Top News:
Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:
Robert MacNeil, who anchored evening newscasts for over two decades on PBS and delivered evenhanded, non-flashy news with Jim Lehrer, dies at 93 — With his longtime co-host Jim Lehrer, he delivered thoughtful reports that stood in stark contrast to the commercial networks' ever more sensational newscasts.
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Hill, Washington Post, @judywoodruff, Deadline, Newser and The Hollywood Reporter
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
A look at the internal upheaval at the NYT around sensitive subjects and management's push to emphasize neutrality and independence, including through probes — After internal upheaval over coverage of sensitive topics like the Israel-Gaza war, management renews emphasis on independence and neutrality
Discussion:
@fxshaw@threads.net, @brianstelter@threads.net, @jeffjarvis and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social
Jaffer Zaidi / The Keyword:
Google tests removing links to CA news sites to measure the impact of the California Journalism Preservation Act and pauses investments in the CA news ecosystem — A pending bill in the California state legislature, the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), would create a “link tax” …
Michael Schneider / Variety:
Netflix acquires the rights to “Rather”, a documentary about journalist Dan Rather, which will premiere April 24 — Netflix has acquired “Rather,” the documentary about veteran journalist Dan Rather's landmark career in news. The film, which premieres April 24 on the streamer …
Bloomberg:
Adobe used images created by tools like Midjourney and uploaded to its stock marketplace by users to train Firefly; Adobe says ~5% of images were AI-generated — Company promotes its tool as safe from content scraped from the internet. — When Adobe Inc. released its Firefly image-generating software …
Discussion:
Tom's Guide, more at Techmeme »
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A look at faux podcast ads or “UGC ads” where brands pay actors to tape clips that look like podcast recordings in which they promote company products — Brands like the validating veneer of the podcast look without having to pay premium prices for actual spots on shows
Discussion:
The Hill, RAIN News, News, San Antonio Current, The Texas Tribune and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Appfigures: short drama apps, like ReelShort, collectively made $146M in Q1 2024, up from $1.8M in Q1 2023; Reelshort made $52M in Q1 and DramaBox made $35M — Was Quibi just ahead of its time? Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg ultimately blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the failure …
Discussion:
Appfigures
Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
Condé Nast staff marked for layoffs in November are assigned to a “central editorial group” as they await the outcome of their union's contract negotiations — While their union negotiates with top execs about the scale and terms of layoffs, employees who had been working at GQ …
Discussion:
@willyblackmore, @joshkovensky and @semaforben
Brian Hiatt / Rolling Stone:
A look at Udio, which was founded by four former DeepMind employees in December 2023 and launched a product on April 11 that generates songs from text prompts — Weeks after AI-music generator Suno went viral, a new rival, Udio, is here, backed by tech and music heavyweights.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Roku says hackers accessed ~576K accounts using credential stuffing, and made purchases in ~400 cases, after a similar breach affecting ~15K accounts in March — The new security incident was discovered a month after the company learned that 15,000 accounts were impacted in a similar breach.
Discussion:
CNN, Variety, TechCrunch, The Streamable, Los Angeles Times, The Desk, CBS News, The Verge, Engadget, MobileSyrup, The Wrap, Forbes, Reuters, Deadline and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
Uri Berliner's essay about NPR reignited criticism of the outlet on social media, especially by conservatives, and spurred vehement pushback from some staffers — An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives.
Discussion:
New York Post, The Verge, The Daily Caller, @kalihays1@threads.net, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @brianmannadk, @brianmannadk, @brianmannadk, @titonka, @jpederzane, @shannonpareil@threads.net, @shannonpareil@threads.net, @emilybellnyc@threads.net, @anildash@threads.net, @micah_loewinger@threads.net, @lpolgreen@threads.net, Fox News, New York Magazine, @jbouie@threads.net, @jbouie@threads.net, @matt.bachand@threads.net, @greenloopstore@threads.net, @digiphile@threads.net, @digiphile@threads.net, @digiphile@threads.net, @jenniferschulzechi …, @dankennedy_nu@threads.net, @maxkennerly.bsky.social, The Hill, Media Nation, CNN, MediaPost and Mediaite
Jenny Strasburg / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Nicolai Tangen, Norway's sovereign-wealth fund manager and host of In Good Company, a podcast that has interviewed Elon Musk, Daniel Ek, and others — Top CEOs talk to Norway's sovereign-wealth fund manager. This week's guest was Elon Musk on the future of AI.
Discussion:
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