Chartbeat: traffic to 700 US news sites from Facebook fell 40% from Jan. 2023 to July 2024 to ~500M page views, as pageviews from Google Search grew 10% to 1.5B (Laura Hazard Owen/Nieman Lab)
Mediagazer: Chartbeat: traffic to 700 US news sites from Facebook fell 40% from Jan. 2023 to July 2024 to ~500M page views, as pageviews from Google Search grew 10% to 1.5B (Laura Hazard Owen/Nieman Lab)
Top News:
Financial Times:
Sources: Bari Weiss' The Free Press raised about $15M at a ~$100M valuation; Bari Weiss posted an article this week that said the outlet had 800,000+ readers— The fundraise values Bari Weiss's venture at $100mn — US media start-up The Free Press has raised a further round of funding from investors …
Nieman Lab:
Chartbeat: traffic to 700 US news sites from Facebook fell 40% from Jan. 2023 to July 2024 to ~500M page views, as pageviews from Google Search grew 10% to 1.5B— Traffic from Google Discover now exceeds traffic from Google Search for some publishers, but what works there is a bit of a guessing game.
The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: OpenAI agrees to give representatives for authors suing the company access to review its training data to see if OpenAI used authors' copyrighted works— At a secure room in its San Francisco office, representatives for authors suing OpenAI will examine materials that were used to train its AI system.
The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD launches Max in Japan via local partner U-Next and plans to roll out the streaming service direct-to-consumers in Australia and New Zealand in H1 2025— Max officially launched in Japan via local partner U-Next. … On the day that Max launched in Japan via local partner U-Next …
Discussion:
Patrick Frater /
Variety: WBD's Max Readies Rollout in Asia-Pacific, Requires Multiple Models: ‘Our Goal Is to Reach the Fan Base’
Nathan Jolly /
Mumbrella: HBO Max to launch streaming service in Australia
Adweek:
Vice relaunches its print magazine, on hiatus since 2019, and debuts $10 per month and $4 per month subscriptions with access to paywalled content— The publisher hopes to reach 10,000 subscribers by next spring — The digital media company Vice relaunched its print magazine and debuted …
Discussion:
Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn and VICE
Discussion:
Mark Stenberg /
Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn: New: VICE Media has relaunched its print product, which has been on hiatus since 2019, and debuted its first subscription product. …
Kevin Lee Kharas /
VICE: VICE Magazine Is Coming Back
Globe and Mail:
Netflix pauses funding for some professional development programs in the Canadian film and TV industry as Canada imposes a 5% tax on foreign streamers' revenue— /arts/arts/arts//artsThe future of several professional development programs crucial to the health of the Canadian film …
Discussion:
iPhone in Canada Blog and @mgeist
Discussion:
Axios:
Sources: Koch's PE arm is in talks with a media entrepreneur to partner on a bid for Forbes valuing the company at ~10% less than its $630M 2021 SPAC valuation— The firm often targets companies that are poorly managed or undervalued. — It will often partner with a strategic buyer …
Discussion:
Sara Fischer on LinkedIn and Talking Biz News
The Hollywood Reporter:
SAG-AFTRA calls a strike against League of Legends, formerly exempt from the video game strike, alleging parent Formosa Interactive tried hiring non-union labor— The union charges one of the multiplayer game's producers, Formosa Interactive, with attempting to work around its ongoing video game strike …
Discussion:
SAG-AFTRA, Associated Press, The Verge, The Wrap, Variety, Reuters, Los Angeles Times and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Sarah Parvini /
Associated Press: ‘League of Legends’ faces strike as SAG-AFTRA battles voiceover company
Ash Parrish /
The Verge: SAG-AFTRA calls for a strike against League of Legends
Jeremy Fuster /
The Wrap: League of Legends Added to SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike
Jennifer Maas /
Variety: ‘League of Legends’ Added to Actors' Video Game Strike as SAG-AFTRA Accuses Producer Formosa Interactive of Unfair Labor Practices
Danielle Broadway /
Reuters: US video game actors call strike on maker of popular game ‘League of Legends’
Christi Carras /
Los Angeles Times: SAG-AFTRA calls strike against ‘League of Legends,’ the latest move in video game actors' battle
Anna Washenko /
Engadget: SAG-AFTRA strikes against League of Legends over voiceover company actions
Axios:
The NYT aims to sell podcast subscriptions via Apple Podcasts and Spotify, requiring users to pay to access older episodes, starting Oct. for $6/mo. or $50/year— - “A big part of our strategy is building direct relationships with our customers,” said Ben Cotton, The Times' head of subscription growth.
Discussion:
Ashley Carman /
Spokesman.com: New York Times to launch podcast subscription plan for shows like ‘The Daily’
Sean Hollister /
The Verge: The New York Times will now charge for past episodes of its popular podcasts
Alex Weprin /
The Hollywood Reporter: The New York Times to Launch Podcast Subscriptions on Spotify and Apple (Exclusive) The New York Times Company: The New York Times will launch podcast subscriptions on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Sara Fischer /
@sarafischer: NEW: @nytimes to sell audio subscriptions through @ApplePodcasts & @Spotify —Similar to its deal w @AppleNews to sell @wirecutter & @TheAthletic subscriptions through that app —New $APPL & $SPOT subs will be counted towards NYT's overall sub # total https://www.axios.com/...
