Mediagazer: Meta reports Q3 revenue up 23% YoY to $34.15B and net income up 164% YoY to $11.58B, but CFO Susan Li warns the company has observed “softer ad spend” in Q4 (Hannah Murphy/Financial Times)

3:40 PM ET, October 26, 2023

Top News:

Conversations with 24 staffers from ABC, NYT, and other outlets reveal the challenges of covering the Israel-Hamas war, including disinformation and defamation — An inside look at how correspondents are juggling online harassment even as they dodge the dangers of real-time reporting in the escalating conflict.

Discussion: @jackiedstrause, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @mohammrafik, @alexweprin, The Economist, Vanity Fair, IndieWire and Bollyinside

The Daily Beast:
Al Jazeera reports that the wife, son, and daughter of its Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp

Jaclyn Diaz / NPR:
CPJ: at least 24 journalists have been killed through October 25 in the Israel-Hamas war, the deadliest period since the committee began tracking deaths in 1992

Discussion: Next TV, Al Jazeera, @chargrille@progressives …, American Press Institute, @joey@spore.social, @moorehn, @alivelshi, @aljazeeraenglish@threads.net and Wired

Will Sommer / Washington Post:

Staff at USA Today's Reviewed say Gannett is undermining them by publishing articles that appear to be written by AI using fake bylines, a charge Gannett denies — Staff writers at Reviewed suspect that management published stories written by AI under the names of non-existent writers.

Discussion: Awful Announcing, @nyguild, The Daily Beast, @gaufre, Pam Mandel on LinkedIn, The Verge, Eric Anderson on LinkedIn, @jon@henshaw.social, Pam Mandel on LinkedIn, Stephen Perrine on LinkedIn, Chad Capellman on LinkedIn, Peter Frank on LinkedIn, Matt Sabo, M.S. on LinkedIn, Poynter and The Messenger

Financial Times:

Publisher Basic Books acknowledges apparent plagiarism in UK Shadow Chancellor's Rachel Reeves new book on women economists, including from Wikipedia and blogs — ‘The Women Who Made Modern Economics’ contains examples of apparent plagiarism — A new book by Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor …

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, The Guardian, BBC, CityAM, inews.co.uk, @hughrbrechin, @tbraithwaite, @owenwalker0, The Sun, GB News, @bdstanley, @katemaltby, @profchalmers, @duncanrobinson, @henrymance, @yuanyi_z, Boing Boing and Guido Fawkes

Mark Miller / TVNewsCheck:

Nexstar and ReachTV announce a distribution deal for NewsNation and The CW's sports programming, reaching 500K hotel rooms and TV screens in 90+ US airports — Nexstar Media Group and ReachTV today announced that they are partnering to extend the distribution of Nexstar's cable news network NewsNation …

Discussion: Next TV, Radio & Television …, Streaming Better and Cord Cutters News

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

Bloomsbury CEO Nigel Newton warns of AI's threat to copyrighted work and says UK leaders should support the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill — Group that launched Harry Potter series says copyright not sufficiently being protected — The chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing …

Discussion: Mark Montgomery on LinkedIn and Reuters

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

CISAC: for 5M+ creators in music, AV, drama, literature, and visual arts, digital royalties rose 33.5% YoY to €4.2B in 2022, making up 35% of global royalties — - Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) — Global collecting societies body Cisac has published …

Discussion: CMU, Reuters, Music Week, CISAC and Billboard

Washington Post:

Although creators are an economic juggernaut in the US, the industry remains broadly unregulated and largely fails to appear in the Census Bureau's job index — The U.S. Census Bureau tallies for the federal government an extensive list of 22,607 American industries, recognizing those who work …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Nancy Baym on LinkedIn, @katieharbath@threads.net, @itnewsbot@schleuss.online, @drewharwell, @realbugsycat and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

Tristan Kirk / London Evening Standard:

The Noel Clarke vs. The Guardian libel trial begins; the actor sued the paper for £10M for calling him a “sexual predator” based on testimony from 20 women — TV star says Guardian articles that accused him of sexual misconduct and bullying had ‘catastrophic’ impact on his career

Discussion: The Messenger and Variety

Wall Street Journal:

Silver Lake, which owns ~71% of the voting stake in Endeavor Group Holdings, says it is working on a plan to take the company private; EDR rose 24%+ after hours — The owner of WME and IMG said it was exploring options, but will keep its majority interest in TKO, the company that controls UFC and WWE

Discussion: Silver Lake Partners, The Messenger, @jbflint, Sportico, Reuters, Deadline, Awful Announcing, Front Office Sports, The Information, Variety and The Wrap

Mike Calia / CNBC:
Endeavor, Ari Emanuel's talent agency and sports company, announces a formal review of strategic alternatives for the company, which could mean a potential sale

Discussion: New York Post, Business Wire, @sherman4949, @jbflint, Front Office Sports, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC 7 San Diego, Bloomberg, Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:

Meta reports Q3 revenue up 23% YoY to $34.15B and net income up 164% YoY to $11.58B, but CFO Susan Li warns the company has observed “softer ad spend” in Q4 — Facebook and Instagram parent says it has seen more ‘volatility’ in economic conditions

Discussion: Meta, Wall Street Journal, @swiftstories, MarTech, @rjrcapital, @thetranscript_, @munster_gene, @lexnfx, Music Ally, @carnage4life@mas.to, @richlightshed, CNBC, @eric_seufert, Fast Company and New York Times

Ben Mullin / @benmullin:

Jeff Bezos emails Washington Post staff: he is “committed to the future of the Post” and thinks “long term it's important that The Post return to profitability” — NEW: Jeff Bezos emails staff: “Long term it's important that The Post return to profitability - a key signal that we're serving readers in a way that's important to them.” [image]

Discussion: The Hill, @dylanbyers, @dannypage, @dcwoodruff, @scottnover, @semaforben, @_silversmith and Puck

Reuters:

Hipgnosis shareholders vote against the sale of 29 music catalogs to Blackstone and require proposals to reorganize or shutter the company within six months — Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG.L) said on Thursday that shareholders voted against the sale of some music catalogues and the continuation …

Discussion: Financial Times, Music Week, Variety, CMU and Billboard

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast reports NBCU Q3 revenue up ~1% YoY to $10.56B and a $1.97B adjusted EBITDA; Peacock had 28M subscribers, a $565M loss, and revenue up 64% YoY to $840M — The studio's streaming service continued to grow its customer base on a narrowed loss. … The studio's streaming service lost $614 million in the year-ago period.

Discussion: Reuters, Forbes, The Streamable, IndieWire, TVNewsCheck, Front Office Sports, Streaming Better, The Information, Variety, The Wrap, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, CNBC, Deadline, Business Wire and Media Play News

Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:

A look at Israeli Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi's push to shut down Al Jazeera's Israeli operations, following his attempts to overhaul Israel's media — In the days after Hamas attacked Israel earlier this month, Shlomo Karhi, the country's communications minister …

Discussion: @jon_allsop and Charles-Antoine Rouyer on LinkedIn

Barak Ravid / Axios:
Sources: US Secretary of State Tony Blinken told US Jewish community leaders that he asked the Qatari prime minister to tone down Al Jazeera's war rhetoric