Mediagazer: Sources: Jeff Bezos is taking a more active role in The Washington Post's operations as staff morale craters and the newspaper is on pace to lose ~$100M in 2023 (New York Times)

5:50 PM ET, July 22, 2023

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Sources: Jeff Bezos is taking a more active role in The Washington Post's operations as staff morale craters and the newspaper is on pace to lose ~$100M in 2023 — The Amazon founder, who purchased The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013, has taken a more active role in the paper's operations this year.

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Sources: Disney CEO Bob Iger and ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro have held early talks with the NFL, the NBA, and MLB about bringing them on as minority ESPN investors — - ESPN has held early talks about strategic partnerships with the NBA, NFL and MLB that could include the leagues taking an equity stake in the business, sources told CNBC.

Discussion: The Verge, @sherman4949, @susanlitv, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, New York Times, Awful Announcing, Bloomberg, The Information, Front Office Sports, Barrett Media, The Desk, The Streamable and Cord Cutters News

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

News reporters shouldn't write off AI assistance for first drafts of stories that aren't publishable; tools don't have to be perfect to be useful to journalists — Dystopian, yes — but tools don't have to be perfect to be useful to journalists. — Every other semester …

Discussion: @niemanlab@mastodon.social, @mmasnick.bsky.social, MediaNama, The Information, The San Diego Union-Tribune, New York Times, Gizmodo, CNN and MediaPost

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: an Insider executive editor updates staff on AI experiments and recommends not using AI tools for quoting facts, data analysis, or getting up-to-date info

Discussion: @journalist_guy, @scottnover, @scottnover, @kaylaepstein and @thenewsan

Mathew Ingram / Columbia Journalism Review:
News organizations' deals with OpenAI and its rivals echo past Google and Meta “partnerships” and could ultimately help companies put journalists out of work

Discussion: Analytics India Magazine, @espiers, New York Post, The Verge, @mathewi, @cjr, @jayrosen_nyu, Platformer, The Information, @sarahposner.bsky.social and Vanity Fair, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Texas A&M's president resigns after faculty members criticized alleged political meddling in the school's failed hiring of Black journalist Kathleen McElroy — The university said M. Katherine Banks would retire “immediately” after political pushback over the effort to appoint Kathleen McElroy to lead its journalism program.

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Spotify plans to raise its US ad-free premium tier's price for the first time, by $1 to $10.99/month, and increase prices globally in the coming months — Audio company had avoided raising prices, but faces investor pressure to increase profitability

Discussion: The Verge, @benfritz, @runciedan, The Wrap, CNET, Billboard, Forbes, The Information, @carnage4life@mas.to, Variety, @liquor_american …, @CStamp@mastodon.social, Music Business Worldwide, 9to5Mac and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:

Former ABC News producer James Gordon Meek pleads guilty to CSAM transportation and possession, but not distribution; the US DOJ arrested Meek in February 2023 — The harrowing legal saga—the type of story that could've appeared on Meek's former network— has reached its conclusion.

Discussion: US Department of Justice, Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, Insider, Variety, The Wrap, The Desk, TVNewsCheck, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Rolling Stone and Boing Boing

Uyiosa Elegon / The Objective:

Three years after the George Floyd protests drew a wave of financial support, Black journalism entrepreneurs say they are struggling to sustain their newsrooms — Many Black-led outlets — digital and legacy media alike — are still trying to figure out how to sustain their work.

Check My Ads Institute:

A look at the Publir ad network, whose founders have ties to The Federalist Society and RealClearPolitics, and how Publir funnels ad revenue to The Donald forum — At the end of 2022, The_Donald quietly started running ads. — The_Donald, a MAGA forum banned by Reddit for its role …

Discussion: MediaPost, @joecardillo@federate.social and @dmarti@federate.social

Josef Adalian / Vulture:

By letting the Hollywood strike drag on, legacy companies like Disney, NBCUniversal, and Paramount risk the devastation of the traditional network TV model — This story first ran in Buffering, Vulture's newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today!

Discussion: @petergould, @kimbenabib, @thisisweber, @jasonhirschhorn, @whitstillman, @kwatt, @jbflint, @jbflint, MediaPost, Wall Street Journal and The Wrap

Justin Garcia / Tampa Bay Times:

Lawyers for journalist Timothy Burke file a motion demanding the US DOJ return his equipment and argue he legally obtained controversial Fox News video outtakes — Burke's legal team says his phone and computers were seized “in violation of the law.” — Tim Burke's home office is gutted.

Discussion: @bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, @bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us and Awful Announcing

Michael Kan / PCMag:

Twitter sets “daily limits” on the number of direct messages that accounts without Twitter Blue can send, as part of changes to reduce spam in DMs — It looks like Elon Musk really wants users to pay for Twitter Blue. … In another controversial change, Twitter will restrict …

Discussion: UPI, The Verge, The Hill, Engadget, @twittersupport, Comic Book and The Sun, more at Techmeme »

David Robb / Deadline:

In a 23-page document, the AMPTP disputes SAG-AFTRA's “misleading” claims of the negotiations status as of July 13, before talks broke off and the strike began — UPDATED with SAG-AFTRA response: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is disputing SAG-AFTRA's …

Discussion: @slack2thefuture, @slack2thefuture, @jbflint, @slack2thefuture, @jbflint, @slack2thefuture, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Marie Woolf / Globe and Mail:

Some Quebec radio stations and news outlets refuse to run Meta's ads that inform Canadians of the company's plan to block news links on Facebook and Instagram — Meta has started to run ads to inform Canadians of its plan to block the viewing and sharing of news content on Facebook …

Discussion: CBC News, @fancrtcprofling, @pagmenzies, @dylanlindgren, @mgeist and @freemangrist

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Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
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