Mediagazer: Wattpad replaces its Paid Stories paywall with a freemium tier letting users read some chapters free and buy others; Premium+ subscribers get two stories/month (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)

12:05 PM ET, October 3, 2023

Top News:

Ellie Rushing / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Police say freelance journalist Josh Kruger was shot and killed inside his Philadelphia home at age 39; Kruger wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer and others — A Philadelphia journalist was shot and killed inside his Point Breeze home overnight, police said, after a person with a gun entered …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Paris Hilton and her company 11:11 Media sign a partnership with X to create four original video content programs per year to promote X's Live Shopping product — Paris Hilton is getting her X on. — The influencer and entrepreneur — who has 16.6 million followers on X …

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK's Independent Publishers Alliance urges members to block crawling access for OpenAI and Google, as OpenAI removes ChatGPT's September 2021 training cut-off — Independent Publishers Alliance urges members to block GPTBot and Google Bard crawler ASAP. — ChatGPT's threat …

Discussion: The Keyword

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Netflix plans to raise the price of its ad-free service a few months after the SAG-AFTRA strike ends, likely starting with the US and Canada — Company to become latest streamer to lift fees; Disney weighs launching new live-sports tier abroad — plans to raise the price …

Discussion: Variety, The Streamable, The Wrap, The Verge, BGR, @pogue.bsky.social, @imdavidpierce@threads.net, Media Play News, @deitaone and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Meta pitched a plan to EU regulators to charge European users a subscription fee to use Facebook and Instagram without ads starting at €10 per month — European users would have option to pay fee or agree to personalized ads, according to company's pitch to regulators

Discussion: Android Authority, Insider, The Guardian, TechCrunch, NBC 7 San Diego, The Information, Fortune, 24/7 Wall St., @mattnavarra, @seyitaylor, @wolfofharcourt, Ars Technica, Engadget, BGR and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:

Wattpad replaces its Paid Stories paywall with a freemium tier letting users read some chapters free and buy others; Premium+ subscribers get two stories/month — After launching its “Paid Stories” program in 2019, the social storytelling platform Wattpad is now replacing it with a new freemium model called …

Discussion: wattpad

Sara Fischer / Axios:

In a memo to staff, Campbell Brown, Meta's head of global media partnerships, says she's stepping down from the role in the fall as Meta backs away from news — Campbell Brown, the veteran TV anchor who led Meta's foray into news, is leaving the company, according to an internal note obtained by Axios.

Discussion: @bgrueskin, more at Techmeme »

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

While Adobe, Getty Images, Stability AI, and YouTube have pledged to share some generative AI profits with creators, none have shared specific payout amounts — As tech companies begin to monetize generative AI, the creators on whose work it is trained are asking for their fair share.

Discussion: @carnage4life@mas.to, @rahll and @timnitGebru@dair …, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

In honor of “Mean Girls” day, Paramount makes the movie available on TikTok for free in 23 clips — Happy “Mean Girls” day, to all who celebrate! — In observance of so-called Mean Girls Day, Paramount Pictures launched an official account for “Mean Girls” on TikTok …

Discussion: IndieWire, The Verge, Fox News, @wagatwe.bsky.social and Insider

Ben Strauss / Washington Post:

A look at the scoop wars between NBA reporters Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania, Woj and Shams' impact on other beat reporters and usefulness to the league — In a battle for scoops and attention, it's ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski vs. his former protégé, the Athletic's Shams Charania.

Discussion: @thelatinochild, @alexknobel, @leadergrev and @dannyfunt

Financial Times:

Police in New Delhi raid the homes of NewsClick journalists and contributors amid Indian officials' allegations the site is an outlet for Chinese propaganda — NewsClick journalists and contributors say police seized phones and laptops in early morning operation

Discussion: Agence France-Presse, MediaNama, Scroll.in, The Indian Express, Fox News and The Guardian

Associated Press:

The police chief who led the raid on the Marion County Record resigns, just days after he was suspended from his post by the mayor of Marion, Kansas — The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas resigned Monday, just days after he was suspended …

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More News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok confirms the company is running a limited-scale test of an ad-free subscription plan, but only says the market is not the US and does not share the price

