Mediagazer: Sources: OpenAI offered some media firms $1M to $5M per year to license news articles for model training; Apple offers more but wants to use content more widely (The Information)

7:50 PM ET, January 4, 2024

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Sources: The Messenger made ~$3M in revenue in 2023 and told potential investors it had $1.8M in cash on hand at the end of December after losing ~$38M in 2023 — The company, which debuted last year with big plans to disrupt journalism, generated only $3 million in revenue by the end of December.

Discussion: @royprice and @benmullin

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Sources: conservative media and business execs met with Jimmy Finkelstein at Mar-a-Lago on January 3 to discuss acquiring a 51% stake in The Messenger for $30M — A group of conservative media and business executives met with The Messenger founder Jimmy Finkelstein on Wednesday to discuss acquiring …

Discussion: @aysrick, @justinbaragona, @peterschorschfl, @jbenton, @jbenton, @jbenton, @jbenton, @taraemcg, @drewsav, @amandabecker, @cmseeberger, @seangriffey, @bencjacobs, @bgrueskin, Andy Barr on LinkedIn, Sara Fischer on LinkedIn and @johnbattelle@threads.net

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: The Messenger is seeking to raise around $20M amid layoffs and financial struggles; it launched in 2023 after a $50M raise

Discussion: @simondowens@threads.net, Defector, Julie Westfall on LinkedIn, The Wrap, @henryporters, @jasonshevrin, @themaxburns, @ernie.tedium.co, @scottnover, @rolandsmartin, New York Post, The Daily Beast and The Information

Om Malik / On my Om:

The decline of Wired, once a magazine that inspired hope in technology's future, illustrates a broader loss of necessary optimism among tech writing communities — On January 2nd, 1993, Wired burst onto the scene, and let me tell you, it transformed the way many of us looked at technology and its impact on our future.

Discussion: Steve Makofsky on LinkedIn, @joelmathis.bsky.social, The Rebooting, @johnnylaird, @keithgrossman and @spencerreiss

The Information:

Sources: OpenAI offered some media firms $1M to $5M per year to license news articles for model training; Apple offers more but wants to use content more widely — OpenAI has offered some media firms as little as between $1 million and $5 million annually to license their news articles …

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Verge, Neil Katz on LinkedIn, New York Post, @blairmacgregor, @alex, Rafael Brown on LinkedIn, @garymarcus, Nicholas Yanes on LinkedIn and Thurrott, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:

Sources: Jamie Stockwell, who had been Axios Local executive editor, will oversee Washington Post local coverage, replacing Mike Semel, who has been promoted — Jamie Stockwell previously oversaw Axios Local's expansion to dozens of metro regions. — Jamie Stockwell, who was the executive editor …

Ben Mullin / @benmullin:

Sources: Axios names Holly Moore as Axios Local executive editor, replacing Jamie Stockwell; staff were told local ad revenue rose 40% in 2023 — Scoop: Holly Moore — formerly of USA Today and currently head of local innovation Hub for Axios —named exec ed for local. Jamie Stockwell, current exec editor, leaving for a new gig. Staff told eight cities now have 100,000 (unpaid) subs. Local ad revenue was up 40% last year.

Discussion: @jmhaigh

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Eric Newcomer, founder of the Newcomer newsletter on startups and VCs, says he made $1M+ in 2023 revenue from events and subscriptions and has hired a reporter — Eric Newcomer, the founder and author of Newcomer, an independent newsletter covering startups and venture capital …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @ericnewcomer, Newcomer, @ericnewcomer, @maddierenbarger and The Guardian

Andrew Marchand / New York Post:

YES and MSG Network partner to launch Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment, a 50/50 venture that aims to capitalize on their streaming services — YES and MSG Network are partnering on a new venture that eventually could lead to a direct-to-consumer streaming service that offers the Yankees …

