Check out Mini-Mediagazer for simple mobiles or Mediagazer Mobile for modern smartphones.
2:35 PM ET, February 1, 2024

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
UMG begins pulling its artists' music from TikTok after negotiations failed; videos featuring UMG-owned songs will be muted, and users can pick a new soundtrack  —  - Publisher behind Drake and Taylor Swift pushes for better pay  — Videos featuring Universal Music-owned songs will be muted
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Email: The Messenger shuts down, effective immediately, citing economic headwinds; Jimmy Finkelstein launched the outlet in May 2023 and hired about 300 people  —  By closing less than a year after it launched, The Messenger is now one of the biggest busts in the annals of online news.
Discussion: Axios, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, @jimlaporta, Newser, @walsh_eli, @dceiver, Mike Donoghue on LinkedIn, @jhoffman, The Daily Beast, @maxwelltani, @madelineanele, @jayrosen_nyu, @jhoffman, Dawn Kopecki on LinkedIn, Politico, Puck, @dylanbyers, @jimlaporta, @jason_koebler, @ike_saul, The Hollywood Reporter, @coryschouten, @alexsteigrad, @sherman4949, @scottnover, Boing Boing, @jason_koebler, @jason_koebler, @dylanbyers, @dewalt, @carrasquillo, @benjaminopowers, @weareyourfek, @sarafischer, @rafat, @samleecole, Semafor, @benmullin, @theinsneider, @jhoffman, @joshuaogundu, @kantrowitz, @klasfeldreports, @byalexazzi, @knibbs, @bcmerchant, @jason_paladino, @lmorello_dc, @scottnover, @iansherr, @jeongpark52, @walsh_eli, @davidmackau, @digiphile, @walsh_eli, @chronotope, @chronotope, @mekosoff, @maxwelltani, @rafat, @stephen_neukam, @clarajeffery, @jeffjarvis, Digiday, @brucebartlett, @clarajeffery, @asilbwrites, @mediaevan, @mediaevan, @benmullin, @dsamuelsohn, @benmullin, @hanaatameez, @justinbaragona, @bgrueskin, @josephfcox, @cameronwilson, @macwbishop, @cameronwilson, @film_girl, @willsommer, @willsommer, @dylanbyers, @maxwelltani, @maxwelltani, @corbinbolies, @jessicalessin, @jamesrbuk, @jamesrbuk, @mikeisaac, @adambassofmass, @alex, @mattyglesias, @aidnmclaughlin, @thestalwart, @hbottemiller, @jimvandehei, @mediaevan, @lainnafader, @sarafischer, @taylorbuley, @tim_bays, @sherman4949, @willsommer, @tim_bays, @katie_robertson, @sherman4949, @tim_bays, @brianstelter, Media Nation, The Wrap, NBC News, @dansinker@threads.net, @ericmgarcia14@threads.net, @dkiesow@threads.net, Washington Post, Awful Announcing, Mediaite, Shishira Sreenivas on LinkedIn, Saundra Latham on LinkedIn, TechCrunch, Columbia Journalism Review, @malloriesullivan@threads.net, @makenakellyx@threads.net, Politico, Talking Biz News, Boston Herald, @sbhamedy@threads.net, @fredericl@threads.net, Variety, @sorayamcdonald@threads.net, @stuartathompsonnyt …, @noahshachtman@threads.net, New York Post, CNN, Wall Street Journal, The Information, @sokane1@threads.net, @karaswisher@threads.net, @geisler_jill@threads.net, @hermanywong@threads.net, @tomgara@threads.net, @semaforben@threads.net, Hollywood Reporter, @mattbrown.bsky.social, Talking Biz News, The Wrap and Deadline
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Disney has reached a preliminary agreement to sell 60% of its Indian media business to Reliance-backed Viacom18 at a $3.9B valuation  —  Viacom18's purchase of 60% of Disney's India business reunites the company with two executives who built it  —  Disney has reached a preliminary agreement …
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  —  A text time-stamped 1:19 a.m. early Wednesday read, “I think it's over, man.”  It was a Los Angeles-based colleague at The Messenger.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Primary Wave Music acquires a 50% stake in the Brazilian music company Nas Nuvens, valuing it at ~$100M and highlighting the booming market for Brazilian music  —  - Primary Wave invests in the Brazilian company Nas Nuvens  — Funding round values Nas Nuvens at around $100 million
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Todd Boehly-backed music company Gamma, which works with Usher and Snoop Dogg, raised $100M+ led by Alpha Wave Global, sources say at a $400M valuation  —  - Alpha Wave Global leads round valuing company at $400 million  — Former Apple executive Larry Jackson launched company in 2023
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  —  YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told Forbes the subscription services are now a “meaningful part” of the business.
Nqobile Dludla / Reuters:
NBCU and South African pay TV company MultiChoice plan to invest $177M in Showmax, MultiChoice's streamer built on Peacock; NBCU gets a 30% stake in Showmax  —  South African pay TV company MultiChoice Group (MCGJ.J) and U.S. media conglomerate Comcast's (CMCSA.O) NBCUniversal Media will invest …
Discussion: Deadline
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Politico redesigns its Europe, German, and French websites to have simpler homepages than the UK and US versions, to improve readability for AI web crawlers  —  Politico has given its Europe, German and French websites a redesign which improves readability for the web crawlers that feed into generative AI large language models (LLMs).
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
SiriusXM reports a Q4 net drop of 94K subscribers and 109K Pandora subs, net income down 4% YoY to $352M, revenue of $2.29B, and eyes “cost efficiencies”  —  The audio entertainment giant, the home of Howard Stern, is led by CEO Jennifer Witz whose team sees opportunities …
The NewsGuild:
More than 200 unionized Tribune journalists, designers, and production workers across seven newsrooms are staging a 24-hour strike today  —  - DO NOT click on stories from the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Virginian-Pilot, Morning Call, Suburban Chicago Tribune, Design and Production Studios, Tribune Content Agency
Reuters:
A Russian court extends the pre-trial detention of Russian-American RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, in custody since October 18, to April 5  —  A Russian court on Thursday extended the pre-trial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who is accused of violating a law on “foreign agents”.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 2:35 PM ET, February 1, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 See Also: 
Mediagazer: site main
Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer
Mediagazer Mobile: for phones
Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Mediagazer RSS feed
Mediagazer on X
Mediagazer on Mastodon
 
 
 More News: 
Christina Couch / Nieman Lab:
How some small media outlets are trying to prevent reporter burnout by adopting work models that reduce workloads and prioritize time outside the office
Jordan Moreau / Variety:
VFX workers at a Disney subsidiary vote to unionize with the IATSE, becoming the first group of “vendor-side” artists to unionize via an official NLRB vote
 Earlier Picks: 
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Email to subscribers: Hulu changed its agreement to ban sharing accounts outside of the user's household “unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier”
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
A US judge dismisses Disney's suit against Gov. Ron DeSantis claiming retaliation after Disney criticized Florida's “Don't Say Gay” bill; Disney plans to appeal
 

 
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
 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page