Mediagazer: Patreon rolls out new features for creators and fans, like a new visual brand identity, a revamped mobile app, an updated home feed, and free membership tiers (Mia Sato/The Verge)

2:20 PM ET, October 4, 2023

Top News:

The family of award-winning Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna says she has been missing since August 3, when she returned to Russian-occupied territory — Victoria Roshchyna has been missing since Aug. 3. Her father told The Daily Beast that her family is desperate to find out where she is.

Discussion: @pierrecrom, @stommedia and @milxind

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Yahoo plans to spin off Vespa, its open-source big data serving tool that powers the company's search, recommendations, and ad tech, into an independent venture — Yahoo, otherwise known as the company that pays my salary (full disclosure: Yahoo owns TC), today announced that it's spinning off Vespa …

Discussion: MediaPost, @thisguyoftheai, Business Wire and Beet.TV, more at Techmeme »

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Fortune CEO and ex-EIC Alan Murray plans to step down at the end of April 2024; he became CEO in December 2018, after the magazine was sold — Alan Murray, the chief executive officer of Fortune and its former editor in chief, is stepping down in six months. — Murray has been CEO since December 2018 after the magazine was sold.

Discussion: @davidclinchnews and Fortune

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

News UK and DMG Media propose creating a joint venture to combine their printing operations, which would need to be cleared by the competition authority — The companies believe the plan could help ensure a “long-term sustainable future” for the UK newspaper ecosystem.

Discussion: @newsuk, The Guardian, News UK and AOL

Todd Spangler / Variety:

WBD hikes the price of Discovery+ without ads in the US from $6.99 to $8.99 per month and Canada from CA$6.99 to CA$8.99; ad-tier remains $4.99/month in the US — It's the first time Discovery+ has increased the price of a monthly subscription in the markets since launching in January 2021.

Discussion: MediaPost, New York Post, @tvgrimreaper, The Desk, Deadline, The A.V. Club, Forbes, CNET, TVLine, Engadget, The Wrap, The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, IGN, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Canva unveils AI tools to automate labor-intensive tasks, and plans to pay out $200M over three years to designers who let their work be used to train AI models — As part of its 10th birthday celebrations, web-based design platform Canva is releasing Magic Studio — a new suite …

Discussion: CNET, Fast Company and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Ian Youngs / BBC:

GB News fires hosts Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson after concluding its internal investigations, and says its Dan Wootton investigation continues — Laurence Fox has been sacked by GB News after an outcry about comments he made on air about a female journalist.

Discussion: Press Association, Variety, @arusbridger, Daily Mail, The Independent, Daily Express, Spectator, London Evening Standard, @forakin, @david_challen, @gbnews, @calvinrobinson, Deadline and The Sun

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Meta rolls out generative AI features for advertisers, including to create backgrounds, expand images, and write versions of ad text based on the original copy — Meta announced today it's rolling out its first generative AI features for advertisers, allowing them to use AI to create backgrounds …

Discussion: AdExchanger, Facebook, The Messenger, @blyons151, @kvnbbg, @thisguyoftheai, Bloomberg, Search Engine Land and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Nicholas Casey / New York Times:

A look at Monitor Michoacán, a Mexican news outlet that closed after two of its journalists reporting on drug violence and government corruption were murdered — Drug violence and government corruption have put the country's journalists in peril. In one town, reporters tried to fight back.

Discussion: @cpalbi, @farnazfassihi, @rebelryan77, @nytimes, @alfonslopeztena, @caseysjournal, @drixander and @brianmannadk

Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:

Q&A with Taylor Lorenz on her new book, Extremely Online, women's role in building the internet, new media's effect on journalism, Twitter, Threads, and more — “The personality-driven model of news is not going away.” — In 2017, Taylor Lorenz predicted for Nieman Lab that selfie journalism would become “a thing.”