Discussion: Awful Announcing, Sphere Entertainment Co., Next TV, The Streamable, Front Office Sports, @stegensurvivor, @tim_bays, @aagave, Sportico, @yesnetwork, @mattzeitlin, @loudmouthjulia, @lucas_shaw, @ncostanzo24, @andrewmarchand, @pitchforkedpuck and The Hollywood Reporter

Ralph D. Russo / Associated Press:

The NCAA and ESPN announce a $920M, eight-year agreement that will give ESPN rights to 40 championships, including the Division I women's basketball tournament — The NCAA and ESPN announced on Thursday a $920 million, eight-year agreement that will give the network exclusive rights to 40 championships …

Wall Street Journal:

As Google restricts third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users, marketers, adtech companies, and publishers say Google has not done enough to prepare the market — Search giant plans to remove a technology seen as critical to the digital-ad industry — Google is going forward …

Jacob Feldman / Sportico:

Marie Donoghue, vice president of global sports video at Amazon's Prime Video and a former top ESPN executive, is leaving the company — Five years after being tapped by Amazon to lead its global sports programming efforts, Marie Donoghue is leaving the company, a spokesperson confirmed.

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Awful Announcing, Barrett Media, @jacobfeldman4 and @andrewmarchand

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

VideoAmp founder Ross McCray steps down as CEO as the company prepares to lay off nearly a fifth of its staff; Peter Liguori will serve as executive chairman — The founder of VideoAmp, a measurement-technology start-up that has been vying with Nielsen and others to create a new means …

Discussion: Ad Age

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Amazon names Jeremy Helfand vice president and head of sales for Prime Video; he had been EVP for advertising for Disney's interactive businesses — Amazon has tapped a Disney veteran to lead its new push into the streaming ad wars. — Jeremy Helfand, who rose from a position at Hulu …

Discussion: Adweek, Ad Age, The Information and The Wrap

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Agence France-Presse:
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Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
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Paul Sandle / Reuters:
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Bloomberg:
Sources: TikTok aims to grow TikTok Shop US' merchandise volume tenfold to $17.5B in 2024 and plans to increase merchant fees to 6% of each sale in April 2024

Discussion: MediaPost, @yohaas, Semafor, @herrmanndigital, @rishabhmjain, @alejandrochahin, TechCrunch, @carnage4life@mas.to, Digital Music News, WWD, The Information, Forbes and Insider Intelligence

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Aditya Kalra / Reuters:
Sources: Disney and Reliance executives signed a non-binding term sheet in December and both have hired law firms to do antitrust due diligence for their merger

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Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
BOA analysis: Amazon's video ad push will boost annual revenue by up to $5B, comprising $3B in video ad sales and $1.8B in Prime users paying to avoid ads

Discussion: The Motley Fool

Kari Paul / The Guardian:
Q&A with Jacob Bakkila, who ran the popular @Horse_ebooks Twitter account for two years, on the inspirations behind the language bot, AI chatbots, and more

more at Techmeme »

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
In a lawsuit, a Disney employee claims she was sexually assaulted by former VP of distribution Nolan Gonzales and that management didn't escalate concerns to HR

Discussion: New York Post, ComingSoon.net, Deadline and Bloomberg Law

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
MPA: the Asia Pacific video industry grew 5.5% in 2023 to hit $145B in revenue, with a 13% jump in online video sales to $57B; TV revenue grew under 1% to $98B

Discussion: @livemint, Livemint, WORLD SCREEN and Advanced Television

From Techmeme:

TechCrunch:
SensorTower: users in India have spent $8M on ChatGPT subscriptions through IAP since 2023, not including web app purchases, versus ~$330M spent by US users

Google Online Security Blog:
Google announces Sec-Gemini v1, an experimental AI model for cybersecurity, claiming it outperforms others on the leading CTI-MCQ threat intelligence benchmark

RT Watson / The Block:
The US SEC says that “covered” US dollar stablecoins like USDT and USDC are not securities, and registration is not required for minting or redeeming them

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