Mediagazer: Google unveils SynthID, a tool that can embed an invisible digital “watermark” into AI-generated images, available now to Cloud customers for Imagen-made images (Gerrit De Vynck/Washington Post)

1:15 PM ET, August 29, 2023

Top News:

Leo Schwartz / Fortune:

In a first, the SEC charges Impact Theory with offering unregistered securities by selling NFTs; the LA-based entertainment company agreed to pay a $6.1M fine — Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission — In an enforcement action announced on Monday …

Elizabeth Wellington / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Condé Nast names Jamila Robinson, the assistant managing editor for food and culture at The Philadelphia Inquirer, as the EIC of Bon Appétit and Epicurious — Jamila Robinson, assistant managing editor for food and culture at The Inquirer, is leaving to become the editor …

Discussion: Daily Front Row, @craiglaban, @condenast, @rufiojones, @avqueenbenet, @pkerkstra, @maurajudkis, @kelleylcarter, @kaelanisays, @serenamaria36, @justinbaragona, New York Times, Eater Detroit and MediaPost

Sara Fischer / Axios:

TechCrunch acquires Connie Loizos' media startup StrictlyVC, which has 60K newsletter subscribers, and appoints Loizos as editor-in-chief and general manager — TechCrunch, the digital tech and business publication owned by Yahoo, has acquired StrictlyVC, a media startup, from longtime Silicon Valley journalist Connie Lozois.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Talking Biz News, @alexrkonrad, @cookie, @arrington, @panzer, @sarafischer, @thekenyeung, @propllrhead, @danprimack, Business Wire and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:

MSNBC is drawing in major ratings, having emerged as the go-to network for coverage of Donald Trump's criminal charges just as Fox News and CNN face instability — The network's mix of weighty reflection, analysis, and schadenfreude is drawing in major ratings, surpassing Fox News and CNN …

Discussion: Adweek, @dannygroner, @wajahatali, @charlottetklein, @jayrosen_nyu and The Wrap

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Disney, Bloomberg, WaPo, The Atlantic, Axios, ABC, ESPN, Condé Nast, Hearst, Vox, and others join the NYT and Reuters in blocking OpenAI's GPTBot web crawler — Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter.

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

An interview with Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb about tuition reform, including his goal of paying the full cost for low-income students, and more — The celebrated New Yorker staff writer sat for a wide-ranging interview to kick off his second year as Columbia Journalism School's first Black dean.

Discussion: @mlcalderone, @michaelkruse, @j_fassler, @annaivey, @joepompeo and @jeffjohnroberts

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:

US National Cinema Day on August 27, when tickets cost $4 at 3,000+ theaters, resulted in 8.5M tickets sold and $34M in sales, up 16% from August 20 — Thousands of theater owners across the U.S. and Canada slashed their ticket prices to $4 on Aug. 27 in honor of the second annual National Cinema Day.

Discussion: Variety, Media Play News, The Wrap and CNN

Max Tani / Semafor:

Source: the Washington Post has quietly laid off top marketing staffers, program managers, and product designers at Arc XP, its technology arm — The Scoop — The Washington Post has quietly laid off staff from Arc XP, the technology arm of the paper that Post leadership had previously considered selling or spinning off.

Discussion: @mediaevan and @semaforben

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Fox Sports signs a deal to use Google Cloud's generative AI to search footage from 1.9M videos and produce new TV, social, and marketing content quickly — Fox Corp.'s Fox Sports is turning to generative artificial-intelligence to help its staffers more rapidly generate content from millions of hours of its archived games footage.

