Mediagazer: News sites are closing due to the collapse of programmatic ad revenue; a case study of Talking Points Memo shows how subscriptions kept the site in business (Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo)

4:30 PM ET, March 6, 2024

Top News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:

An interview with LinkedIn EIC Dan Roth on investing in journalism and news, work with over 400 news publishers globally, launching a podcast network, and more — - Unlike Facebook and X, traffic referrals to news publishers have increased slightly from LinkedIn over the past three years, per Similarweb.

Discussion: Jeff Jarvis on LinkedIn, Dan Horowitz on LinkedIn, @jbhavan, Katie Carroll on LinkedIn, @silmonn, Paul Quigley on LinkedIn, Heather Harder on LinkedIn, Michael Learmonth on LinkedIn, @jeffjarvis, @ismaelnafria, @risj_oxford, @eriqgardner and Media Voices

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

News sites are closing due to the collapse of programmatic ad revenue; a case study of Talking Points Memo shows how subscriptions kept the site in business — Over the years I've written about structural problems in the digital news industry, often driven by the growth of platform monopolies and other issues.

Discussion: Media Nation, @gbdonart, @joshtpm, @joshtpm, @laurarbelin, @danb11, @joshtpm, @joshuamzeitz, @joshtpm and @fishertktk

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

Police in Azerbaijan detained about a dozen journalists after raiding offices of Toplum TV; EIC Khadija Ismayilova said no explanation for the raid was given — Police in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, detained about a dozen journalists from the online Toplum TV channel on March 6 after searching …

Discussion: Reuters and Radio Free Europe/Radio …

Hayden Field / CNBC:

Patronus AI releases CopyrightCatcher and says OpenAI's GPT-4 produced copyrighted content on 44% of prompts in its test of AI models for copyright infringement — - Patronus AI, an AI model evaluation company founded by ex-Meta researchers, on Wednesday released research showcasing …

Discussion: @mark_riedl, @kn4qdg and Quartz, more at Techmeme »

Will Sommer / Washington Post:

Road & Track magazine quietly pulls a piece by socialist writer Kate Wagner covering an F1 race in Austin in a trip funded by UK petrochemicals company INEOS — Editors for Road & Track aren't saying why they yanked Kate Wagner's story from the website shortly after it published

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

CNBC expands its Make It personal finance brand with new ventures like a weekly TV series and online classes, and says Make It is its largest vertical — A ‘Make It’-branded TV series and an online course are among the projects in the works. — CNBC is expanding its presence …

Discussion: Kamelia Angelova on LinkedIn and Jessica Leibowitz on LinkedIn

Todd Spangler / Variety:

WBD plans to shut down Rooster Teeth after failing sell the unprofitable fandom, gaming, and comedy entertainment unit, resulting in layoffs of ~150 employees — Warner Bros. Discovery in talks to sell shows like ‘RWBY,’ ‘Red vs. Blue’ and ‘Gen:Lock’ and will shop the Roost podcast network

Discussion: IndieWire, Gizmodo, Evan Bregman on LinkedIn, @chadjamesrt, @themilesluna, @g0ffthew, @ordinarygamers, @chris_short1991, @eoinjleahy, Popverse Latest, Deadline, cream and five sugars, I Have Hope For A Better …, The Hollywood Reporter, Fanfictions and RWBY … and Cord Cutters News

Cormac Pearson / The Independent:

More than 100 MPs back an amendment to the UK's Digital Markets Bill requiring parliament's approval before UK news outlets can be bought by foreign governments — The amendment would require parliament's approval before UK news media organisations could be purchased by a foreign government

Discussion: @robertjenrick, @pressgazette and @tinastowell

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Tidal plans to combine its HiFi and HiFi Plus plans into a single $10.99/month “Tidal” plan, below HiFi Plus' $19.99/month; students will still pay $4.99/month — Tidal seems to have decided that there just aren't enough people willing to pay upward of $20 per month for the highest-possible audio fidelity.

