Report: Nelson Peltz' Trian Partners reaped ~$1B from its Disney stock after his unsuccessful proxy fight; Disney heeded some of his calls, cutting 8,000 jobs (Meg James/Los Angeles Times)

Mediagazer: Report: Nelson Peltz' Trian Partners reaped ~$1B from its Disney stock after his unsuccessful proxy fight; Disney heeded some of his calls, cutting 8,000 jobs (Meg James/Los Angeles Times)

Top News:

Los Angeles Times:

Report: Nelson Peltz' Trian Partners reaped ~$1B from its Disney stock after his unsuccessful proxy fight; Disney heeded some of his calls, cutting 8,000 jobs— In the end, veteran investor Nelson Peltz came away with a big win in his battle with the Walt Disney Co.
Discussion: @rfaughnder

Discussion:

Ryan Faughnder /
@rfaughnder: Nelson Peltz won by losing https://www.latimes.com/...

RELATED:
CNBC:

Source: Nelson Peltz has sold his full Disney stake; in April, Peltz' Trian Partners lost a proxy battle after trying to elect Peltz and Jay Rasulo to the board— Activist investor Nelson Peltz has sold his entire stake in Disney, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Discussion:
Business Insider, The Ankler, New York Times, 24/7 Wall St., Axios, Yahoo Finance, The Wrap, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Gizmodo, Reuters and Variety

Discussion:

Lauren Edmonds /
Business Insider: Disney's Bob Iger may be celebrating today after Nelson Peltz's latest move

Sean McNulty /
The Ankler: ☀️AMAZON Re-Org Signals Branded Content Push

Douglas A. McIntyre /
24/7 Wall St.: Nelson Peltz Made $1 Billion on Disney

Alexandra Canal /
Yahoo Finance: Activist investor Nelson Peltz sells entire Disney stake after proxy battle loss

Stephanie Kaloi /
The Wrap: Nelson Peltz Sells His Entire $1 Billion Stake in Disney After Losing Proxy Battle, CNBC Reports

Dade Hayes /
Deadline: Mission Accomplished? Despite Losing Proxy Fight, Billionaire Nelson Peltz Reportedly Sells Entire Disney Stake For $1B In Profit

Abid Rahman /
The Hollywood Reporter: Activist Investor Nelson Peltz Sells Disney Stake After Losing Proxy Battle

Sabina Graves /
Gizmodo: Disney No Longer Has to Worry About Billionaire Nelson Peltz Reuters: Billionaire Nelson Peltz rakes in $1B after selling entire Disney stake following board fight: report

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Skydance sweetens its Paramount offer, making it more favorable to both voting and nonvoting shareholders and agreeing to put more money into Paramount— Paramount's independent committee of directors is expected to review the new bid soon — Skydance Media has submitted …

Discussion:
The Wrap, Reuters, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times and Deadline

Discussion:

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: Skydance Ups Cash Offer for Paramount and Courts Class B Stockholders in Restructured Offer

Todd Spangler /
Variety: Skydance Media Revises Paramount Global Bid to Make It More Attractive to Noncontrolling Shareholders

Bloomberg:

A look at Pixar's missteps since COVID-19: movies were released on Disney+ and key executives departed, leading to a focus on sequels to get back on track— After duds and missteps, the famed animation studio sees Inside Out 2 as key to restoring the magic.

Discussion:
Screen Rant, ComingSoon.net, World of Reel, @brianstorms@mastodon.social and The A.V. Club

Discussion:

Jerome Casio /
Screen Rant: Pixar Sequels & Reboots On The Way, 2 Likely Franchises Reportedly Revealed

Brandon Schreur /
ComingSoon.net: Finding Nemo 3: Pixar CCO Sees ‘A Lot of Opportunity There’

Brian Dear /
@brianstorms@mastodon.social: @Mediagazer — I automatically and eagerly went to see every #Pixar #movie as they were released, every single one, from TOY STORY in 1995 until TOY STORY 3 in 2010. — I have not seen a single Pixar #film since. The first CARS was the warning sign of Disney's contamination. …

Press Gazette:

UK banker Crispin Odey sues the Financial Times for libel over its June 2023 publication of allegations that Odey had sexually assaulted multiple women— Former City banker Crispin Odey is suing the Financial Times for libel after it published allegations that he had sexually assaulted multiple women.

