Mediagazer: Sources: AT&T, JPMorgan, and Dunkin' pull ads from Twitch after a controversial group of livestreamers alleged that Twitch is promoting antisemitic content (Cecilia D'Anastasio/Bloomberg)

6:40 PM ET, December 5, 2024

Top News:

Oliver Darcy / Status:

Sources: the LAT now has to send Patrick Soon-Shiong opinion story headlines ahead of publication for review, after carrying a Elon Musk headline he didn't like — Staffers at the Los Angeles Times described to Status a demoralized publication depleted of its spirit in which employees are “confused,” “offended,” and “frustrated.”

Harry Litman / Talking Feds Substack:

LA Times op-ed contributor Harry Litman resigns, saying he's protesting the “repugnant and dangerous” actions to appease Trump by owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong — I have been a contributor to the Los Angeles Times op-ed page in some fashion for more than 15 years.

JD Knapp / The Wrap:

On Scott Jennings' podcast, Patrick Soon-Shiong said he plans to add an AI-powered “bias meter” to LAT stories and hopes to roll it out as soon as January 2025 — “The reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story,” Patrick Soon-Shiong tells Scott Jennings

Adam Sherwin / The i Paper:

After a two-day strike, Guardian journalists continue to push The Scott Trust to seek alternative bids for the Observer; another walkout is set Dec. 12-Dec. 13 — The Scott Trust is due to hold an urgent meeting on the future of The Observer — Guardian staff returning to work …

Discussion: @inews.co.uk, National Union of Journalists …, Australian Financial Review, Press Gazette, London Evening Standard, MediaPost, Conquest of the Useless, New Statesman, The New European, Variety, RTÉ and NPR

James Warrington / Telegraph:
A consortium of investors and others offers to create an investment fund of up to £50M to transform The Observer, doubling Tortoise's proposed investment

Discussion: Tortoise, The i Paper, @j_a_warrington, @carolecadwalla and New York Times

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:

Circana: Taylor Swift's “Eras Tour Book”, released exclusively via Target, sold 814K copies over the Thanksgiving weekend, the biggest publishing launch of 2024 — Just one retail chain was enough for Taylor Swift to have the top-selling book last week and the biggest publishing launch of 2024.

Discussion: Daily Mail, Benzinga, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, Digital Music News, Sky News, Billboard, Business Insider, Fortune, Publishers Weekly, Us Weekly, Cele|bitchy, Rolling Stone, People, Variety, Just Jared and Deadline

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Ipsos: in October 2024, BBC News passed Apple News as the biggest UK news app with 14.2M users and 1.7B minutes spent to Apple News' 14M users and 1.3B minutes — BBC News has overtaken Apple News as the biggest news app in the UK in the year since Press Gazette's last annual ranking.

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber says it is not “necessarily true” that Bluesky will always be ad-free; ads could be “user intent-driven”, like running in search results — Bluesky has blown up this year thanks to a vibrant community of posters, user customization choices …

Discussion: @rwg@aoir.social, @philthepill.online, @fakeezzie.bsky.social, @mzeff.bsky.social, @americanfietser.com, @andyoakes.bsky.social, @ernie.tedium.co, @mathewolson.bsky.social, @claesdevreese.bsky.social, @martinfehrensen.de, @socialmedialab.ca, Anchor Change …, @imatt42.bsky.social, @msmitham.bsky.social, @culturecrave.co and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Klein / New York Magazine:

Eleven high-profile staffers have left Politico since March, some apparently chafing at what insiders describe as a meddlesome editorial process by Alex Burns — Politico has always been defined by its scrappy, high-pressure newsroom culture. In its almost 18 years of existence …

Discussion: @neontaster, @meredithshiner.com and @jakewilkns

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

James Cameron's Lightstorm Vision strikes a deal with Meta to bring more premium content to the Meta Quest mixed reality headsets featuring “big-name IP” — The multiyear deal will make Meta Quest the exclusive mixed reality headset of Lightstorm, and is meant to turbocharge 3D content development.

