Top News:
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Elon Musk scoffs at advertisers leaving X because of his controversial posts: “If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising ... go fuck yourself” — - In recent weeks, Musk has promoted and sometimes verbally endorsed what the White House called “antisemitic and racist hate” …
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Jennifer Bowers Bahney / Mediaite:
Elon Musk says organizations that don't pay for X subscriptions don't get recommended, in a reply to a question about X's throttling of The New York Times — Elon Musk sat for a question and answer session with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin during the 2023 DealBook Summit sponsored by The New York Times.
Kim Masters / The Hollywood Reporter:
Former associates of Linda Yaccarino describe her as difficult and volatile but hardworking, and say high self-regard made her think she could manage Elon Musk — The former NBCUniversal ad sales chief thought she could manage the mercurial Elon Musk. Her former colleagues are baffled at the result …
Discussion:
Reuters, @nsedef, @halmarshall2309, @karaswisher, @nash076, @thr, The Information and Reclaim The Net, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Tubi hires David Salmon, former CTO of Endeavor Streaming, as executive VP and managing director of international, and plans to launch in the EU and the UK — Tubi, Fox Corp.'s ad-supported video-on-demand service, is eyeing a bigger international footprint: The streamer has tapped David Salmon …
Discussion:
WORLD SCREEN and Cord Cutters News
Alexandra Topping / The Guardian:
The BBC says Newsnight will become a “30-minute interview, debate, and discussion show” and cuts 30+ jobs to save £7.5M as part of plans to make £500M in cuts — More than half of jobs at flagship BBC Two political programme to be lost as corporation diverts money to digital platforms
Discussion:
BBC, Telegraph, BBC, @markurban01, @robburl, @markayresrws, @lewis_goodall, @jamesrbuk, @katierazz, @katierazz, @katierazz, @scouselakes, @liamfjournalist, @nujofficial, @georgiebingham, @liammustapha, @abdulmohamed02, @lorna_tveditor, @xtophercook, @redmadden, @johnsweeneyroar, @katierazz, @drfrancesryan, @silvesterldn, @jonlis1, @louisdegenhardt, @katierazz, Financial Times, National Union of Journalists … and The Wrap
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Sports Business Journal:
NASCAR announces media rights deals with Amazon's Prime Video, WBD's TNT Sports, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports, for 2025 to 2031; sources: deals are worth $7.7B — NASCAR is on the cusp of announcing $7.7B worth of media rights deals with Fox Sports, NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon.
CBC News:
Google and Canada reach an agreement in their dispute over the country's Online News Act; Google plans to pay news companies around CA$100M, or ~$74M, per year — Agreement comes 3 weeks before Online News Act rules come into force — Google and the federal government have reached …
Discussion:
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Sheena Vasani / The Verge:
TikTok launches verified artist accounts, offering various tools to deepen engagement and improve discoverability, seemingly inspired by Spotify — These accounts can be activated by any musician and come with tools to help artists reach new fans and increase engagement with existing ones.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Meta plans to launch Threads in Europe in December, the largest expansion since its July debut, offering a choice of using Threads without a profile — Expansion is expected in December, a signal of company's commitment to microblogging service — Facebook parent Meta Platforms plans …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Engadget, @edcarson1971@threads.net and @newley, more at Techmeme »
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Analysis: 11 of the 13 local news websites that UK-based Reach plans to close before the end of 2023 saw double-digit percentage audience drops in the past year — Ten sites have announced they will no longer be updated from Thursday. — Eleven of the 13 local news websites being closed …
Discussion:
Local News Initiative
Lisa Richwine / Reuters:
Disney CEO Bob Iger says ABC is not for sale, despite his earlier comment that it might not be “core” to Disney, and he'll “definitely” step down in 2026 — Walt Disney (DIS.N) Chief Executive Bob Iger said on Wednesday he would “definitely” step down when his current contract ends …
Institute for Nonprofit News:
The INN board announces that Karen Rundlet will become CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News on January 8, succeeding Sue Cross — Philanthropy leader and multimedia journalist Karen Rundlet will become chief executive officer of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) …
Discussion:
Chris Krewson on LinkedIn and Current
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Substack rolls out video creation and editing tools to enable creators to publish video podcasts, create interactive AI-made transcripts, and customize clips — Content creators are launching original shows on Substack as the company introduces a suite of new video tools