Discussion:
Mediaite, Talking Biz News, Telegraph, London Evening Standard, City A.M. and Financial News

Discussion:

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: London banker suing Financial Times for libel

Callum Parke /
London Evening Standard: Former banker Crispin Odey suing Financial Times for libel at High Court

Edin Imsirovic /
Financial News: Crispin Odey launches libel claim against the Financial Times

The Verge:

Meta begins rolling out TweetDeck-style customizable feeds on Threads globally, following a test that started earlier this month— Threads is widely rolling out a desktop site redesign that lets you customize your homepage with a series of feeds, similar to TweetDeck.

Discussion:

Karissa Bell /
Engadget: The TweetDeck clone for Threads is finally here

Ernie Smith /
@ernie@writing.exchange: Congrats Threads on getting a feature Mastodon has had since 2017 https://www.theverge.com/... @threads@threads.net: New on Threads: Make threads.net your own 📌 Starting this week, you can pin columns to keep track of the profiles and tags you love on web — as well as your saved posts, activity feed and more. Everything you need to know ⬇️

@threads@threads.net:
You can also pin profiles or topics you're searching for by clicking the three-dot menu at the top right, then “Pin to home.” And if you're following a big game or the conversation around your favorite show, you can set a column to auto-update.

Jonathan V. Last /
@jvlast@threads.net: The problem isn't amplification vs de-emphasization. It's that the platform doesn't have a way for people to curate lists. Make a threads version of tweetdeck and all of these complaints go away and @mosseri can keep letting the algo work as it does in For You.

Jonathan V. Last /
@jvlast@threads.net: Respectfully, this has not been my experience. I follow almost entirely political/news accounts and my For You feed is largely randos doing engagement farming.

Tim Fullerton /
@timfullerton@threads.net: Can you please tell us what you definite as “political news?” And if you won't, can you explain why?

Tim Mulholland /
@tlmii@threads.net: This layout would be a lot more useful with Lists.

Adam Mosseri /
@mosseri@threads.net: We're starting to roll out the new threads.net on desktop globally, so you can customize and personalize what you see. We have a lot of great ideas to make this the best website to share ideas, so stay tuned for more and let us know if you have any suggestions 🙏🏼

Next TV:

Virtual MVPD Philo, which carries 70+ entertainment channels and has 1M+ subscribers, raises prices for its Core tier to $28 per month, and adds AMC+ to Core— Sports-free virtual pay TV service is now streaming 70 channels for $28 a month, but it is tacking on AMC+ for free

Discussion:
The Streamable, Philo blog, @tvgrimreaper, StreamTV Insider, The Desk and Cord Cutters News

Discussion:

David Satin /
The Streamable: Philo to Offer Free Streaming Channels to All Viewers, Regardless of Subscription Status

Andrew McCollum /
Philo blog: From Free To Premium: Philo Announces A New Bundled Package, Including AMC+, And Expands FAST Offering To Non-Subscribers @tvgrimreaper: The price increases will continue until morale improves. Philo is one of the least used internet TV bundles, with just 0.20% of US TV viewing in April.

The Guardian:

A Haaretz journalist reveals Israeli security officials threatened him and blocked his reporting about a Mossad chief's efforts to intimidate an ICC prosecutor— Haaretz journalist was warned of ‘consequences’ if he reported on attempts by Mossad chief to intimidate ex-prosecutor

Discussion:

