodon …, Quartz and Semafor, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Design platform Canva strikes deals with Warner Music Group and Merlin to let users add song clips to visual designs; music labels and artists get royalties — Canva, the software company that hosts an “all-in-one visual communication platform,” announced partnerships with Warner Music Group …

Discussion: Digital Music News and Music Business Worldwide

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

DMG Media and the News Media Association suggest Apple could be forced to pay for news under the UK's upcoming Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill — The Mail publisher hinted that Apple should be forced into striking news deals. — UK publishers have raised the prospect that Apple could …

Discussion: @pressgazette and @pressgazette

Dominic Patten / Deadline:

WBD's Max begins rolling out fixes to film and TV credits, listing specific credits for writers, directors, and others instead of grouping them under “Creators” — Jesse Armstrong and Danny McBride will have some individual independence to celebrate this holiday weekend.

Discussion: The Streamable, Vulture, The Verge, Variety and IGN

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Sources: Nexstar's WOOD-TV fires two news managers over a memo that urged “both sides” coverage of Pride Month; two others were fired for leaks about the memo — Nexstar also dismisses Amy Fox, the writer of the memo, and two producers suspected of leaking information to the press.

Discussion: @chriszoladz, @matthewkeyslive, @artclone1, @matthewkeyslive, @matthewkeyslive and @rosekellywhite

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Streaming company Plex laid off 37 people on Monday, representing over 20% of staff, citing the impact of the global ad market downturn — Plex laid off 37 people on Monday, a figure that represents more than 20 percent of the company's staff, according to a Slack message from CEO Keith Valory obtained by The Verge.

Discussion: The Information, @davezatz, @cassidy@mastodon …, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch and Cord Cutters News

John Koblin / New York Times:

While other TV mainstays are falling by the wayside, game shows are inexpensive to produce and among the most-watched programs as they appeal to people over 60 — “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy!” and “Family Feud” continue to attract big audiences even as streaming upends viewing habits.

Discussion: @nytimesbusiness and Associated Press

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:

Two US authors file a lawsuit in federal court against OpenAI, claiming in a proposed class action that the company misused their works to train ChatGPT — Courts are wrestling with the legality of using copyrighted works to train AI systems. — Another lawsuit has been filed against OpenAI …

Discussion: @aarondenius, Reuters, @technollama.bsky.social, @paleofuture and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

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Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera says he has quit Fox News because he was fired from The Five, and he will have more to say on Fox and Friends on Friday

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Eric Kohn / IndieWire:
The Gotham Film and Media Institute lays off two key staffers responsible for managing the Project Market for indie films, which will not take place in 2023

Discussion: @erickohn

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
YouTube is running a test globally that limits ad blocker users to three videos, giving them the option to turn off their tool or subscribe to YouTube Premium

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Brian Josephs / New York Times:
Mixtape sites democratized releasing music in the CD era, but with the rise of streaming they face the challenge of archiving music that isn't necessarily legal

Discussion: @timlarew and @textfiles.bsky.social

Clara Aberneithie / Press Gazette:
Data shows the Titan sub generated a peak of 35K articles on June 22 while the sinking of a fishing boat packed with migrants peaked at 5K articles per day

Todd Spangler / Variety:
NBCU is launching 48 FAST channels on Amazon Freevee and Xumo Play with Network Entertainment Channels, Sports, Telemundo, and more

Discussion: Next TV, The Streamable, Media Play News, WORLD SCREEN, CNET, MediaPost, The Wrap, Deadline and Cord Cutters News

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Snap announces that Snapchat+, which lets users access experimental and pre-released features for $3.99 per month, reached 4M paid subscribers in its first year

Discussion: Mumbrella, MediaPost, @matt_mcgowan, CNN, @kantrowitz, TechCrunch and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

CBC News:
Bell Media asks Canada's broadcast regulator to drop spending and airtime rules for its local TV news, citing average annual losses of CA$28.4M from 2016-2019

Discussion: @cbcnews, @dougeyolfson, @mayorofsarnia and The Line

Earlier Picks:

Jules Roscoe / VICE:
Amazon's Kindle Unlimited YA romance bestseller list featured dozens of AI-generated books of nonsense on June 26 and 27, until Amazon took action on June 28

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Amrita Khalid / The Verge:
Q&A with Chris Morrow, the new head of audio at Plan B, about the company's partnership with Audible, producing “risky, out-of-the-box” audio fiction, and more

Discussion: @beverlyabcd

Reuters:
DAZN urges Italy to speed up plans for tougher rules on online TV piracy for sports content, citing a FAPAV report that put the cost of piracy at €290M per year

Discussion: Broadband TV News and Plagiarism Today

Max Kim / Los Angeles Times:
South Koreans are increasingly questioning how Netflix pays them; writers generally get no residuals and production workers cite exploitative labor practices

Discussion: @carnage4life@mas.to, @drahardja@sfba.social, IGN, SlashFilm, The Hollywood Reporter, The Messenger and UPROXX

Dylan Byers / Puck:
Sources: Tucker Carlson is raising funds for a new media company and a “vast majority” of his ex-Fox News staffers, who were laid off this week, will join him

Discussion: The Wrap, Mediaite, @pucknews, @decodingfoxnews, The Messenger and Mediaite

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
An interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer CTO Matt Boggie about refreshing the paper's print infrastructure, deriving significant revenue from print, and more

Discussion: American Press Institute, @ckrewson, @pressgazette, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and @pressgazette

Rocio Fabbro / The Messenger:
Staff writers at Disney's National Geographic say the outlet is laying off all remaining writers and will rely on freelancers and people with outside funding

From Techmeme:

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

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple produced $22B worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months ended March 2025, up nearly 60% YoY, and now makes 20% of its iPhones in the country

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

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