Mediagazer: Naver-owned online comics platform Webtoon raised $315M in its Nasdaq IPO at $21 per share, the top of its $18-$21 marketed range, valuing the company at $2.7B (Song Jung-a/Financial Times)

5:50 AM ET, June 27, 2024

Top News:

Jed Rosenzweig / LateNighter:

Paramount has shut down its Comedy Central website, which held The Daily Show clips and the full run of The Colbert Report, after its shutdown of MTV News' site — First on LateNighter: One of the richest repositories of late-night videos is no longer. — ComedyCentral.com had been home …

Discussion: Variety, IndieWire, @davidfolkenflik, The Wrap, @philmeyer, The Hollywood Reporter, TVLine, @punkonbus1701@tenforward …, @carnage4life@threads.net, @bisexualkaiju.bsky.social, @three_star_dave@mstdn.social, @brunhilde2525.bsky.social and Deadline

Andrew Chung / Reuters:

SCOTUS declines to impose limits on the way Biden administration may communicate with social media platforms in the First Amendment case of Murthy v. Missouri — The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to impose limits on the way President Joe Biden's administration may communicate …

Song Jung-a / Financial Times:

Naver-owned online comics platform Webtoon raised $315M in its Nasdaq IPO at $21 per share, the top of its $18-$21 marketed range, valuing the company at $2.7B — Online comics platform prices IPO at top of range for $2.7bn valuation — Webtoon Entertainment, an online comics platform …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Deadline, BBC, KED Global, WEBTOON and Reuters

Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.co:

A look at what has happened to the US box office since 2000 and how the pandemic accelerated the decline in per capita theatrical admissions by roughly 15 years — Over the last six months, there has been a lot of talk about the future of theatrical exhibition ("going to the movies") …

Discussion: @ballmatthew, @royprice and @loudmouthjulia

Gene Park / Washington Post:

An interview with Netflix's VP of external games Leanne Loombe on its push into gaming, focusing on narrative games without ads or in-app purchases, and more — I told my dentist that I was interviewing someone at Netflix later, and she got really excited. “Ooo, what about? Which show?”

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, more at Techmeme »

Jay Peters / The Verge:

NBCU says an AI-generated voice of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels is going to give daily, personalized recaps of the Paris Olympics on its streamer Peacock — Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels is going to give daily, personalized recaps of the Paris Olympics on Peacock — well, an AI-generated Al Michaels voice will.

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Dish offers customers who sign up for a two-year contract a new bundle with Netflix's ad-supported tier for free, or its ad-free tiers at a $7/month discount — The satellite TV company is giving its customers access to Netflix's ad-supported tier at no cost, or its ad-free tiers at a discount.

Discussion: About DISH, Next TV, Variety and The Desk

Neel Dhanesha / Nieman Lab:

The Oaklandside's publisher, Cityside, launches Richmondside in Richmond, CA, a town where the top employer, Chevron, owns the primary news source — Last month, I talked to Floodlight's Miranda Green and NPR's David Folkenflik about how they teamed up to investigate a news site owned by Chevron.

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik, @tigerbeat and @khulacrichmond

Adam Jacobson / Radio & Television Business Report:

Audacy promotes Jeff Sottolano to chief programming officer from EVP and head of programming; he'll be responsible for content on radio stations and podcasts — Thanks to a new deal that sees him agreeing to a multi-year contract extension, the individual who has served as Executive Vice President …

Discussion: Inside Radio, Inside Radio and RADIO ONLINE

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

A look at YouTube's growing dominance as Nielsen says it had ~10% of all viewership on connected and traditional TVs in the US in May, ahead of Netflix's 7.6% — WATCH NOW — It's been almost 20 years since the founding of Alphabet's YouTube, and Hollywood still doesn't really know what to do with it.

Discussion: Tara Walpert Levy on LinkedIn, @aagave, @tvgrimreaper, Brooks Day on LinkedIn, @tarawlevy, @sportstvratings, Jeff Jenkins on LinkedIn, Alex Sherman on LinkedIn, @richlightshed, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, CNBC on YouTube and TVNewsCheck, more at Techmeme »

NewsGuild of New York:

Members of The NewsGuild of New York vote 1,229 to 599 to make a temporary dues rate of 1.75% permanent; the rate had been set to expire on September 30, 2024 — NEW YORK - In a resounding display of solidarity and as an investment in the future of their union, members of The NewsGuild …

Discussion: @nyguild and @susandecarava

Jon Allsop / Vanity Fair:

Will Lewis should be held accountable as a powerful executive and not simply seen through a parochial US lens that views UK journalists as having lax ethics — Will Lewis's ethical imbroglio has led to caricatures of British editors. But the Washington Post publisher should be held accountable …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, @bgrueskin, @jon_allsop, @mlcalderone, MediaPost, TVNewsCheck and Financial Times

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Katie Paul / Reuters:
Seven content-licensing sellers of music, image, and other AI training datasets form the Dataset Providers Alliance to advocate for “ethical data sourcing”

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Zak Butler / The Keyword:
An overview of China's Dragonbridge multiyear disinfo campaign that uses AI-generated content and spans several social networks to target geopolitical rivals

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Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Melody Kramer about the Triangle Blog Blog, a progressive all-volunteer group blog she founded covering civics and news in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, NC

Discussion: @localnewsini

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Adult content platform Slushy raised $10.2M in seed funding and says it reached 1M users and grew its creator base by 40% to 10,000 in Q1 2024

Discussion: Axios, The Information and Washington Examiner

Kerry Flynn / Axios:
Lost In raised a $4M seed and acquired a Berlin-based travel guidebook publisher to build a travel media brand focused on the “premium economy traveler”

Discussion: Forbes, Dana Block on LinkedIn and Marlon C. Nichols on LinkedIn

Earlier Picks:

Financial Times:
Sources: YouTube is in talks with Sony, Warner, and Universal to license their songs for AI music generation tools coming in 2024 that mimic artists' music

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Christopher Grimes / Financial Times:
Independent film company A24 raised $100M led by Josh Kushner's Thrive Entertainment at a $3.5B valuation, up 40% from its first fundraising in 2022

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Paul Farhi / Columbia Journalism Review:
Nonresponses from sources to requests for comment in news stories are rife, and growing rapidly; some PR reps defend the silence, depending on circumstances

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Laura Dobberstein / The Register:
In a rare admission of ad fraud, Yahoo Japan to waive $189M ad revenue, or ~1.6% of parent company LY Corp's FY 2023 revenue, after detecting fraudulent clicks

Discussion: LINE Yahoo Co., Ltd.

Ann M. Simmons / Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appears in a Russian Court for the start of his closed-door trial on espionage charges, which he denies

Deadline:
IATSE and AMPTP reach a tentative agreement, a month before the current contract expires, covering some 50,000 mostly LA-based film and TV crew members

Discussion: MEDIANAMA, Matt Fleckenstein on LinkedIn, Variety, The Wrap, IATSE, Michael Wolmer on LinkedIn, @deadline, New York Daily News, The Hollywood Reporter, TVNewsCheck, IndieWire, Variety and Los Angeles Times

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Meta VP of Generative AI Ahmad Al-Dahle denies a rumor that the company trained Llama 4 Maverick and Scout on test sets, saying that Meta “would never do that”

Matthew Gault / 404 Media:
Framework pauses sales of its six lowest-priced laptops in the US, saying the models would sell at a loss due to the 10% tariff that went into effect on April 5

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple plans to send more iPhones to the US from India to offset the China tariffs, but the situation is too uncertain to upend supply chain investments

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