Jonathan Pollak /
Haaretz: Israel's Cause for Detention: ████ ██ █████

Gur Megiddo /
Haaretz: How Israeli Security Nixed Haaretz's Report Into Alleged Mossad Extortion of International Court Prosecutor @Greengordon@spore.social: Terrorist country: — “it was “explained that if I published the story I would suffer the consequences and get to know the interrogation rooms of the Israeli security authorities from the inside” — #Israel #haaretz — https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Glyn Moody /
@glynmoody@mastodon.social: Israeli journalist describes threats over reporting on spy chief and #ICC - https://www.theguardian.com/ ... “Haaretz journalist was warned of ‘consequences’ if he reported on attempts by #Mossad chief to intimidate ex-prosecutor” #israel

Ariadne /
@ariadne@climatejustice.social: “Journalist threatened over reporting on spy chief and ICC, Israeli newspaper says - Haaretz says journalist warned of ‘consequences’ if he reported on attempts by head of the Mossad to intimidate ex-prosecutor of ICC” …

Deadline:

Brian Weinstein moves from president and COO of Bad Robot to serving as 3 Arts Entertainment co-CEO and senior adviser to Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer— Former Bad Robot President and COO, Brian Weinstein, is heading over to Lionsgate in what is a dual role: He'll be the Co-CEO …

Discussion:

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: Brian Weinstein Joins 3 Arts Entertainment as Co-CEO

Katcy Stephan /
Variety: Brian Weinstein Named Co-CEO of 3 Arts Entertainment and Senior Advisor to the Office of the CEO at Lionsgate

Walter Delph /
Walter Delph on LinkedIn: Congratulations to 3 Arts Entertainment and Lionsgate thanks to the hire of Brian Weinstein. During a rapidly evolving media landscape, Brian has created positive change at both CAA and Bad Robot. …

David Nathanson /
David Nathanson on LinkedIn: Congratulations to Brian Weinstein on being named Co-CEO at 3 Arts Entertainment and Senior Advisor to Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. …

Etan Vlessing /
The Hollywood Reporter: Lionsgate Taps Former Bad Robot, CAA Exec Brian Weinstein as 3 Arts Co-CEO

Erik Gruenwedel /
Media Play News: Brian Weinstein Named Co-CEO of 3 Arts Entertainment, Senior Advisor to the Office of the CEO at Lionsgate

Jon Lafayette /
Next TV: Lionsgate Names Brian Weinstein Co-CEO of 3 Arts Entertainment

The Hollywood Reporter:

Reality TV is facing a slowdown as jobs become scarce, budgets get crunched, and executives take fewer risks, coming as a surprise to some industry insiders— Development and production have been sluggish since the strikes, leaving desperate workers in the lurch: “All of a sudden the faucet just turned off.”

Discussion:
Becca Gross on LinkedIn and Steve Katz on LinkedIn

Discussion:

Becca Gross /
Becca Gross on LinkedIn: “It's not just people who just moved to L.A. to get into the business that can't find jobs,” adds one veteran reality TV producer. …

The Citizen Lab:

An investigation finds seven Russian and Belarusian journalists and activists who were targeted and/or infected by Pegasus between August 2020 and January 2023— Summary — In a joint investigation with Access Now, we found that seven Russian and Belarusian-speaking independent journalists …

Discussion:
Bloomberg, Access Now, Committee to Protect …, @Xeniax@mastodon.ml, @citizenlab@mastodon.social and The Guardian

Discussion:

Ryan Gallagher /
Bloomberg: NSO Spyware Hacked EU-Based Russian Journalists, Report Says Access Now: Exiled, then spied on: Civil society in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland targeted with Pegasus spyware Committee to Protect Journalists: Report: Pegasus spyware targets exiled journalists from Russia, Latvia, Belarus @Xeniax@mastodon.ml: Our new @citizenlab report is out. Seven RU/BY opposition journalists and civil society activists hacked / targeted with Pegasus by a governmental actor (not Russian govt!) — https://citizenlab.ca/... @citizenlab@mastodon.social: NEW REPORT: #Russian and #Belarusian- speaking independent media and opposition activists in Europe targeted with NSO Group's #Pegasus mercenary #spyware. — Collaborative investigation between @citizenlab & @AccessNow: — https://citizenlab.ca/...

