Mediagazer: Many of Amazon's Kindles are displaying ads for blatantly AI-generated books on the lock screen, with some appearing to be flagrant copies of existing works (Frank Landymore/Futurism)

Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:

Tech CEOs looking to “go direct” and avoid traditional media, which they view as unfairly critical, turn to friendly podcasters like Lex Fridman — Tech CEOs have a growing set of ways to sidestep traditional media. But first... Don't press

Discussion: @dannygroner, @martyswant, Talking Biz News, @garrytan and @nikitabier

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Georgia lawmakers kill a plan to cap film and TV tax credits at ~$900M annually; existing incentives let Atlanta compete with California, New York, and others — Georgia has dropped an effort to cap its billion-dollar film and TV tax credit, after the state House and Senate could not reach agreement on the issue.

Discussion: Deadline, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution

James Pomfret / Reuters:

US-funded Radio Free Asia closes its Hong Kong bureau, citing concerns over staff safety after a stricter national security law came into effect on March 23 — U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia said on Friday it had closed its Hong Kong bureau citing concerns over staff safety after the enactment …

Discussion: Radio Free Asia, New York Times, The Indian Express, Voice of America, Semafor and Reporters Without Borders

Podnews:

Survey of Americans aged 12+: 47% of have listened to a podcast in the last month, up 12% YoY, 76% listened to online audio in the past month, and more — The portion of Americans who listen to any kind of online audio, and the portion who listen to podcasts, have both reached new record highs …

Discussion: Inside Radio, RADIO ONLINE and RAIN News

Frank Landymore / Futurism:

Many of Amazon's Kindles are displaying ads for blatantly AI-generated books on the lock screen, with some appearing to be flagrant copies of existing works — “I've never minded the ads on them... until they became flooded with AI-generated books.” — Amazon has been a huge staging ground …

Discussion: @i_dont_caroline, @laurab7 and @poet_economist

Jackie Snow / Quartz:

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

Jerusalem Post:

Iran International says journalist Pouria Zeraati was hospitalized with multiple knife injuries after he was attacked by a group outside his London home — The Iranian regime has planned multiple attacks against Iran International. — Iran International announced on Friday that one of its journalists …

Discussion: Reuters, The Independent, @shachar_baron, Daily Express, Iran International, @ksadjadpour, @yashar and National Union of Journalists …

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:

Google informs users in the US that Google Podcasts is shutting down April 2 and recommends exporting podcast subscriptions to YouTube Music — U.S. users have just a few more days to make the transition from Google Podcasts as the company moves forward with the process of discontinuing the service globally.

Discussion: Google Help Center, @killedbygoogle, @BleepingComputer …, @killedbygoogle, TechCrunch, @jmwilt21, @andrewmccalip and Android Police, more at Techmeme »

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

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: @jasonhitchcock, @mattzeitlin, @ashleyrcarman, Gizmodo, @film_girl, John McDermott on LinkedIn, @nkulw, @ashleyrcarman, @michaelkuz, @seyitaylor, @blythebrum and @kantrowitz

NPR:

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.

Discussion: John BV Kelly on LinkedIn

Reuters:

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: The Wrap, Quartz, Yahoo Finance, The Indian Express and Deadline

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

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