Mediagazer: Snap agrees to a $15M settlement with California after a three-year probe into employees' allegations of discrimination, retaliation, and sexual harassment (Lara Korte/Politico)

5:15 PM ET, June 19, 2024

Top News:

Sources: WaPo's Will Lewis advised Boris Johnson and others to “clean up” their phones during UK's COVID-era Partygate scandal in December 2021 and January 2022 — Sources' claim suggests advice by Will Lewis, an informal adviser to then prime minister, contradicted instructions to staff

Discussion: @dougiec3@libretooth.gr, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @adambienkov and @7im

Wired:

Analysis: Perplexity seems to scrape sites using surreptitious methods, ignoring robots.txt, with a Perplexity-tied machine doing so on Wired and other sites — A WIRED investigation shows that the AI-powered search startup Forbes has accused of stealing its content is surreptitiously scraping—and making things up out of thin air.

Discussion: @bernie_michalik@threads.net, @jessicalessin, @technicallymims@threads.net, @LeftistLawyer@kolektiva …, @benedictevans@threads.net, @katiedrumm, @clive@saturation.social, @johnvoorhees@mastodon …, @carnage4life, @timmarchman.bsky.social, @johnkoetsier@threads.net, @howelloneill@infosec.exchange, @olifranklin, @noahshachtman@threads.net, @rafat and @dmehro, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Forbes' lawyer demands that Perplexity AI remove articles sourced from Forbes, seeks assurances that Perplexity AI won't infringe on Forbes copyrights, and more

Discussion: @johnvoelcker and Talking Biz News

Bloomberg:

Elon Musk tried to repair his often strained relationship with the ad industry through an appearance at the Cannes Lions, after Twitter skipped 2023's event — Elon Musk attempted to repair his often strained relationship with the advertising industry with an appearance at the Cannes Lions conference in France on Wednesday.

Discussion: Axios, Ad Age, The Media Leader, New York Post, Page Six, Wall Street Journal, @kerrymflynn, Adweek, @dimazeniuk, Deadline, The Drum, The Wrap, @jonlax@threads.net, Arlo Brady on LinkedIn, @megancgraham, @benatipsos, MediaPost and Financial Times

Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Media:

How generative AI model providers can create business models that reward copyright holders and content creators, much like what has happened on the web — Last month, The New York Times claimed that tech giants OpenAI and Google have waded into a copyright gray area by transcribing …

Discussion: @ainemacdermot.bsky.social and Tim O'Reilly on LinkedIn

Lara Korte / Politico:

Snap agrees to a $15M settlement with California after a three-year probe into employees' allegations of discrimination, retaliation, and sexual harassment — Women who worked for the company in the last decade may be eligible for compensation. — SACRAMENTO, California …

Discussion: @suhaunah, @calcivilrights, CRD, @kimzetter, Courthouse News Service, San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

MoffettNathanson: Q1 2024 was the worst quarter the pay-TV business has ever seen, losing 2.37M subscribers, down 6.9%, and even YouTube TV slightly shrank — - Pay TV just suffered its worst quarter in history — a stunning 6.9% drop. — The TV industry used to hope digital services …

Discussion: Nielsen, Next TV, @penenberg, @nicksologist, @chrifamouamo1, @pkafka, @thatniggaephy, @chrifamouamo1, @pkafka, Cord Cutters News and Awful Announcing

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

London-based sports content studio C15 Studio emerges from stealth to launch FAST channels in partnership with Formula 1, Triton Poker, and others — The developer of free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels dedicated to programming from Formula 1, Triton Poker and professional squash …

Discussion: Matthew Keys on LinkedIn and Sportico

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Timbaland and Swizz Beatz strike a distribution deal with X for their music series Verzuz, which they sold to Triller in 2021 but have since reacquired — Earlier in the year, Swizz and Timbaland reacquired Verzuz from their previous partner Triller and now own 100% of the platform …

Discussion: Monique Pintarelli on LinkedIn, Rolling Stone, WTOP News and Billboard

Variety:

A look at Paramount's failed merger talks with Skydance and how Shari Redstone's unilateral decision to call off the talks shows her unusual power — For Shari Redstone, it was nothing personal. But the longer the negotiations went on, the more Redstone fell out of love with the idea …

Discussion: @xpangler, The Hollywood Reporter, @xpangler, @asharma, @carlquintanilla, @xpangler and @xpangler

Charlie Nash / Mediaite:

X removes some of journalist Pablo Manriquez's viral posts on Senator Ted Cruz's donor info; X claims the posts violated its rules but did not give details — A series of viral social media posts revealing the contents of a folder on Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) donors were removed by Elon Musk's platform X on Tuesday.