Stephanie Kirchgaessner /
The Guardian: Critics of Putin and his allies targeted with spyware inside the EU

Next TV:

A survey of 2,008 US adults who identified themselves as “sports viewers”: 42% are likely to subscribe to Venu Sports, assuming a price point of $35-$40/month— Are legions of youthful consumers ready to sign up for the sports streaming joint venture, regardless of what its price ends up being?

Discussion:
Horowitz Research, The Streamable, Media Play News and The Desk

Discussion:
Horowitz Research: New ESPN Live Streaming Bundle May Impact MVPD and vMVPD Subscriptions, New Horowitz Study Reveals

David Satin /
The Streamable: Young Viewers Expected to Flock to Venu Sports in What Could Be Sports Broadcasting Tipping Point?

Erik Gruenwedel /
Media Play News: Horowitz Research: Pending Venu Sports App Looks to Upend Both Online, Legacy Pay-TV

Axios:

The Atlantic and Vox Media sign multiyear licensing and product deals with OpenAI; The Atlantic plans an experimental Atlantic Labs with OpenAI's and other tech— - The Atlantic has been publishing content since 1857. … - Both agreements also allow OpenAI to tap into the respective …

Discussion:
TechCrunch, Engadget, Media Voices, Awful Announcing, Poynter, Columbia Journalism Review, @stephentotilo, @vox_union, Vox Media, @xpangler, @emilybell, @nxthompson, @vox_union, @edmundlee, The Atlantic, @pranavdixit, @rafat, @jeffjarvis, @tsuvik, @tomwarren, @nkulw, @edmundlee, @openai, The Hollywood Reporter, VentureBeat, @attackerman.bsky.social, Bloomberg, @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social, The Verge, @quillmatiq@threads.net, @daveleebbg@threads.net, @kylie.robison@threads.net, @reckless1280@threads.net, @jbillinson@threads.net, The Information, Variety, The Wrap, The Drum, @dandock.bsky.social, The Hill and @chrismvasq.bsky.social

Discussion:

Nathan Ingraham /
Engadget: The Atlantic and Vox Media made their own deal with the AI Devil

Tom Jones /
Poynter: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. files complaint about being left out of CNN presidential debate

Mathew Ingram /
Columbia Journalism Review: Ten big questions on AI and the news

Stephen Totilo /
@stephentotilo: The union for Polygon, The Verge and other publications has “serious concerns” about parent company's new deal to train Open AI on its work @vox_union: A statement from the Vox Media Union, @thrillistunion and @thedodounion on the partnership between Vox Media and OpenAI. [image]

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: Vox Media's editorial unions, in a statement about the OpenAl deal, said “we have serious concerns about this partnership, which we believe could adversely impact members of our union” https://variety.com/...

Emily Bell /
@emilybell: Entering into a newsroom deal with OpenAI is materially different to say entering into the same with Google. Google does have a track record, known management, some level of accountability. OpenAI has nothing like this, and an emerging pattern of dishonesty @nxthompson: I am delighted that @theatlantic now has a strategic content & product partnership with @openai. Our stories will be discoverable in their new products and we'll be working with them to figure out new ways that AI can help serious, independent media : https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...

@vox_union:

A statement from the Vox Media Union, @thrillistunion and @thedodounion on the partnership between Vox Media and OpenAI. [image]

Edmund Lee /
@edmundlee: What happens when they can't agree on renewal terms? Does OpenAI re-train its system to NOT include their news content? Is that even possible? Or do news orgs lose out because they're content becomes so baked into the LLM that OpenAI effectively owns it in perpetuity?