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap, @jamescameronofficial …, Reuters, Meta, Deadline, @boztank@threads.net, @cristiandominguezrl …, The Information, @vishalshahis@threads.net, @lukehurd@threads.net, @realitylabs, @ibrews, VentureBeat and @boztank, more at Techmeme »

Lucia Moses / Business Insider:

Memo: Vox Media announces layoffs and a restructuring of lifestyle brands, affecting Thrillist, PS (PopSugar), and Eater, and product, production and tech staff — - Vox Media just cut an unspecified number of staff and reorganized its lifestyle brands. — CEO Jim Bankoff said the company …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, James Bareham on LinkedIn, The Wrap, The Information, @imgarysuarez.bsky.social, @brandyjensen.bsky.social, Adweek and @voxmediaunion.bsky.social

Yinka Adegoke / Semafor:

Netflix denies reports it is pulling out of Nigeria, but local film producers and industry insiders say it has been cutting back on original Nigeria productions — The News — LAGOS — Netflix has denied reports it is pulling out of Nigeria but local film producers and industry insiders …

Discussion: @mercypedia, @iatalkspace, @iamjohnsonemma, Techpoint Africa, @iatalkspace, TechCabal, @iatalkspace, @iatalkspace, TechCabal, @okaythenme, Alexander Onukwue on LinkedIn, Punch Newspapers and Variety

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

Apple TV+ joins Prime Video Channels as a subscription add-on in Australia, Canada, and the UK, following a roll out in the US in October 2024 — Prime Video subs will be able to subscribe to Apple TV+ with no extra apps to download. — Apple TV+ joins Prime Video's collection of add …

Discussion: @nestruck.bsky.social, 9to5Mac, Cord Busters, @sigjudge@threads.net, @tenraptors.bsky.social, Advanced Television and Media Play News

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 6:40 PM ET, December 5, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Eleanor Hawkins / Axios:
Axios HQ, the internal communications business spun off from Axios in 2022, buys the communications membership organization Mixing Board, its first acquisition

Discussion: Washington …, @ashleymayer, Axios HQ, @axioshq, @jz and Semafor

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
UK magazine publisher Future reports FY 2024 revenue up 1% YoY to £788.2M, and says Google Search updates will not harm its affiliate revenues; FUTR jumps 11%+

Discussion: The Times and The Media Leader

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Marc Burstein, the veteran ABC News executive who has overseen special reports and election coverage since 1997, plans to retire following Trump's inauguration

Discussion: Adweek, David Reiter on LinkedIn and Deadline

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
AI search engine Perplexity expands its publisher program, adding the LA Times, Adweek, the Independent, Mexico News Daily, and other news outlets

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Digiday, Press Gazette, Reuters and Adweek

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
TikTok partners with Nielsen to let advertisers and agencies compare ad performance on TikTok with performance of ads on other screens, via Nielsen One

Discussion: Nielsen, Digital Music News, Deadline, Ad Age, Tim Natividad on LinkedIn, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Ameneh Atai on LinkedIn, Stacie M. de Armas on LinkedIn, Radio & Television … and TVNewsCheck

Emma Roth / The Verge:
OpenAI agrees a deal with Future, which publishes Tom's Guide, PC Gamer, TechRadar, and others, to bring content from its media brands to ChatGPT

Discussion: OpenAI, @majorlinux@toot …, Game Developer, @SuffolkLITLab@esq.social, Film Stories, @socialanigirl, @andy_vgc, @hownottodraw.bsky.social, @toadsanime, @skillup.bsky.social, @henrystockdale.com, MediaPost and Press Gazette

Earlier Picks:

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
Interpublic Group acquires Mumbai-based Intelligence Node, a retail analytics firm that offers tools including SEO, sources say in a deal valued at ~$100M

Discussion: Adweek, IPG, Jeriad Zoghby on LinkedIn, Yasen Dimitrov on LinkedIn and MediaPost

Mark Landler / New York Times:
Prince Harry says his lawsuit against News Group Newspapers for hacking his phone is about “accountability” and defending legitimate journalism

Discussion: USA Today, @royal_suitor, Cele|bitchy, @dealbook, SheKnows, ABC News, New York Times Events on YouTube, Hindustan Times, The Mirror, The Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Sources: AT&T, JPMorgan, and Dunkin' pull ads from Twitch after a controversial group of livestreamers alleged that Twitch is promoting antisemitic content

Discussion: Tubefilter, Breitbart, @carterfornow, @semphisss, @gremloe, @dancantstream, CNN, Forbes and Jewish Insider, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
A look at NFL Films as it leans into personality-driven programming focusing on pro athletes and expands its football docuseries Hard Knocks on HBO

Discussion: Us Weekly, LateNighter, @alexweprin and Awful Announcing

Sarah Rumpf / Mediaite:
Esquire corrects, and then retracts, a column by Charles P. Pierce that incorrectly claimed former President George H.W. Bush pardoned his son, Neil Bush

From Techmeme:

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders that were set for April 9 due to concerns about Trump's tariffs but the June 5 launch date remains unchanged

Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Microsoft Copilot adds support for memory, personalization, web-based actions, podcast creation, camera and screen analysis, deep research, and more

RT Watson / The Block:
The US SEC says that “covered” US dollar stablecoins like USDT and USDC are not securities, and registration is not required for minting or redeeming them

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page