Top News:
Steven Waldman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Jeff Bezos should donate The Washington Post to a public charity that maintains its quality and independence, as he is too financially compromised to own it — His conflicts of interests are insurmountable. He can take a heroic path to strengthen journalism.
Discussion:
Washington Post, @nypoet, @tvgrimreaper, @glastris, @ckrewson, @froomkin, @mediaevan, @dicktofel, @mikeelk, @margotroosevelt, Newser, Harrie Vredenburg on LinkedIn, @ddimick, @lenfestinst, @rich1, @stevenwaldman, Lauren Gustus on LinkedIn, Hard-G History, @kegill@mastodon.social, Chris Rauber on LinkedIn, @heidilifeldman@mastodon …, Semafor and r/Journalism
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Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: potential buyers line up in case Jeff Bezos ever sells WaPo, including Kara Swisher, who would assemble investors and seek to merge it with Vox Media — Potential suitors for The Washington Post are eagerly positioning themselves, waiting for the day in which Jeff Bezos might choose …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
In its Q3 earnings call, Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh says the company is weighing spinning off its cable networks and open to “partnerships in streaming” — Comcast President Mike Cavanagh delivered an eye-opening update to investors on this morning's third-quarter earnings call …
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Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Comcast reports Peacock's Q3 losses fell to $436M, down from $565M in Q3 2023, revenue rose 82% YoY to $1.5B, and subscribers rose 3M from June to 36M
Comcast reports Peacock's Q3 losses fell to $436M, down from $565M in Q3 2023, revenue rose 82% YoY to $1.5B, and subscribers rose 3M from June to 36M
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, The Desk, Deadline, Streaming Better, The Wrap, Benzinga, Media Play News, The Streamable, Cord Cutters News, IndieWire and Variety
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Comcast reports Q3 net income down 10% YoY to $3.63B and revenue up 6.5% YoY to $32.07B; revenue for media, mainly composed of NBCU, rose 37% YoY to $8.23B
Comcast reports Q3 net income down 10% YoY to $3.63B and revenue up 6.5% YoY to $32.07B; revenue for media, mainly composed of NBCU, rose 37% YoY to $8.23B
Discussion:
MediaPost, Sportico, Motley Fool, The Streamable, Light Reading, The Information, Cord Cutters News, Tv Technology, Bloomberg, Reuters and Barron's Online
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Search to let users search for timely information using GPT-4o, after testing the feature in July 2024, a direct challenge to Google — The new option will let the chatbot's users search for timely information much as they would on the web.
Discussion:
Reuters, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, MarTech, Eric Herbel on LinkedIn, Quartz, VentureBeat, The Information, Ars Technica, CNBC, Wired and Adweek, more at Techmeme »
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Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
OpenAI says ChatGPT Search draws on articles from the WSJ and others it has deals with, and will direct election-related queries to sources like AP and Reuters — The artificial intelligence developer's chatbot can now search and summarize the web. — SAN FRANCISCO — Artificial intelligence …
Discussion:
Adweek, Fast Company, Android Authority, 9to5Mac, GeekWire, BGR, Engadget, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land, The Verge, Android Authority, Financial Times and DNyuz, more at Techmeme »
Kali Hays / Fortune:
Internal memo: Block CEO Jack Dorsey says Tidal is in for another mass layoff; insiders say as many as 100 people could be laid off, or ~25% of Tidal's staff — Block CEO and founder Jack Dorsey wants streaming music app Tidal to operate like a startup again - and that means layoffs
John O'Nolan:
Ghost's CEO details the organization's governance structure and says the open-source CMS generates ~$7.5M in annual revenue and has been profitable for 12 years — Ghost is a distributed non-profit foundation which gives away all of its intellectual property under a permissive MIT license.
ProPublica:
An investigation finds eight deceptive operations on Meta's platforms that collectively controlled 340+ Pages and placed 160K ads to collect users' information — Co-published with Tow Center for Digital Journalism — Deceptive Political Ads: Eight deceptive advertising networks …
Nico Grant / New York Times:
Media Matters: from May to August 2024, the top 30 conservative YouTube channels posted 286 videos containing US election misinformation, racking up 47M+ views — In June 2023, YouTube decided to stop fighting the most persistent strain of election misinformation in the United States …
Discussion:
Reclaim The Net and Media Matters for America, more at Techmeme »
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Disney+ rolls out a top 10 list on the app's home screen, in line with Netflix, Max, Apple TV+, and Prime Video — As Disney Plus has grown, finding things to watch has become increasingly challenging. So the streaming service is rolling out a top 10 list featured on the home screen in hopes of improving discoverability.
Discussion:
Decider, BGR and The Walt Disney Company
@baltsunguild:
The Baltimore Sun Guild's news members plan a byline strike November 3-10, citing sliding journalistic standards and union-busting proposals from management — NEW: The Baltimore Sun Guild's news members are launching a seven-day byline strike, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 10, including Election Day, citing sliding journalistic standards and union-busting proposals raised by management at the bargaining table. [image]
Discussion:
@baltsunguild and r/Journalism
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Guardian Media Group CEO Anna Bateson shares details of Tortoise Media's bid for The Observer and says “difficult decisions” are ahead if the deal falls through — Anna Bateson says Observer is loss-making but has chance to be sustainable with Tortoise.
Discussion:
Press Gazette, New Statesman and Sky News
Alexandra Canal / Yahoo Finance:
Roku reports Q3 revenue up 16% YoY to $1.06B, vs. $1.02B est., 85.5M streaming households, up 2M QoQ, and Q4 guidance below est.; ROKU drops 11%+ — Roku (ROKU) stock fell more than 10% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company's Q4 guidance disappointed, despite the media player reporting …
Discussion:
Benzinga, Streaming Better and Media Play News
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Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Starting in Q1 2025, Roku plans to stop giving quarterly updates on the number of streaming households and average revenue per user, following Netflix
Starting in Q1 2025, Roku plans to stop giving quarterly updates on the number of streaming households and average revenue per user, following Netflix
Discussion:
StreamTV Insider, Cord Cutters News, YourStory.com, Advanced Television, Roku Inc., Motley Fool, Benzinga, Barron's Online, Reuters, Variety, Deadline, Bloomberg and The Wrap