Discussion: IGN, The Messenger, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, The Information, The Information, The Messenger, Engadget, @gao_zibo, MediaPost, BGR, The Verge and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Matt Donnelly / Variety:
Sources: Miramax CEO Bill Block is out after the company did not renew his contract, which expired this week; Miramax hired the film producer in 2017

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

Jordan Moreau / Variety:
The Golden Globes adds 11 members, bringing its voting body to 300 people that represents 76 countries and is 47% female and 60% racially and ethnically diverse

Discussion: The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline

Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav, Bob Iger, and Donna Langley are attending October 2's negotiating session at SAG-AFTRA's HQ, raising hopes for a quick deal

Discussion: Variety, @lisacullen, @slack2thefuture, @laceyvrose, @katiekilkenny7, @wgawest and Variety

Sara Fischer / Axios:
The Philadelphia Inquirer launches a seven-figure ad campaign aimed at millennials; all five major Philadelphia sports teams agreed for their logos to be used

Discussion: Adweek, @andrewessex, @benwerd, @maghielse, @sarafischer and @ben@werd.social

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Jeff Zucker acquires a minority stake in newsletter startup Front Office Sports; source: the deal values the startup at ~$40M, up from $25M at the end of 2021

Discussion: Adweek, Reuters, Axios, Front Office Sports, @lucas_shaw, @russwildejr, @aericfisher, @mmccarthyrev, New York Daily News, The Messenger, New York Post, Sportico, The Wrap, Awful Announcing and Talking Biz News

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
National World, run by ex-Mirror boss David Montgomery, acquires Midland News Association, taking its title of the UK's largest independent regional publisher

Discussion: Media Voices, @josiahmortimer, @provnewshistory and @pressgazette

Earlier Picks:

Reuters:
Vertex, a SPAC backed by Singapore's Temasek, plans to acquire live streaming service 17LIVE for ~$676M; 17LIVE had revenue of $363.7M in 2022 and is profitable

Discussion: Bloomberg

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
A profile of Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who has been SAG-AFTRA's executive director and chief negotiator since 2021, as talks with the studios resume on October 2

Discussion: @stufalk, @brooksbarnesnyt and The Wrap

Laura Wagner / Washington Post:
A profile of More Perfect Union, a nonprofit labor-advocacy publication with a $5.5M annual budget, 28 employees, and a video-first approach on social media

Discussion: @moreperfectus, @ericschultz, @william_fitz, @emissaryofnight, @jmillerlewis, @cascamike, @fshakir, @scotmackri, @mattyglesias, @laurenkgurley, @chaidingari and @mrsethharris

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Q&A with YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe on NFL Sunday Ticket “exceeding expectations”, Multiview interest, the Charter-Disney dispute, and more

Discussion: The Desk

New York Times:
The number of fact-checking sites has declined worldwide, as social media platforms reduce disinformation efforts and false AI content keeps fact-checkers busy

Discussion: American Press Institute, @corrie_pikul, @brookingsfp, @mausellmoli, @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, @caulfieldtim, @carnage4life@mas.to and Meta Journalism Project

Carly Thomas / The Hollywood Reporter:
California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes a WGA- and SAG-AFTRA-backed bill that would have given unemployment benefits to striking workers like writers and actors

Jeff Baumgartner / Light Reading:
Filing: LG suspends including IP-based broadcast signaling standard ATSC 3.0 in its 2024 lineup of US TVs due to a “challenging and uncertain patent landscape”

Discussion: The Desk, @matthewkeyslive, TechRadar, @alexhcranz@threads.net, FCC and The Verge

From Techmeme:

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
OpenAI launches o3, its most advanced reasoning model, and o4-mini, a lower cost alternative that still delivers “impressive results”, for ChatGPT paid users

Bloomberg:
Source: OpenAI is in talks to acquire Windsurf, an AI coding tool formerly known as Codeium, for ~$3B; Windsurf was valued at $1.25B in a 2024 funding deal

Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Tech stocks plunge amid uncertainty over US tariff plans and China export controls: AMD, Nvidia, and ASML dropped 7%, Applied Materials and Lam Research fell 5%

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