Top News:
Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg:
Sources: Russia releases WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich as part of a major multi-country prisoner swap; prisoners are en route to destinations outside Russia — Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a major prisoner swap with the US …
Discussion:
Fox News, KUSA-TV, The Guardian, New York Post, The Hill, CBS News, CNN, The Mirror, The i Paper, Telegraph, The Independent, @ivanthek, @gma, @hadas_gold, @jamesrbuk, @silviakillings, @jamesrbuk, @conorsen, @srabil, @samberkhead, @ianbremmer, @noahcrothman, @kevinrothrock@infosec …, TVNewsCheck, New York Daily News, Deadline, The Moscow Times and Reuters
Dan Sabbagh / The Guardian:
In a letter to ex-prime minister Gordon Brown, the UK's Met police say a special team is examining claims that Will Lewis helped cover up phone hacking claims — Exclusive: Scotland Yard move on complaint by ex-PM Gordon Brown, who accuses Will Lewis of phone hacking ‘cover-up’ in 2011
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David Folkenflik / NPR:
Lawyers for Prince Harry and others accused WaPo CEO Will Lewis of fabricating a fake security threat 13 years ago in order to delete emails at Murdoch tabloids — LONDON — Attorneys for Prince Harry and prominent U.K. politicians today accused Washington Post chief executive and publisher …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Media Nation, @northernlights@mstdn.ca and MediaPost
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
WBD, Disney, and Fox plan to launch their joint sports streaming venture Venu for $42.99 per month initially, with a seven-day free trial, expected fall 2024 — Streaming sports on a stand-alone basis won't be cheap. … The service is expected to debut in the fall in conjunction with the start of the next NFL season.
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, CNBC, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
SiriusXM plans to launch a premium podcast subscription service through Apple Podcasts for $5.99 per month or $44.99 annually, starting August 5 — The offering is intended to diversify the platform's podcast revenue stream while expanding the listener base
Alyssa Boyle / AdExchanger:
Outbrain confirms plans to acquire Altice-owned Teads, in a transaction valuing the SSP and video monetization company at $1B+; Outbrain will pay $725M in cash — The rumors are true: Outbrain is buying Teads. — On Thursday, the content recommendation platform announced it will acquire Teads …
Discussion:
Digiday, Axios and Outbrain Inc.
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
RAJAR: in Q2, GB News Radio reached 518K people per week on average, overtaking Times Radio for the first time; BBC Radio 2 had a weekly reach of 13.3M people — GB News Radio has overtaken Times Radio's weekly reach for the first time according to the latest RAJAR radio listening figures for Q2 2024.
Discussion:
adambowie.com and Press Association
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says Microsoft, Anthropic, and Perplexity need to pay to scrape Reddit's data, and blocking them has been “a real pain in the ass” — After striking deals with Google and OpenAI, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is calling on Microsoft and others to pay if they want to continue scraping the site's data.
Discussion:
Engadget, Business Insider, Bloomberg, @jwherrman, @jwherrman, Ars Technica and Prof. Ahmed Banafa on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Midia Research: songwriters average 9.5% of the $0.004 Spotify pays per stream, and of the over 300 songwriters surveyed, only 10% earn over $30K annually — Back in the days when “music” meant CDs and vinyl, a songwriter could make a decent living: their percentage of a song or songs on the average $18.99 …
Discussion:
Music Ally and MIDiA Research Blog
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
In a Q&A at the NABJ convention, Trump questions Kamala Harris' racial identity, calls ABC News' Rachel Scott “very rude”, and complains about audio problems — “I've known her for a long time indirectly, directly, very much,” Trump said. “And she was always of Indian heritage and she was promoting Indian heritage.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, TheGrio, @abbydphillip, NPR, ABC News, New York Times, Poynter, @kamalahq, TIME, @natashasalford, CBS News, PolitiFact, @hadas_gold, @kamalahq@threads.net, @brianstelter, @mossbergwalt@threads.net, @cd_hooks, @noahcrothman, @graceokoro2, @willsommer, @emoltzen@threads.net, @jeffstorobinsky, @hadas_gold, @moniquepressley, @chenueher, @acyn, @griffinkyle@threads.net, @abcworldnewstonight …, @cbcpac, @corbinbolies, @parkermolloy, @hadas_gold, @brianstelter, @trumpstaxes, @sulliview, Washington Post, @steven_beschloss@threads.net, @hadas_gold, @aprildryan, @semaforben, @errinhaines, @griffinkyle@threads.net, @keithedwards@threads.net, @timothystamm101@threads.net, @kenpopehat@threads.net, @kbode@threads.net, Axios, WXIA-TV, @goodyk@threads.net, @dkiesow@threads.net, The Daily Beast, Iowa Capital Dispatch, The Guardian, Slate, The 19th, Media Matters for America, NABJ, Fox News, Shari Dunn on LinkedIn, Mother Jones, New York Daily News, TMZ.com, The Wrap, Rolling Stone, Variety, Barrett Media, Semafor, New Republic, Associated Press and ABC7
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Disney is cutting about 140 jobs at Disney Entertainment Television, or about 2% of staff; cuts will fall hardest on NatGeo, Freeform, and ABC stations — The company is eliminating about 140 jobs, or about 2% of staff at Disney Entertainment Television, said the people …
Discussion:
Reuters, The Wrap, Cord Cutters News, New York Post, Deadline, Quartz, AV Club, Adweek, The Desk, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, Los Angeles Times and TVNewsCheck
Mark Kleinman / Sky News:
Sources: hedge fund tycoon and GB News shareholder Paul Marshall is close to a deal to buy The Spectator, separate from The Telegraph, as soon as this month — The GB News shareholder is now the frontrunner to buy one of Britain's most influential political magazines amid an ongoing auction …
Discussion:
City A.M., @markkleinmansky, @janemartinson and @markkleinmansky