Mediagazer: A look at the stalled efforts to ban TikTok in the US as defense officials, who want an outright ban, clash with economic officials who back a compromise (Gavin Bade/Politico)

4:55 PM ET, October 10, 2023

Top News:

Casey Newton / Platformer:

As X fails to moderate Israel-Hamas misinformation, Meta has an opportunity to make real-time news a pillar of Threads and give the app an existential purpose — Three months into its existence, the app's purpose may be coming into focus — if Meta will embrace it

Discussion: CNN, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Wired, Jimmy Xing on LinkedIn, The Information, @anneapplebaum, Bloomberg, @onthemedia, @knittingknots2@mstdn.social, @jakemgrumbach, @nxthompson, Semafor, @oneunderscore__, @penamerica, 9to5Mac, @chrischirp@fediscience.org, @carnage4life@mas.to, @freedom_official_p …, @buccocapital@threads.net, @reporterzoe@threads.net, @davidfrenchjag@threads.net, @timothyjchambers@threads.net, @mattbinder@threads.net, @jason_whitman@threads.net, @carnage4life@threads.net, @mattbinder@threads.net, @alex.stamos@threads.net, @therealhoarse@threads.net, @ianbremmer@threads.net, @crumbler@threads.net, @oliverdarcy@threads.net, Morning Brew, @bruno_j_navarro …, @tchambers@indieweb.social, @ianbetteridge@writing …, The Guardian, @caseynewton@mastodon.social, Media Matters for America, CNBC, CNN, @Newmy@writing.exchange, @mimsical@mastodon.social, MediaPost, Variety, @chrismessina@mastodon.xyz, CBS News and Politico, more at Techmeme »

Wired:

As the Israel-Hamas war escalates, a look at the hacktivism on both sides, including outside hackers defacing and DDoSing government websites and media outlets — Since the conflict escalated, hackers have targeted dozens of government websites and media outlets with defacements and DDoS attacks …

Discussion: Insider, @mattburgess@infosec.exchange, Fox News, Washington Post, TechCrunch, CBS News and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Katy Migiro / Committee to Protect Journalists:
Three Palestinian journalists have been killed while reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, shrapnel injured another, and two Palestinian photographers are missing

Discussion: WAN-IFRA, Al Jazeera, @gypsystrategy, @daliahatuqa, @evanhill, @pressfreedom, @sarah_hassan94, @treesey, @daliahatuqa, @warmonitors, @m_medhaat, The Desk, @khalilkhatib90, Committee to Protect …, The Messenger, CBS News and Associated Press

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:

Sources in Bob Iger's inner circle and at Disney describe him as overwhelmed and exhausted by the company's challenges, which include Hollywood strike tensions — Disney's legendary CEO came out of retirement to save the company—right in time for its 100th birthday. Nothing has gone his way.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Messenger, The Wrap, New York Post, KNSD-TV and The Information

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund, now one of Disney's largest investors with a $2.5B+ stake, is planning a fresh push for Disney board seats

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

The Washington Post is offering voluntary buyouts over the next few weeks, aiming to cut ~240 jobs out of 2,500 to offset digital subscription and ad challenges — The publication has struggled to grow subscriptions in recent years. — The Washington Post is cutting about 240 jobs across the company …

Discussion: @benmullin, NPR, Washington Post, The Hill, The Messenger, The Information, @davidfolkenflik, The Daily Beast and @oliverdarcy@threads.net

Associated Press:

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich loses his appeal against his Russian arrest for espionage, meaning he will stay in jail at least until November 30 — A Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained in Russia on espionage charges lost his appeal against his arrest Tuesday …

Discussion: Fox News, Talking Biz News, Associated Press, New York Daily News, The Hill and Wall Street Journal

Sahil Patel / The Information:

Source: as of about June 2023, Netflix's ad sales and ad-supported subscriber numbers were roughly half what the company initially projected internally for 2023 — Turning Netflix into an advertising goliath is proving tougher than the video-streaming giant expected.

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Sources: Mail on Sunday laid off four senior sports journalists, including Mike Richards and Rob Draper, leaving the newspaper without a dedicated sports editor — European Football Writer of the Year Rob Draper and BJA winner Nick Harris look set to leave.

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

London-based Audoo, whose Audio Meter identifies music played in public to gather more accurate data for royalties, raised $5M, taking its total funding to $22M — Can you feel the love tonight (well, this morning) for British startup Audoo? It has raised a new $5m funding round led …

Discussion: Music Business Worldwide and Digital Music News

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Memo: Condé Nast Entertainment President Agnes Chu is set to leave at the end of October in a reorganization combining editorial, branded content, and video — The executive joined the company from Disney in 2020. — Condé Nast is shaking up its video and editorial content structure …

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, The Information and @annaknicolaou

Wayne Friedman / MediaPost:

Paramount Global and iSpot.tv partner to “measure and transact” national TV ad campaigns using iSpot metrics for Paramount's US media and streaming properties — Deepening more alternative-currency agreements among major TV network-based media companies, Paramount Global has struck …

Discussion: Adweek and Radio & Television …

Gavin Bade / Politico:

A look at the stalled efforts to ban TikTok in the US as defense officials, who want an outright ban, clash with economic officials who back a compromise — The administration is throwing its weight behind a new bill after previous legislative and national security efforts faltered.