Discussion: Wired, Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter, Platformer, @caseynewton@mastodon.social and The Information

Mia Sato / The Verge:

Patreon rolls out new features for creators and fans, like a new visual brand identity, a revamped mobile app, an updated home feed, and free membership tiers — A decade since launching with the mission of helping creatives make money directly through fan support, Patreon is undergoing a major rebrand …

Discussion: @ismaelnafria, @mattnavarra, @patreon, Patreon and @patreon, more at Techmeme »

Samanth Subramanian / The Guardian:

A profile of Michael Lewis, as he talks about his new book, Going Infinite, why he considers SBF to be essentially genuine, The Blind Side controversy, and more — As author of The Big Short and Moneyball, Michael Lewis is perhaps the most celebrated journalist of his generation.

Discussion: CBS News, Washington Post, @juliedicaro, @juliedicaro, Deadspin, The Overspill, Fox News, The Messenger, @davidedgarwolf, @60minutes, @macrocephalopod, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @smtuffy, @juleshyman, @jbarro, @parikpatelcfa, @noahpinion, @zekefaux, @petercontibrown, @mrianleslie, @buccocapital, @samanth_s, @followtheh, @alexnazaryan, @gdnlongread, @molly0xfff, @samanth_s, @joshkraushaar, @matthewstoller, @samanth_s, @alderlaneeggs, @jack_raines, @glynmoody, @sokane1, @buccocapital, @julie_bush, @coffeebreak_yt, @samanth_s, @samanth_s, @ugarles, @rdnarang, @samanth_s, @molly0xfff, @gdnlongread, @ben_a_goldfarb, @michaeldavsmith, @jenszalai, Insider, New York Post, Molly White, New York Times, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, The Hollywood Reporter, Awful Announcing, Bloomberg, Fast Company, CNBC, New York Magazine and The Block

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Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter - Ireland — Newsweek

Weather Reporter, MA — Boston Globe

South Reporter, GA/Remote — ProPublica

Awards Specials Editor, CA — Hollywood Reporter

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More News:

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
The RIAA: Latin recorded music revenue in the US grew 14.8% to $627M in H1 2023, compared to overall US revenue growth of 9.3%; Latin streaming revenue grew 16%

Discussion: RIAA, Billboard and Variety

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Q&A with former Washington Post editor Marty Baron on his book, pressure from Trump, not sharing the Steele Dossier, journalists' free speech rights, and more

Discussion: Fox News, @raineytime, @raineytime, Vanity Fair and Politico

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
A US judge rules that Disney must face an antitrust lawsuit accusing the company of inflating the cost of streaming live TV using its ownership of Hulu and ESPN

Discussion: Cord Cutters News, PYMNTS.com and Deadline

Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
Sources: Paramount is considering scrapping its plans to launch Paramount+ in India in 2023 in favor of selling more programming to its partner JioCinema

Amy Hawkins / The Guardian:
A profile of Jimmy Lai, the owner of now closed Apple Daily and one of Hong Kong's most outspoken pro-democracy activists, as he marks 1,000 days in prison

Discussion: New York Times

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Code in the latest build of the Spotify app suggests the company is working on AI-generated playlists based on users' prompts, likely available in English only

Discussion: @alex193a, @thomas_thomas_thomas …, @chris@threads.net, @chris@threads.net and Music Ally

Earlier Picks:

Kalhan Rosenblatt / NBC News:
MrBeast asks whether social media platforms are “ready to handle the rise of AI deepfakes” after a deepfake scam TikTok ad, since deleted, used his likeness

Discussion: Insider, 9to5Mac, Fortune, Washington Post, The Messenger, Decrypt, TechCrunch and Semafor, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:
Spotify starts offering Premium subscribers 15 hours of audiobook streaming per month across 150K+ titles, first in the UK and Australia, and the US this winter

Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
An interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution Publisher and President Andrew Morse, on the goal of growing its digital subscribers from ~60K to 500K by 2026

Discussion: Poynter, @jboren4507 and @sarahscire

Dalya Alberge / The Guardian:
A look at County Highway, a new, $8.50 print-only newspaper published six times a year with a retro 19th-century look, no advertising, and a focus on the US

Discussion: @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

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

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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