Mediagazer: Meta begins testing keyword search on Threads in Australia and New Zealand, and plans a rollout to other English-speaking countries before adding more languages (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

10:50 PM ET, August 31, 2023

Top News:

Chris Willman / Variety:

Taylor Swift plans to release her concert film in AMC theaters on October 13 in the US; in a first, AMC plans to act as a distributor to unaffiliated theaters — Anyone who couldn't procure tickets for Taylor Swift's record-breaking stadium tour in the U.S. may be about to have their wounded …

J. Kim Murphy / Variety:

ESPN, ABC, Disney Channel, and other Disney outlets go dark on Charter's Spectrum, which serves ~15M subscribers, after failing to agree on a new carriage pact — ESPN, ABC, Disney Channel and other outlets owned by the Walt Disney Co. have gone dark on Charter Spectrum cable systems …

Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:

California Treasurer Fiona Ma sends letters to seven companies that are members of AMPTP, urging them to negotiate “fair deals” to end the two Hollywood strikes — California State Treasurer Fiona Ma sent letters this week to studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture …

Discussion: CNN, Deadline, @megjameslat, @margotroosevelt, California State Treasurer's Office, 98 Rock Online and The Wrap

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
IAC Chairman Barry Diller says traditional Hollywood studios should negotiate directly with unions, splitting from Apple, Amazon, and Netflix, a mutual “enemy”

Discussion: CNBC, @davidaugust@mastodon.online, Deadline, @tvgrimreaper, @carlquintanilla, @tvgrimreaper, @blackamazon and The Wrap

Deadline:
Sources: top executives from Disney, Amazon Studios, Netflix, Universal, WBD, and others planned to meet on August 30; Disney CEO Bob Iger wasn't set to attend

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, @slack2thefuture, @slack2thefuture, @powerllama@duck.haus, @AliceMarshall@mastodon.online, Gizmodo and ET Canada

WNEP-TV:

Times-Shamrock Communications is selling its four Pennsylvania dailies to Alden Global Capital's MediaNews Group; the newspapers' founding family pans the sale — The sale includes four local daily papers and several weekly and periodic publications. — SCRANTON, Pa. …

Discussion: MediaPost, Associated Press, @bradfordpearson, Morning Call, @kennysmith@mstdn.social, The Shenandoah Sentinel, @politicspa and The Rural Blog

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Meta begins testing keyword search on Threads in Australia and New Zealand, and plans a rollout to other English-speaking countries before adding more languages — Threads launched one of the most anticipated features, a web version of the platform, last week.

Discussion: Engadget, @zuck@threads.net, @carnage4life@threads.net, Mashable, Android Police, Social Media Today, @carnage4life@threads.net, Neowin, Search Engine Land and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Clare Duffy / CNN:

Gannett pauses using Lede AI to write high school sports stories, after major flubs appeared in articles in at least one of its newspapers earlier in August — New York CNN — — Newspaper chain Gannett has paused the use of an artificial intelligence tool to write high school sports dispatches …

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post, Insider, @scavendish, @jeffjarvis, @localnewsini, @trentreinsmith, The Wrap, @johnzavinski, @ethicsmith, @alexdaugherty1, @agul0101, @mjfuhlhage, @yesiactandwrite, MediaPost, @michaelsocolow, @sauthoff.bsky.social and Silicon Valley

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

YouTube Music redesigns its Now Playing screen on Android and iOS with larger cover art and a comments section, after launching real-time lyrics last week — After pulling a variant at the start of this year, YouTube Music is rolling out the latest redesign of Now Playing on Android and iOS, adding a comments section.

Discussion: Engadget, @krisnelson@legal.social, The Verge, TechCrunch, Android Police and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Substack launches new AI-powered tools that let creators generate transcripts of their podcast episodes and video “audiograms” for sharing on social media — Substack is introducing new AI-powered tools that are designed to make podcasting on the platform easier, the company announced on Wednesday.

