Top News:


Sources: WBD will lay off ~1,000 employees across sectors including finance, business affairs, and production; source: fewer than 10 Max staffers are affected — Sources tell Variety that nearly 1,000 employees will be laid off across a few sectors in a new cost-cutting move at WBD …
Discussion:
Deadline, Quartz, @minotimusic, The Wrap, Jon Malone on LinkedIn, IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter, @tvgrimreaper, The Desk and Cord Cutters News


A jury convicts Ozy Media and its founder Carlos Watson of fraud, in a case accusing them of lying to investors about the startup's finances and sham deals — Ozy Media and founder Carlos Watson were convicted of fraud by a Brooklyn federal jury on Tuesday, in a case accusing them of lying …
Discussion:
New York Times, Courthouse News Service, Associated Press, Breitbart, @ednynews, The Information, The Verge, Variety, TheGrio, Axios, Mediaite, The Wrap, Bloomberg and Deadline


Taboola CEO Adam Singolda says the company has struck a deal with Apple to power native advertising in the Apple News and Apple Stocks apps; TBLA jumps ~5% — - Taboola's effort to build trust with Apple across its various teams and stakeholders was “a multiyear process,'” Singolda said.
Discussion:
Media Voices, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, @sarafischer, The Drum, The Overspill, Jay Friedman on LinkedIn, @counternotions@mastodon …, @thomholwerda@exquisite.social, The Verge, MediaPost, 9to5Mac, @simondowens@threads.net, @benedictevans@threads.net, @crumbler@threads.net and @joesteel@duck.haus, more at Techmeme »


Investigation: Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic, and others trained their AI on a dataset that contained YouTube video transcripts, including from the WSJ, NPR, and BBC — AI companies are generally secretive about their sources of training data, but an investigation by Proof News found …
Discussion:
The Verge, Beyond Search, SWAMY WORLD, Ars Technica, @mkbhd, @juliaangwin, @neilturkewitz, @mkbhd, Ezra Cooperstein on LinkedIn, The Register, Quartz, @juliaangwin, Digital Trends, @benlovejoy, Craig Newmark on LinkedIn, Engadget, @carnage4life@mas.to, Dexerto, Nieman Lab and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »


Six journalists who worked at DCist, closed by WAMU earlier in 2024, launch the 51st, a worker-run local news site for DC, and a $250K fundraising campaign — The worker-run newsroom will attempt to fill a niche its founders say opened when WAMU closed DCist.


The NBA's Board of Governors approves the league's next media rights deals with Disney, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video; WBD could still match one of the deals — The NBA's Board of Governors approved the league's next media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video at its meeting Tuesday …
Discussion:
Puck, The Desk, @sherman4949, @mikevorkunov, NBA.com, New York Times, Awful Announcing and The Streamable


Deezer debuts Playlist with AI in beta, where users can create playlists from text prompts, powered by Google's Gemini 1.5, following rivals' similar offerings — Deezer is the latest music streaming app to introduce an AI playlist feature. The company announced on Monday that a select number …
Discussion:
Deezer Newsroom, Digital Music News, Music Ally and Music Business Worldwide


The editorial union at Ziff Davis' Mashable, Lifehacker, and PC Mag agrees to a tentative contract prohibiting layoffs or salary cuts due to generative AI — Ziff Davis can't lay off workers or decrease their salary due to generative AI, according to the tentative contract.


MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough says that he was “surprised” and “disappointed” after NBC leadership pulled his show on Monday — The MSNBC host returned to the channel Tuesday, saying he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by the decision to preempt his show Monday.
Discussion:
Fox News, Variety, @grynbaum, Axios, Mediaite, @jameslynch32, @maxwelltani, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, @newsjennifer, @grynbaum, @joebrusuelas, @jeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, The Daily Beast, @ivanthek, Newser, The Guardian, Washington Examiner, HuffPost, TVLine, Raw Story, Daily Mail, Raw Story, Fox News, Fox News and Deadline


Nate Silver joins Polymarket, a predictions market startup that has raised $70M since 2020, as an adviser; he'll continue to produce his Substack newsletter — - “Probabilities really matter when you're trying to make plans,” Silver said in a phone interview.
Discussion:
@elliosch, @lyingwithstats, @cwarzel, @zbs.bsky.social, @loudmouthjulia, @cwarzel, @tvmojoe and @DemocracyMattersALot …


Sources: Disney is working on features to increase the hours viewers spend on streaming, including pop-up live channels and more-tailored recommendations — Entertainment giant makes technical improvements meant to retain subscribers and encourage longer viewing sessions
Discussion:
Ars Technica, @tvgrimreaper, IndieWire, @wsjbusiness, @gabrielmalor.bsky.social and Quartz


A survey of 1,500 Britons: 7% pay for news subscriptions, 87% say they prefer ads to paying for content; overall, respondents said only 5% of ads were relevant — Two-thirds of Britons expect to access online content about current affairs and their special interests without paying for it, according to new research.
Discussion:
Warren Johnson on LinkedIn and TOOLKITS