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Hill, 9to5Mac and NewsNation, more at Techmeme »

Angela Fu / Poynter:

On Amazon's Prime Big Deals Day, 40+ unionized staff at Reviewed stage a one-day strike after the Gannett product reviews site didn't give them bargaining dates — Shopping holidays, like Amazon's Prime Days and Black Friday, are the product review site's biggest revenue drivers

Discussion: The NewsGuild, @reviewedunion, @nyguild and @reviewedunion

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Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

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China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

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More News:

BreAnna Bell / Variety:
Ebony Media Group partners with Lionsgate to launch Ebony TV by Lionsgate, a FAST channel coming to Samsung TV Plus, The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Amazon Freevee

Discussion: The Wrap, Media Play News, WORLD SCREEN and The Hollywood Reporter

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Jellysmack, a startup that helps creators grow their online video business, acquires Dan Abrams' true-crime video and production company, Law&Crime Network

Discussion: Axios, Mediaite, Creator Post, Advanced Television, Cord Cutters News and The Hollywood Reporter

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Imax shareholders vote down a proposed $124M deal to acquire the 28.5% stake in Imax's Shanghai-based Imax China unit that the company does not already own

Discussion: The Wrap and Reuters

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
X changes its public interest policy: “high-profile” accounts' newsworthy posts defying its rules can stay up and are no longer limited to government officials

Discussion: The Hill, CBS News, Associated Press and @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social, more at Techmeme »

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google says its tool that lets publishers bar Google from using their content to train its AI models does not extend to its Search Generative Experience product

Discussion: @glenngabe@mas.to and @lauren@mastodon …

Jake Kanter / Deadline:
Netflix Services UK reports 2022 revenue up 12% YoY to £1.54B, pre-tax profit up 22% YoY to £34.1M, and the average number of paid subscriptions up 4% YoY

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, The Guardian and Variety

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
An interview with New York Times Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury on not using metrics for which columnists drive subscriptions, a Donald Trump op-ed, and more

Discussion: @raju

Earlier Picks:

Deadline:
The WGA ratifies its new three-year AMPTP contract, following 8,435 “yes” votes and 90 “no” votes, after ending the guild's 148-day strike on September 27

Winston Cho / Hollywood Reporter:
ABC News settles former GMA producer Kirstyn Crawford's lawsuit that accused the network of ignoring sexual harassment allegations against her boss Michael Corn

Discussion: New York Post, Wall Street Journal, @jbflint, The Messenger, The Wrap, Adweek and Yahoo News

Jim Edwards / Press Gazette:
A look at LinkedIn's newsroom, which has 250 editors and writers across 30 countries and 17 languages, as the platform doubles down on news as others pull back

Discussion: Media Makers Meet, @pressgazette, @ksandler1 and @pressgazette

Duncan Miriri / Reuters:
Netflix plans to end its free mobile tier in Kenya, which offered 25% of its shows and movies, after two years on November 1, and rolls out a ~$6/month ad tier

Discussion: @nyakundi_ke, @venturesafrica, @sinemafocuske, @carolndosi, Techspace Africa, NTV Kenya and Cord Cutters News

Amit Gurbaxani / Music Ally:
Spotify adds listening restrictions to its free tier in India to drive paid subscriptions; India is one of Spotify's top five markets by MAUs but not by revenue

Discussion: CMU, @saikrishnaveni8, @magnifyindia1, @theajayrajverma, @swtaener, @musically, @tsuvik, @aroondeep, Moneycontrol and TechCrunch

Washington Post:
Investigation: earlier in 2023, Vietnam tried to plant Predator spyware on the phones of US Congress members, CNN journalists, and US policy experts via X posts

Discussion: The Register, @duandang, @donnchac, @amnestytech, @amnestytech, @jsrailton, @jsrailton, @rondeibert, @ericgeller, @jsrailton, CNN, The Hill, @DataDrivenMD@fedified.com, @sambowne@infosec.exchange and The Messenger

From Techmeme:

Meta:
Meta launches Llama 4 Maverick with 400B parameters and Scout with 109B parameters and a 10M context window, and previews Behemoth with 2T total parameters

Emilia David / VentureBeat:
Anthropic's Alignment Science team: “legibility” or “faithfulness” of reasoning models' Chain-of-Thought can't be trusted and models may actively hide reasoning

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils a demo of Quake II generated using its Muse AI model, with limited playability in a browser, as part of the company's Copilot for Gaming push

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