Discussion: On Substack, Fast Company and Convince & Convert

The Moscow Times:

A Russian court finds journalists Ruslan Leviev and Michael Nacke guilty of pushing “war fakes” and hands out 11-year sentences; both now live outside of Russia — A Russian court has handed 11-year prison sentences to exiled anti-war journalists Ruslan Leviev and Michael Nacke …

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio …

Josef Adalian / Vulture:

WBD's Max rolls out Top 10 movies and TV show lists in line with Netflix, Prime Video, and Apple TV+; WBD bases rankings on unique views of at least two minutes — Max is finally getting into the top-ten game: Starting today, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streamer will begin publishing daily lists …

Discussion: Variety, CNET, Forbes, Deadline, @tvgrimreaper and The Streamable

Maria Bustillos / The Nation:

In the ebook copyright fight, authors should join forces to demand that contracts stipulate ebooks must be offered to libraries on the same terms as paper books — But corporate mega-publishers want purchasing a book to be like renting a movie or streaming an album. — Pocket

Discussion: @michellemanafy@journa.host, @diglibcopyright, @ppolitics, @maria@thelife.boats and @maria@thelife.boats

Michael Schneider / Variety:

Variety SVP Tim Gray departs the outlet after 42 years to become the EVP of the Golden Globes, where he is set to oversee its newly formed board of directors — Variety legend Tim Gray, who first joined Hollywood's dominant trade publication in 1981, has departed after 42 years to start …

Discussion: Billboard, IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and The Wrap

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More News:

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Mukesh Ambani's Viacom18 wins the digital and TV rights for India's domestic September 2023 to March 2028 cricket matches for ~$721M, on JioCinema and Sports18

Discussion: Front Office Sports, Bloomberg and @deitaone

Margaret Sullivan / The Guardian:
Mark Thompson, who helped reinvent The New York Times for the digital age and kept the newsroom's mission, is a good bet for CNN, another beleaguered behemoth

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
The Publishers Association asks the UK government to ensure IP law is “respected when any content is ingested by AI systems”, ahead of the UK's AI Safety Summit

Discussion: The Bookseller

Emilia David / The Verge:
The US Copyright Office seeks public input on AI and copyright issues, including using copyrighted works for AI training; written comments are due on October 18

Discussion: Forbes, Engadget, @jencmars@mastodon.art, @jencmars@mastodon.art, @justinebateman, @BostonBibliophile@zirk.us, Plagiarism Today, U.S. Copyright Office, TitleKnown, Ars Technica, Complete Music Update, Music Ally, Cointelegraph and Digital Music News

Jennifer Maas / Variety:
A look at One Piece, the live-action Netflix series launching on August 31 based on Eiichiro Oda's manga and anime series, and its unprecedented marketing deals

Discussion: TVLine, Deadline, Insider, Screen Rant, SlashFilm, The Wrap, TIME, Polygon, New York Times, IGN, Mashable, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Washington Post, The Hollywood Reporter, The Nerds of Color, ComingSoon.net and Ars Technica

Earlier Picks:

Dominic Patten / Deadline:
Stourbridge Investments sues Disney and several top executives, claiming they schemed to hide Disney+ losses by shifting costs to the company's legacy platforms

Discussion: Screen Rant, Breitbart, Cord Cutters News, The Wrap, Gizmodo and The Hollywood Reporter

New York Post:
Sources: Barstool Sports plans to lay off nearly 25% of its employees, or ~100 jobs out of ~430, after Penn Entertainment sold the outlet back to Dave Portnoy

Discussion: The Wrap, Awful Announcing, Fast Company, @logansuspence, Front Office Sports, Defector, Barrett Media, Sportico, Awful Announcing, Inside Radio, Deadline and New York Daily News

Bloomberg:
Sources: French billionaire François-Henri Pinault is close to a $7B deal to buy a majority CAA stake from PE firm TPG; Temasek may also increase its CAA stake

Discussion: The Information, New York Post, Front Office Sports, Music Business Worldwide, @lucas_shaw, @kamaron and Digital Music News

The Hollywood Reporter:
The Hollywood Reporter names Maer Roshan as co-editor-in-chief, beside Nekesa Mumbi Moody; Roshan, Los Angeles Magazine's EIC since 2019, starts on September 25

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadline and Variety

From Techmeme:

Kent Walker / The Keyword:
Google says the DOJ's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision”, would hurt US consumers, and jeopardize the US' global tech leadership

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
The CFPB will supervise tech companies with digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo, with 50M+ annual transactions, treating them more like banks

Hannah Lang / Reuters:
Sources: a16z, Ripple, Kraken, and Circle are jostling for a seat on Trump's promised crypto advisory council, which is expected to set up a bitcoin reserve

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