Mediagazer: Sources: Spotify plans to test a free audiobook bundle for its paying subscribers that offers up to 20 hours of content per month, as part of an audiobook push (Wall Street Journal)

10:50 AM ET, September 8, 2023

Top News:

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

The MacArthur Foundation and 20+ nonprofits announce Press Forward, an initiative to invest $500M over five years in local news, aiming to raise and invest $1B — The effort, spearheaded by the MacArthur Foundation, will give grants to support newsrooms and start-ups as concern grows over the rapid disappearance of local news outlets.

Discussion: macfound.org, American Press Institute, Poynter, @mitrakalita, Media Voices, @jimfriedlich, @journalismproj, @peterlattman, @vabvox, @chicagosamir, Washington Post, Nieman Lab, Axios and NPR

Jim Friedlich / Nieman Reports:

Press Forward is by far the largest coordinated philanthropic effort to support local news, with the potential to become a much larger, ongoing effort — A nonpartisan group of 22 foundations today announced the launch of Press Forward, a nationwide coalition committing more than $500 million …

Discussion: Werd I/O, Newser, The Hill, MediaPost, Associated Press, Free Press, Second Rough Draft, American Public Media and Poynter

URL Media:
URL Media, a network of media outlets focused on communities of color, receives a $1M Knight Foundation investment to support its 21 partners

Discussion: @blackamazon

Krystie Lee Yandoli / Rolling Stone:

In a call with Tonight Show staff, Jimmy Fallon said he's “sorry” and didn't mean to “create that type of atmosphere”, after a report detailed a toxic workplace — “Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends...I feel so bad I can't even tell you,” …

Krystie Lee Yandoli / Rolling Stone:

Interviews with 16 current and former employees describe a toxic workplace at The Tonight Show, starting with Jimmy Fallon's outbursts and erratic behavior — Sixteen current and former staffers say Fallon's erratic behavior spoiled their “dream” of working on The Tonight Show — I

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Spotify plans to test a free audiobook bundle for its paying subscribers that offers up to 20 hours of content per month, as part of an audiobook push — Audio streamer to test program with listeners to learn about customer demand for audiobooks — Spotify plans to test …

Discussion: 9to5Mac, Music Ally, CMU and The Bookseller, more at Techmeme »

Michael Hunter / London Evening Standard:

Concord agrees to buy music copyright-focussed investment firm Round Hill Music, whose catalogue includes songs from The Beatles and Louis Armstrong, for ~$469M — Star-studded back catalogue including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Louis Armstrong to go private — T

Discussion: Billboard, Reuters, Music Ally and CMU

Sophie Vershbow / Esquire:

Interviews with authors and publishing insiders reveal the broken system of blurbs; a few authors say blurbs helped launch their careers, but hated the process — Do authors actually like the books they endorse—or even read them? Writers, literary agents, and publishing workers …

Discussion: @taylorlorenz, @mattzollerseitz, @paulbogaards, @asdkfjasdlfjd, @tajjaisen, @jeffjarvis and @megireid

Reuters:

Japanese broadcasters including NHK and NTV issue rare apologies for failing to report on sex abuse allegations at a J-pop agency, after the agency apologized — After Japan's top talent agency Johnny & Associates apologised on Thursday for decades of sexual abuses committed by its late founder …

James B. Stewart / New York Times:

Sources: Mattel stands to earn 5% of Barbie's $2B expected box office revenue, a percentage of eventual profits as a producer, and payments as the IP owner — The company's approach has paid off to a degree that even the C.E.O. could hardly have believed possible.

Discussion: Ad Age, Fox Business, Forbes, Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, The Messenger and Tubefilter

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:

Nielsen delays use of Amazon streaming data in NFL ratings after criticism from the Video Advertising Bureau and plans to keep working with the MRC on approval — The ratings service says it will wait until an industry regulatory board signs off on including the first-party numbers.