Discussion: Music Business Worldwide, Music Ally, Engadget, CMU, TIDAL and Billboard

Todd Spangler / Variety:

At a tech and media conference, Bob Iger says Disney is working to catch up with Netflix's tech capability and downplays the effects of activist investors — CEO says Nelson Peltz's activist investor proxy fight ‘designed to distract us’; reveals studio has ‘killed a few’ movie projects

Discussion: The Streamable, Screen Rant, Quartz, Deadline, Media Play News, Broadband TV News, Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, @xpangler, Next TV, The Wrap, Deadline and TVBEurope

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell plans to spend “tens of millions” of pounds to find the next global hit like Bluey; BBC Studio raised its debt facility to £600M — Commercial arm of broadcaster will ‘really go out to the market’ to develop new shows

Discussion: Adweek, Deadline, @danielthomasldn and Advanced Television

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:

Memo: Sony Pictures Entertainment promotes Global Television Studios and Corporate Development chairman Ravi Ahuja to president and COO, effective April 1 — The TV chief, who will take on the expanded role effective April 1, will continue to report to chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra

Discussion: Deadline and Hollywood Reporter

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More News:

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Dish-owned streamer Sling TV launches a gaming platform called Arcade, free for Sling TV and Sling Freestream customers on Amazon Fire TV and Android TV

Discussion: The Streamable, The Desk, SLING TV and Cord Cutters News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Paramount Global is in discussions to sell its minority stake in Viacom18 in India to Reliance

Discussion: Media Play News and @lucas_shaw

Max Goldbart / Deadline:
The UK announces an extended indie movie tax credit for films that have budgets between £1M and £15M, along with business rates relief for big studios

Discussion: Financial Times, Antony Hunt on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, WORLD SCREEN and Variety

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
EY report: the Indian media and entertainment industry grew 8% YoY to $27.9B in 2023; TV shrank 2% YoY to $8.3B due to advertising declining by 6.5% YoY

Discussion: Business Standard and Financialexpress

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Elon Musk's Tesla, which had been famous for shunning advertising, is now running ads on YouTube, TikTok, and Elon Musk's X; the ads started in early 2024

Discussion: 9to5Mac, Quartz, The Hill, Gizmodo, @sawyermerritt, @jyarow, @pkafka, @annmlipton, Electrek, @dangillmor@mastodon.social and @annmlipton@esq.social, more at Techmeme »

Emma Roth / The Verge:
A US judge upheld parts of a National Music Publishers' Association's copyright lawsuit against X and dismissed the claim that X engaged in direct infringement

Discussion: CNN, Digital Music News, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard, Music Ally, CMU, Reuters and US District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:
Ad company Entravision says Meta plans to wind down its authorized sales partner program and end its relationships with all ASPs, including Entravision, by July

Discussion: RADIO ONLINE, Inside Radio and Radio & Television …

Amy Maclean / Cablefax:
C-SPAN is searching for a new CEO as co-CEOs Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain step down this year; VP of Finance Matt Deprey will replace Kennedy as CFO

Discussion: Next TV, Radio & Television …, NewscastStudio, The Desk, @cspansusan, The Hollywood Reporter, Amy Maclean on LinkedIn and Deadline

The Verge:
YouTube star Hank Green interviews The Verge EIC Nilay Patel about the pressure from algorithms, giving work away for free, AI, the fediverse, and more

Discussion: @waxy@xoxo.zone

Emma Roth / The Verge:
In response to the EU's ruling, Spotify submits an app update for the EU to provide pricing info within its iOS app and link users to its subscription options

Discussion: TechCrunch, Engadget, 9to5Mac, The Sun, AppleInsider, Marcus James B. on LinkedIn, The Apple Post, CMU, Total Telecom and MediaNama

Sara Fischer / Axios:
NTWRK CEO says the company plans to fold its brand and business into Complex and form Complex NTWRK, less than two weeks after acquiring Complex for $108.6M

Discussion: @joshuaogundu, Sam Hart on LinkedIn and Megan Rall on LinkedIn

From Techmeme:

Will Shanklin / Engadget:
Apple releases the first public betas of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, watchOS 27, and tvOS 27, marking the public debut of the new Siri AI

Jason Nelson / Decrypt:
Anthropic research based on ~310K anonymized Claude conversations shows how Claude's expressed values and behaviors vary across models and languages

Zac Bowden / Windows Central:
Microsoft announces a Windows 11 search overhaul that prioritizes local results, removes promotional web content, and more, rolling out to Windows Insiders

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