Top News:

The Atlantic is profitable, has 1M subscribers, and revenue grew 10% in 2023 thanks to a 50% price hike, a harder paywall, and a shift to in-depth reporting — Storied magazine raised subscription prices and hired top talent; ‘we make something worth buying’
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @nycsouthpaw, Megha Garibaldi on LinkedIn, @palewire, @delia_cai, Justin Pallenik on LinkedIn, Alice McKown on LinkedIn, @alexbruell, Bhumika Tharoor on LinkedIn, Molly Logan Cox on LinkedIn, The Atlantic, The Hill, Mariah Craddick on LinkedIn, @edmundlee@threads.net, @thekenyeung@mastodon.social, @davidtoddmccarty@me.dm, Nicholas Thompson on LinkedIn and The Wrap

How MowPod, which sells podcast advertising tools, uses mobile game ads to incentivize gamers to follow shows on Apple Podcasts in order to earn in-game tokens — At least nine of the current top 50 shows on Apple Podcasts have been promoted in mobile games — Welcome back to Soundbite.
Discussion:
@kantrowitz

How Richmond Standard, a newspaper funded by the California town's biggest employer Chevron, puts its own spin on events as the town's primary news source — NPR's David Folkenflik reported this story with Miranda Green of Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.

How newsrooms like Semafor and Skift are using generative AI for internal editing, story summaries, paywalled chatbots trained on their archives, and more — Beyond high-profile wins and faceplants, understated but impactful applications of generative AI are transforming newsrooms
Discussion:
@semaforcomms

Karlie Kloss' Bedford buys Life publication rights from Dotdash Meredith and plans to resume regular print publication in 2025; Josh Kushner will be publisher — The investor Josh Kushner and his wife, Karlie Kloss, have struck a deal with Barry Diller's media company to revive it as a regular print title.
Discussion:
Bedford Media, El País, Raw Story, Columbia Journalism Review, @angiejaime, Vulture, @kelseyjbarnes, @media_bedford, @alex, @joshuakushner, Al Jazeera, New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, New York Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, The Information, The Wrap, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and @lapresmidi

The NBC News-Ronna McDaniel saga highlights the perks and perils of partisan talk TV; a source says McDaniel is now seeking $600K+ for her two year deal — Why are television news networks so enamored with paid Beltway analysts? — Trying to juice ratings in an election year …

The proposed Living Wage for Musicians Act would add $4-$10/month to streaming fees, distributed based on usage and also capped to limit funds to top artists — - A proposed bill would add an extra $4 to $10 a month to streaming music fees. — Making streaming music work better for artists …
Discussion:
The Guardian, UMAW, @pkafka and @pkafka

New York-based The Brandtech Group, which provides generative AI-based tools for advertising and marketing campaigns, raised a $115M Series C at a $4B valuation — The Brandtech Group will use funds to disrupt industry with machine-generated content and artificial intelligence
Discussion:
The Brandtech Group, more at Techmeme »

Blackwells, which is in a proxy fight with Disney, sues Disney over possible disclosure violations in dealings with ValueAct; Disney calls the claims “baseless” — Blackwells Capital upped the pressure on Walt Disney (DIS.N) in a long-running boardroom battle …
Discussion:
Quartz, The Indian Express, Yahoo Finance and Deadline

YouTube says 25%+ of Partner Program channels earn money from Shorts; of those who joined the program thanks to Shorts, 80% earn from other parts of YouTube — One year after YouTube turned on revenue sharing for its shortform video feature, a growing chunk of creators are getting paid for it.

Scammers are using sample videos of influencers with modest social media presence to create AI deepfake ads that often push offensive products and ideas — Artificial intelligence is spurring a new type of identity theft — with ordinary people finding their faces and words twisted to push often offensive products and ideas

European Audiovisual Observatory: Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ took 85% of VOD viewing time in nine EU countries from September 2022 to September 2023 — Concentration is the main characteristic of VoD usage in Europe with 85 per cent of viewing time generated by only three services (Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+).
Discussion:
European Audiovisual Observatory, Media Play News and Broadband TV News