Discussion: The Streamable, Sports Media Watch, Front Office Sports, Wall Street Journal, Variety, Ad Age and MediaPost

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Artémis, François-Henri Pinault's investment firm, acquires TPG's majority stake in CAA; CAA's Bryan Lourd is expected to be named CEO of CAA — Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane, and Richard Lovett will remain the co-chairman of CAA, with Lourd set to be named CEO. — CAA has a new majority owner.

Discussion: Billboard, Puck, @danprimack, Fortune, Financial Times, Front Office Sports, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Wrap, Deadline, Variety, Los Angeles Times and WWD

Peter Kiefer / The Ankler:

Sources: Apple paid $5M for film rights to Michael Lewis' book about Sam Bankman-Fried; at least eight Hollywood projects are in the works so far on SBF — Apple paid $5M for Michael Lewis' book, a Nanette Burstein doc is underway, and a who'll-finish-first race is afoot as the crypto con projects pile up

Discussion: @technologizer@threads.net

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More News:

Hamish McKenzie / On Substack:
Substack sets a goal of making the 2024 US election “the Substack Election” and hires publicist and producer Catherine Valentine to lead politics initiatives

Discussion: @mobute.bsky.social, @mobute.bsky.social and @katieharbath.bsky.social

Linda Hardesty / Fierce Wireless:
The Senate votes 55 to 43 to approve Anna Gomez as the fifth FCC commissioner, breaking the deadlock at the agency and giving the FCC a 3-2 Democratic majority

Christopher Dring / GamesIndustry.biz:
The ESA announces organizer ReedPop will not be working on future E3 events and informs the Los Angeles Convention Center that 2024's E3 will not be held there

Discussion: PC Gamer, Eurogamer.net, @film_girl, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Video Games Chronicle, VentureBeat, Neowin, The Verge, My Nintendo News, IGN and Insider Gaming, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Snapchat adds new safety features for minors, including making it harder for strangers to contact teens and removing accounts marketing inappropriate content

Discussion: Neowin, Snapchat, Engadget and CNN, more at Techmeme »

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: Andrew Golis, WNYC's chief content officer and former Vox general manager and Vox Media VP of network development, is leaving WNYC

Discussion: @maxwelltani, RadioInsight and Radio & Television …

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google releases its relevance and measurement APIs for Privacy Sandbox in general availability, making them available in Chrome without browser flags or trials

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Privacy Sandbox, @baekdal, The Register, AdExchanger, 9to5Google, Gizmodo and Neowin, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Patreon adds Discord-like group chats to mobile, letting creators join up to four chats and restrict access based on subscriber tiers; desktop is coming later

Discussion: Music Ally, MediaPost, @simli.bsky.social and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:
Sources: DMGT, which owns the Daily Mail and Metro newspapers, has had talks with Qatari investors about a combined £500M+ bid for Lloyds' Telegraph Media Group

Discussion: @mediaevan and @pressgazette

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
An interview with The New York Times Head of Games Jonathan Knight on the newspaper's new game Connections, creating a “news plus games” daily habit, and more

Discussion: USA Today, PC Gamer and Media Voices

Gene Park / Washington Post:
Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser describes the company's evolution from a gaming company to a broader entertainment company, including live events

Discussion: Screen Rant, @genepark and @carnage4life@mas.to

Josef Adalian / Vulture:
How Paramount Network reversing the release order of 1883 and Yellowstone on streaming and broadcast helped grow viewers, a tactic other companies could adopt

Discussion: TVLine

Rick Reger / Local News Initiative:
March to April 2023 survey of 1,507 US teens aged 13 to 17: 46% saw local TV news daily or weekly, and 42% encountered national network TV news daily or weekly

Discussion: @localnewsini, @timafranklin and The Desk

From Techmeme:

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sources: after closing several video game studios, Microsoft plans more cuts, as the massive Activision acquisition has ramped up scrutiny on the Xbox division

Wall Street Journal:
Binance sources and docs: an internal investigator, dismissed in late 2023, found evidence of secret internal trading accounts and DWF Labs' market manipulation

Wall Street Journal:
In a blog post, Neuralink details a problem with its implant in patient Noland Arbaugh's brain that reduced data collection after the implant's threads came out

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