Matt Tamanini /
The Streamable: Save 40% on PBS Kids Subscription and Stream Safe, Family-Friendly Content
Dominick Mastrangelo /
The Hill: New York Times to launch subscription service for podcasts
Ray Schultz /
MediaPost: ‘The New York Times’ Rolls Out Its Podcast Pay Model
Variety:
A group of journalists abandons a press junket at the San Sebastian Film Festival, in protest of a larger trend of limited access to stars at film festivals— A group of international journalists abandoned a press junket for the Johnny Depp film “Modi” at the San Sebastian Film Festival …
Discussion:
Deadline
Discussion:
Deadline:
Sources: UK's Evening Standard has made plans to use AI to write reviews under the name of its former art critic of 30 years Brian Sewell, who died in 2015— Deadline understands that London's historic Evening Standard newspaper has been making plans to revive its former writer using artificial intelligence.
Discussion:
@_zeets, @eddiehenryjames, Empire, @siddhantadlakha, @chrismoranuk, @sturgios, @wendyide, @willardfoxton, @nina_metz and @jscalzi@threads.net
Discussion:
Jordan King /
Empire: Rumours Trailer: Cate Blanchett Faces Bog Corpses, Giant Brains And The Apocalypse In Wild G7 Satire
Siddhant Adlakha /
@siddhantadlakha: This went really well for Lionsgate with those (wildly inaccurate) A.I. generated critic quotes
Chris Moran /
@chrismoranuk: AI has many, many possible applications for good. This is not one of them. And it shouldn't take more than 30s of contemplation to know that.
John Sturgis /
@sturgios: Hard to think of anyone who would write a better piece about what a stupid idea this is than...Brian Sewell https://deadline.com/...
Wendy Ide /
@wendyide: This is utterly obscene if true and an insult to the staff members who have lost jobs.
Willard Foxton Todd /
@willardfoxton: Lay off 150 staff including 70 editorial staff, replace with AI replicating a dead man. https://deadline.com/...
Nina Metz /
@nina_metz: London's Historic Evening Standard Newspaper Plans To Revive Acerbic Art Critic Brian Sewell In AI Form As It Stops Daily Presses & Fires Journalists If true, this is disturbing on many levels https://deadline.com/...
John Scalzi /
@jscalzi@threads.net: This is ghastly. No matter how many words of this fellow they stuff into a large language model, it won't ever approximate him, because the critic he was is not found in his now-dead words, it was found in his once-active mind. This is a point the bean-counters at this paper seem to miss, or don't care about. …
TechCrunch:
WP Engine sends a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic to “retract false, harmful, and disparaging statements”, after Matt Mullenweg called it a “cancer”— WordPress hosting service WP Engine on Monday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic …
Discussion:
Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: Heard a rumor @wpengine is trying to remove the news feed from wp-admin dashboards so people don't see my post about them, can anyone confirm or deny?
Justin Ferriman /
@justinferriman: @wpengine In the days leading up to Mr. Mullenweg's September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, Automattic suddenly began demanding that WP Engine pay Automattic large sums of money, and if it didn't, Automattic would wage a war against WP Engine. Yikes. 😬
Andrey Savchenko /
@rarst: my cynical read is that A8c business model of taking investor money to “partner with WordPress” is drying up. blackmail to “license” a trademark is really scratching on the bottom of a barrel for last shreds of its value.
Matt Paulson /
@mattpaulsonsd: Matt Mullenweg is effing with the wrong company. WordaPress is open source software anyone can use and implement, managed by a non profit foundation. Matt is just crabby that someone else figured out how to make more money off WordPress than he did.
Jacob Wolf /
@jacobwolf: I'm sort of on WP Engine's side in this argument... Like Vercel, they certainly take advantage of developers' lack of know how (same could be said for many SaaS apps). But they've also contributed a ton to open source and making WordPress better — ACF, WPGraphQL, etc.
Tom Wentworth /
@twentworth12: All of this over WP Engine turning off a setting? Weird.
WP Engine /
@wpengine: Today WP Engine sent what is called a “cease and desist” letter to Automattic demanding that Automattic and its CEO Matt Mullenweg stop making and retract false, harmful and disparaging statements against WP Engine. In response to misinformation he has disseminated about the
Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: @wpengine “I wanted to let you know that WP Engine is modifying the WordPress dashboard's news widget to strip out any negative comments about them. We had a couple of users where the website broke because of that.”
Jason Cohen /
@asmartbear: This is the entire cease and desist letter sent to Matt Mullenweg and the board of Automattic (but not the foundation, as Matt erroneously claimed earlier today). Very sad for the community that we have to screenshot and share the truth, but the misinformation has to stop.
Katie Keith /
@katiekeithbarn2: I'd love to read @automattic or @photomatt's response to this well-written letter so that we can see both sides to the story. So far, I haven't seen ANY legally valid claims against WP Engine - just nonsense about moral obligations, non-trademarked terms, post revisions, etc. r/Wordpress: Get the Reddit app — Scan this QR code to download the app now — Or check it out in the app stores
Matt Mullenweg /
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”