Discussion: Google Cloud and SiliconANGLE, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

A look at Disney shifting its India strategy to free cricket on mobile, hoping to boost ads, after the unit reported a $41.5M loss on $390M revenue in FY 2022 — Walt Disney (DIS.N) is attempting to revive the fortunes of its streaming business in India by offering free cricket on smartphones …

Discussion: The Streamable and Deadline, more at Techmeme »

Olivia Balsamo / NBC News:

A look at Kick, a Twitch rival launched in 2022 that is attracting top creators with lucrative contracts, looser moderation policies, and a 95/5 revenue split — Kick has quickly become a major threat to Amazon's Twitch streaming platform. — Amazon's Twitch has helped build the careers …

more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

LGBTQ+ outlet Pink News shifts towards ad agency partnerships, after its social media revenue fell 50%+ from 2022, when social accounted for ~80% of its revenue — Pink News has seen “hockey-stick-like growth” in its direct sales activity this year. — LGBTQ+-led brand Pink News has carried out a …

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More News:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube lets creators take an educational training course when they receive a warning, which YouTube lifts if they don't violate the same policy within 90 days

Discussion: The Verge, YouTube Official Blog and Social Media Today, more at Techmeme »

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Snap rolls out Dreams, Snapchat's take on the generative AI selfies that Lensa and others popularized, charging $1 for an eight-photo pack; the first is free

Discussion: Adweek, TechCrunch, Mashable and Neowin, more at Techmeme »

Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
Google unveils SynthID, a tool that can embed an invisible digital “watermark” into AI-generated images, available now to Cloud customers for Imagen-made images

Discussion: Gizmodo, Axios, BBC, MIT Technology Review and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Josef Adalian / Vulture:
WBD's Max will stream seven AMC+ shows from September 1 to October 31 as AMC seeks to maximize its reach; source: no money is involved in this marketing effort

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Wrap, The Verge, Screen Rant, Vanity Fair, Pressroom, MediaPost, The Hollywood Reporter, The A.V. Club, Gizmodo, Variety, Media Play News and The Streamable

Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter:
Q&A with Thomas Rabe, the CEO of pan-European broadcast giant RTL Group, on investing in Fremantle and targeting a €3B turnover by 2025, content types, and more

Discussion: @rtlgroup

Lauren Sherman / Puck:
Source: supermodel Karlie Kloss is in talks to buy the UK-based culture and fashion publication i-D magazine from Vice Media, which acquired i-D in 2012

Discussion: bookforum.com and @lapresmidi

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
NBC News says that Kristen Welker will take over as Meet the Press' moderator on September 17, 2023; Welker will be the series' 13th, and first Black, moderator

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @seangraf, @phillyvictor, @sheshedtrump, @bristei, Philadelphia Magazine, Poynter and Adweek

Earlier Picks:

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Nielsen: since 2021, the number of streaming titles in the US, Canada, the UK, Mexico, and Germany grew 39% to 2.35M and streaming services grew from 118 to 167

Discussion: IndieWire, Music Ally, @akstanwyck, The Streamable, MediaPost, WORLD SCREEN and Media Play News, more at Techmeme »

Michael Schneider / Variety:
The Hollywood Critics Association restructures, forms a new board, and renames itself to The Hollywood Creative Alliance, following allegations of malfeasance

Discussion: @davidpoland, @blowryontv and @tomsiebert

Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: along with Mark Thompson, WBD is considering James Harding, who led BBC News from 2013 to 2017 and then founded slow news outlet Tortoise, to head CNN

Discussion: Poynter, @maxwelltani, @semaforben, Insider, New York Post and Talking Biz News

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:
Sources: the Barclay family made a proposal last week to regain control of the Telegraph's holding company by buying back ~£1B of debt from Lloyds Banking Group

Discussion: @andreas_krieg, @markkleinmansky, Bloomberg, Telegraph and The Guardian

Michael Geist:
Canada's Bill C-18 is set to take effect no later than December 19, 2023, but the country's broadcast regulator suggests media bargaining can't begin until 2025

Mia Sato / The Verge:
A look at AI chatbot Smart Answers that Foundry trained only on Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive content, and offered to their readers on August 1

Discussion: American Press Institute, @harrymccracken and @dsilverman@threads.net

From Techmeme:

Elisabeth Buchwald / CNN:
The White House says that tariffs on China are set to rise to 104% at 12:01am ET on April 9 after China missed Trump's deadline to remove its reciprocal tariffs

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Cloud Next: Google unveils Ironwood, its seventh-generation TPU and the first for inference, coming later in 2025 in a 256-chip cluster or a 9,216-chip cluster

Will Canny / CoinDesk:
Ripple agrees to acquire prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25B; Hidden Road plans to use Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin as collateral across its platform

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