Wednesday, November 22, 2023 |
| She’s a billionaire, transforming the music industry in real time. Few living celebrities have her scale of cultural influence. Shouldn’t someone be, at least, attempting to look without fear or favor to see if she’s keeping her side of the street clean? By Sophie Culpepper. |
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| Until the early 1960s, TV news was seen as a loss leader. By Michael J. Socolow. |
What We’re ReadingVariety / Brian Steinberg
Univision CEO defends “non-confrontational” Trump interview amid backlash →“We are here to serve our audience, not any political party, any one candidate or partisan groups,” CEO Wade Davis said. He also noted the interview with the former president marked the first time Univision has had a current or former Republican president on its air in 22 years.Washington Post / Will Sommer
Will ProPublica cross a picket line by publishing its next big scoop? →A
long-running strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is threatening to undermine one of the nonprofit outlet’s investigative partnerships. Organizers of
ProPublica’s union have complained that by helping the Post-Gazette produce articles, ProPublica is helping the newspaper’s management endure the strike.Washington Post / Catherine Belton and Todd C. Frankel
Deal to sell Forbes collapses after questions about funds and foreign influence →The current owner of the U.S. media group, Integrated Whale Media, said it was terminating its agreement to sell Forbes after the buyer, a group led by American tech executive Austin Russell, “couldn’t deliver on closing.” The sale had drawn criticism on Capitol Hill and scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States over possible foreign involvement.Digiday / Sara Guaglione
IAC and News Corp call out generative AI companies for scraping their content without compensation →Media execs from the two companies reiterated their anger during two recent earnings calls. The Verge / Nilay Patel and Alex Heath
Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI five days after secretive boardroom coup →After
a middle-of-the-night staff revolt, OpenAI said in a statement late Tuesday that it has an “agreement in principle” for Altman to return alongside a new initial board composed of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo. (Tow Center director Emily Bell
noted “the board looks like it was created by generative AI – biased to the male and white with obvious ethical flaws.”)Press Gazette / Bron Maher
The Guardian launches new ad product to allow advertisers to reach readers who’ve opted out of cookies →“Right now, about 30% of people on the open web click ‘reject all’ [when asked if they want to opt-in to cookies]. But when they do that, we can’t serve them any advertising – that is until now.” (The publisher also encouraged advertisers to look past the “tofu and oat milk” stereotype of its audience.) New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum
Jeff Zucker poised to return to news leading two prominent British outlets →In a reversal of
a recent media trend, the American is “near an agreement” to become “an improbable mogul of British conservative media” as he nears an agreement to gain control of The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. Zucker, the former president of CNN, reportedly plans to expand the Telegraph into the U.S.Meta
Meta unveils new tools to support independent research across Facebook and Instagram →“Researchers can search, explore and filter that content on both a graphical User Interface (UI) or through a programmatic API.” (See also:
Why researchers want broader access to social media data.)National Post / Bryan Passifiume
Canada expands its payroll tax credit for news publishers →Qualifying news outlets can now claim up to 35% of up to $85,000 in salary for a qualified employee. Previously,
publishers could claim 25% of up to $55,000 in salary per employee. The country also offers
a tax credit to individuals to encourage digital news subscriptions.WIRED / Lauren Goode
Del Harvey helped make Twitter’s hardest content moderation calls for 13 years. Now she’s breaking her silence. →“When trust and safety is going well, no one thinks about it or talks about it. And when trust and safety is going poorly, it’s usually something that leadership wants to blame on policies. Quite frankly, policies are going to be a Band-Aid if your product isn’t being designed in a way that actually doesn’t encourage abuse.”
Nieman Lab / Fuego
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