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11:00 AM ET, February 2, 2024

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 Top News: 
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
The Messenger's flop was the result of Jimmy Finkelstein's blindness to bad ideas, like its traffic-chasing strategy, not a consequence of economic headwinds  —  The flaws in the site's strategy were highly predictable (and repeatedly predicted).  But Jimmy Finkelstein's muddled nostalgia …
RELATED:
The Daily Beast:
Ex-employees of The Messenger file a class-action lawsuit against the shuttered outlet, alleging that it failed to give them proper notice ahead of their firing  —  The class-action lawsuit comes just a day after The Messenger closed up shop for good, firing its hundreds of staff without offering them severance.
Jordan Hoffman / New York Magazine:
A Messenger journalist describes his time working for the outlet, where the expensive offices were empty and reporters were instructed to chase trending topics
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Filing: Amazon spending on content rose 14% YoY to $18.9B in 2023 despite Hollywood strikes  —  While other media companies have been paring back content spending, Amazon shelled out more than $2 billion more in 2023 for TV shows, movies and music than it did a year earlier.
RELATED:
Will Sommer / Washington Post:
The WSJ lays off ~30 staffers as it restructures its DC bureau and shutters the US-China news team; laid-off staffers will be allowed to apply for some new jobs  —  The Wall Street Journal took a hatchet to its Washington bureau on Thursday, laying off roughly 20 staffers in a restructuring …
Salvador Rodriguez / Wall Street Journal:
Meta reports Q4 revenue up 25% YoY to $40.1B, with ad revenue of $38.7B, ad impressions delivered across its Family of Apps up 21%, and average ad price up 2%  —  Company posts biggest quarterly revenue gains in two years  —  Facebook parent Meta Platforms posted its fourth consecutive quarter …
Marc Schneider / Billboard:
Merck Mercuriadis is stepping down as CEO of Hipgnosis Song Management and will be replaced by Ben Katovsky, the company's current president and COO  —  Mercuriadis will transition to chairman, with Ben Katovsky rising to chief executive as the advisor eyes smoother relations with its publicly listed royalty fund.
Discussion: Music Business Worldwide and CMU
Kevin T. Dugan / New York Magazine:
Interviews with shareholders and current and ex-employees suggest that SI's publisher Arena missed the licensing payment by choice, not because it lacked money  —  At about 4 p.m. on Thursday, January 25, the board of the media conglomerate the Arena Group met after the company had blown up its license to publish Sports Illustrated.
Discussion: @jayshams and @leomschwartz
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Ben Strauss / Washington Post:
Sources: an Arena executive ordered SI to remove a transgender boxing story from a print issue; SI says the story was no longer newsy and will be posted online
Dexter Thomas / Wired:
Q&A with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on the company's music festival in Mesa, AZ, his background, TikTok and music, music labels, US scrutiny, moderation, and more  —  A few weeks ago, Shou Zi Chew sat down with WIRED to tell us how he's trying to make TikTok better.
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Sources: some independent record labels are pushing back on Apple's plans to pay more for spatial audio tracks, saying it benefits larger record companies  —  Groups behind Adele and Phoebe Bridgers among those against songs recorded in higher-quality audio receiving more money
 
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 More News: 
Lesley Goldberg / The Hollywood Reporter:
Highlights from Netflix's press event: a push for live programming, no planned theatrical releases, licensing content from others won't impact originals, more
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Primary Wave Music acquires a 50% stake in the Brazilian company Nas Nuvens, which holds music catalogs of about 40 artists, valuing Nas Nuvens at ~$100M
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Gamma, which creates, distributes, and markets music, podcasts and films, raised $100M+ led by Alpha Wave Global, sources say at a $400M valuation
 Earlier Picks: 
Richard Nieva / Forbes:
YouTube says YouTube Premium and Music have a combined 100M subscribers; CEO Neal Mohan says subscriptions have become a “meaningful part” of YouTube's business
The NewsGuild:
More than 200 unionized Tribune journalists, designers, and production workers across seven newsrooms are staging a 24-hour strike today
 

 
From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: US officials are investigating Chinese router maker TP-Link, which has an estimated 65% US market share, and could ban the sale of its routers in 2025

Hayden Field / CNBC:
OpenAI rolls out a way to talk to ChatGPT by dialing 1-800-CHATGPT for 15 minutes of free access per month in the US or messaging it via WhatsApp globally

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub makes its Copilot free in VS Code, with 2,000 code completions and 50 chat messages per month; GitHub now has 150M developers, up from 100M in early 2023
 
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