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Sources: if Skydance and National Amusements merge, David Ellison would become CEO of the combined company; Ellison aims to spend billions to rebuild Paramount — - Producer, tech heir has a month to seal a definitive agreement — He needs to sell Paramount's board on merger with his company
Discussion:
The Wrap, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw
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Sources: Skydance's bid for Paramount, backed by RedBird and KKR, would keep Paramount publicly traded; David Ellison and Jeff Shell would have leadership roles
Discussion:
The Streamable, The Desk, @thewrap, @benmullin, The Information, @jtoonkel, @rogoswami, Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Wrap and Alex Sherman on LinkedIn


Former Business Insider EIC Jim Edwards and two others launch MoneyIn2, a personal finance brand on Substack, offering two minutes of information per day — MoneyIn2 hopes to tell those who don't yet have money how to make it. — Open publishing and newsletter technology has “opened the market” …
Discussion:
Talking Biz News, @jim_edwards, @jim_edwards and Jim Edwards on LinkedIn


Spotify debuts AI Playlist in beta for its Premium users in the UK and Australia, letting Android and iOS users generate and revise playlists using text prompts — Spotify already found success with its popular AI DJ feature, and now the streaming music service is bringing AI to playlist creation.
Discussion:
Variety, Spotify, Music Ally, @eldsjal, CMU, 9to5Mac, @carnage4life, Mashable, @scobleizer, Steven Finch on LinkedIn, Tom's Guide and The Verge, more at Techmeme »


More than 30 Colorado newsrooms, led by COLab, launch a statewide initiative to better cover the 2024 US elections by focusing on voter concerns — More than two dozen Colorado newsrooms have launched an unprecedented collaboration to better cover the 2024 elections.


Sources: The Overseas Press Club is split about naming a new award after Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist killed by an Israeli soldier — The Middle East conflict divides a group of international journalists. — The Overseas Press Club is at war over a new award for covering conflict.
Discussion:
@davidmcneill3, @lukeoneil47, @linaabuakleh, @rafat, @freddydeknatel and @lailaalarian


How local US news outlets in the total solar eclipse's path are covering the event, using it as an opportunity to broaden their appeal beyond current audiences — “Celestial events tend to draw highly engaged audiences, and this one is no exception.” — Incarcerated New Yorkers facing a lockdown (and suing successfully against it).
Discussion:
New Jersey Online, @s_peppered and @jbenton


Sources say Soros Fund Management's move to become the largest shareholder in radio company Audacy could be the beginning of a bigger audio buying spree — The Scoop — George Soros thinks it's good business, and perhaps good politics, to be in your ears.
Discussion:
@maxwelltani, @roblevine82 and @semafor


Nielsen data from 2021 to 2023: nine of the 10 most-watched streaming programs are reruns, but a majority of the 100 most popular titles are original series — Netflix isn't the most-watched streaming service in the US. But it does have the most hit shows. — We are inching closer to Paramount having a new owner.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw, more at Techmeme »


How Forbes, the Financial Times, Snopes, Trusted Media Brands, and other news publishers are updating on-site search with AI chatbots — Publishers are testing generative AI technology to update a rather boring function on their sites that hasn't been updated in a while: search.


CBS hires Wendy Fisher, who ran newsgathering operations at ABC News, to lead a newly formed national weather news operation across CBS' news and stations unit — CBS is forecasting that viewer interest in the ins and outs of national weather is about to gain new wind.
Discussion:
Radio & Television … and @bristei


Sources: OpenAI transcribed 1M+ hours of YouTube videos through Whisper and used the text to train GPT-4; Google also transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text — OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law …
Discussion:
The Information, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, MIT Technology Review, @papapishu, @bsletten@mastodon.social, @nixCraft@mastodon.social, @joannastern@threads.net, Music Technology Policy, Mashable, @carnage4life@mas.to, Interesting Engineering, @florian4gamers, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, Colin Crowell on LinkedIn, @rosenzweigjane, @gavatron, @markandrejevic, @jcpxdesigns, @_leobriceno, @dschatsky, @dm_cooper, Nikunj Mehta on LinkedIn, Rob Eleveld on LinkedIn, The Verge, Siri Agrell on LinkedIn, Timo Kämäräinen on LinkedIn, @glenngabe@threads.net, @Dhmspector@mastodon.social, @clive@saturation.social, Milton Pedraza on LinkedIn, Ali Manning on LinkedIn, Nigel Caplan on LinkedIn, @edsu@social.coop, Bart De Witte on LinkedIn, Jonathan Usher on LinkedIn, Katie Paul on LinkedIn and Tim Palmer on LinkedIn
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Elon Musk says X is “lifting all restrictions” in Brazil after a court ruling to block certain accounts, which X is defying, and calls on the judge to resign — Elon Musk is challenging a decision by a Supreme Court justice in Brazil who ordered his social media platform X …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Forbes, @shellenberger, The Verge, @globalaffairs, CNN, @elonmusk, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Reclaim The Net, Financial Times, @shellenberger, Associated Press, @lindayax, @elonmusk, @esjesjesj, @ggreenwald, @elonmusk, @arthurvneto, Al Jazeera, @elonmusk, @lorakolodny@threads.net, Reclaim The Net and The Information, more at Techmeme »


Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, passed away in March at age 41, according to a post on Genius attributed to his family — Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial, never-boring co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, as well as an angel investor …
Discussion:
@joshconstine, Moghadam Family on Genius, @cherrrywood, @azeemk_, @longlivetheduke, @markjeffrey, @mattturck, @johncoogan, @schlaf, @defidave22, @shanazakhan14, @thedataroom, @semil, @turnernovak, @typesfast, @darbyw, @geoffreywoo, @maiyegun, @bradflora, @dgt10011, @joshconstine, @amlewis4, @iankar_, @lutherlowe, @sameoldshawn, @thesamparr, @eriktorenberg, @robaeprice, @aseidman, @austen and @dmitricherniak


Filings from the FTC's Meta lawsuit: Instagram had $32.4B in ad revenue in 2021, or 27% of Meta's revenue and more than YouTube's $28.8B ad revenue in 2021 — - Instagram generated $32.4 billion in ad revenue in 2021, making up 27% of Meta's total revenue.
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