Discussion: @pabloreports, @jimswiftdc, @jsweetli, @ericmgarcia, @blu3r4d0n, @electproject, @will_bunch, @jaywillis, @ok_post_guy, @prem_thakker, @ericmgarcia, @prem_thakker, @tommyg.bsky.social, @jkarsh, @erratarob and @justinconley

Laura Kipnis / Wired:

A look at Rebind, a startup that turns Margaret Atwood's and other authors' voices into AI reading companions, and an interview with CEO John Dubuque — Margaret Atwood, Marlon James, Lena Dunham, Roxane Gay: We've all agreed to be turned into AI reading companions by a mysterious company called Rebind.

Discussion: Rebind AI, more at Techmeme »

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

Telegraph Media Group reports a record £244.6M loss in 2023 due to £277.6M of previously unidentified debt, despite operating profit rising 35.2% YoY to £54.2M — Telegraph Media Group has reported a record £244.6m loss in 2023, despite a 35% rise in operating profit.

Discussion: Telegraph, Financial Times, Bloomberg, @pressgazette, The Guardian, @ljon.bsky.social and @josiahmortimer

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 5:15 PM ET, June 19, 2024.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Bureau Reporter - Vietnam, HCMC — Bloomberg

Curation Editor (Contract), NY — Apple News

Business Editor, CA — TheWrap

Executive Ed. - Tech & Electronics, AZ — AspenCore

Economy & Industry Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Political Enterprise Editor, DC — Guardian US

Housing & Real Estate Reporter, ME — BDN

Associate Reporter - Yahoo Finance — Yahoo

Senior Editor, Remote — Raw Story

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US Foreign Affairs Correspondent, DC — FT

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More News:

Thomas Claburn / The Register:
A look at Mozilla's acquisition of Anonym, which offers “privacy-preserving” ad tools, and how Anonym might interact with a user base that tends to block ads

Discussion: @karlemilnikka, @checkmyadshq, @polluterofminds, @mozilla, @trevorflowers@widerweb.org, @funnymonkey@freeradical.zone, The Mozilla Blog, @tchambers@indieweb.social and Hacker News, more at Techmeme »

Mickey Djuric / The Canadian Press:
Canadian officials won't say whether or how the new Online News Act should apply to AI companies using Canadian news for training or providing chatbot answers

Discussion: @tara_deschamps, @nationalpost and MobileSyrup

Brier Dudley / The Seattle Times:
Carpenter Media told a Sound Publishing union that it plans to lay off 62 people, including over half the unionized newsroom at The Daily Herald of Everett, WA

Discussion: MediaPost and @ogvanniphoto

David Shepardson / Reuters:
The US FTC says it has referred a complaint to the DOJ against TikTok and ByteDance over potential violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

Marek Miller / The Keyword:
Google launches News Showcase in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; several publishers added a feature where Google pays for reader access to paywalled content

Discussion: Audrius Janulis on LinkedIn and Neowin

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Subscription platform Zuora is acquiring AI company Sub(x) to use AI to enhance paywall offerings for the news industry; Sub(x)'s 10 employees will join Zuora

Discussion: @markstenberg3, Chris Scott on LinkedIn and Zuora

Earlier Picks:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Venu Sports, the Fox/WBD/Disney streaming venture, announces more hires, including Chief Business Officer Tim Connolly, who had led Apple TV+ subscriber growth

Discussion: @thedeskdotnet, Pete Distad on LinkedIn, Awful Announcing, The Desk, Next TV, Radio & Television …, Deadline, The Wrap and Barrett Media

David Gilbert / Wired:
ISIS created two YouTube channels falsely branded as CNN and Al Jazeera channels in March; their videos stayed on YouTube for a month and a half before removal

Discussion: @paddydugganj, @taliaotg, @daithaigilbert and @SteveThompson@mastodon.social

Brian Stelter / @brianstelter:
Email to staff: Jeff Bezos names and copies Will Lewis and says WaPo “needs to evolve” and has his “commitment on maintaining quality, ethics, and standards”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix plans to open two permanent in-person experience venues, in Dallas and near Philadelphia, in 2025, a continuation of its previous pop-ups

Tony Plohetski / Austin American-Statesman:
Gannett's Austin American-Statesman names Courtney Sebesta executive editor; she began her career at the Statesman 22 years ago as an editorial assistant

Discussion: Courtney Sebesta on LinkedIn and Austin Business Journal

From Techmeme:

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
A book excerpt details how the OpenAI board ousted Sam Altman with help from Mira Murati, who provided examples of his alleged lies and other toxic behavior

Arfa Javaid / Financial Express:
Replit CEO Amjad Masad says learning to code is a waste of time, citing Dario Amodei's prediction that AI may generate essentially all code by next year

Bain:
India's e-commerce market grew 10%-12% YoY to ~$60B in GMV in 2024, versus historical rates of over 20%, with 270M+ people shopping online, second only to China

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