Damon Beres /
The Atlantic: A Devil's Bargain With OpenAI @jeffjarvis: On the news today: The Atlantic and Vox got OpenAI deals. Add Springer, News Corp, AP, FT. May I be blunt? OpenAI isn't buying their content. It is buying their friendship. This is a lobbying and PR expense. The pity is that the rich (relatively speaking) get richer while the

Vikas SN /
@tsuvik: Heh! Interesting timing. Atlantic-OpenAI deal announcement comes days after The Atlantic ran an op-ed from @Jessicalessin on why such licensing deals are bad for publishers

Tom Warren /
@tomwarren: Vox Media just signed a deal with OpenAI that will include content from The Verge showing up in ChatGPT. OpenAI will “enhance its technology,” (sounds like train its models) on Vox Media's archives, too

Noah Kulwin /
@nkulw: Lmfao the Atlantic executive who made this happen is leading the bake-off to replace Remnick at the New Yorker https://www.semafor.com/...

Edmund Lee /
@edmundlee: .@theatlantic cut a deal with @openai, following other news orgs, but I have questions. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...

Caitlin Huston /
The Hollywood Reporter: Vox Media, The Atlantic Strike Deals With OpenAI

Carl Franzen /
VentureBeat: OpenAI is devouring the media industry

Spencer Ackerman /
@attackerman.bsky.social: Not 1 journalist who sold a story to a publication partnering with OpenAI consented to have their work used to train the engine of their obsolescence. This is a moment in journalism (and other industries, but this one is mine) when the unions we built over the last decade will have to fight hard. …

Jackie Davalos /
Bloomberg: OpenAI Strikes Licensing Deals With The Atlantic and Vox Media

Warner Crocker /
@WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social: Déjà vu. — Every time I read a headline that says another media company has signed an agreement with OpenAI why do my eyes turn it into “pivot to video?” — Exclusive: The Atlantic, Vox Media cut deals with OpenAI https://www.axios.com/... [image]

Emilia David /
The Verge: Vox Media and The Atlantic sign content deals with OpenAI

Anuj Ahooja /
@quillmatiq@threads.net: The saddest thing about this is that it'll be the smaller publishers that feel the deepest cut. News summarization will enforce further consolidation while also putting more distance between newsrooms and their audience. AI companies were going to vacuum up all this data anyway, but it's unfortunate that big media companies are giving up without a longer fight.

Dave Lee /
@daveleebbg@threads.net: Big question here. After training a model on the Atlantic's archive ... does OpenAI ever need to do it again?

Kylie Robison /
@kylie.robison@threads.net: if fortune does a licensing deal that means every word ive ever written in my career is powering chatGPT to make it worse

Nilay Patel /
@reckless1280@threads.net: I don't have a lot to say about this — our newsroom is independent of the company's business dealings as it's always been. We'll figure out some disclosure language and do a disclosure when it's appropriate, we are pretty good at those ;)

Josh Billinson /
@jbillinson@threads.net: Media companies actually have a lot of leverage to make sure their work is fairly compensated and supported in the next era of the web and all they have to do is work together and not just race to see who can get the biggest check from OpenAI first

Stephanie Palazzolo /
The Information: OpenAI Strikes Licensing, Product Deals with Vox Media, the Atlantic

Todd Spangler /
Variety: OpenAI Inks Licensing Deals to Bring Vox Media, The Atlantic Content to ChatGPT

Natalie Korach /
The Wrap: Vox Media, The Atlantic Ink Licensing Partnerships With OpenAI

Daniel Dockery /
@dandock.bsky.social: You could just have people write all of this stuff! There are a ton of them out there who would! I promise!

Daniel Dockery /
@dandock.bsky.social: I love knowing so many writers who either don't have jobs right now or are severely underpaid and then seeing this [image]

Dominick Mastrangelo /
The Hill: Vox Media, The Atlantic ink deals with OpenAI

Christian Vasquez /
@chrismvasq.bsky.social: am convinced journo execs don't actually pay attention/read the stories their reporters publish. not sure what else explains falling for this again [embedded post]

RELATED:

WAN-IFRA:
WAN-IFRA and OpenAI partner to launch an accelerator program for 128 news publishers, aiming to help newsrooms fast-track their AI adoption and more

Discussion:

Charlotte Tobitt /
Press Gazette: OpenAI content boss: ‘Incumbent’ on us to help small publishers, not just the giants

Dave Pell /
@davepell@threads.net: How will media cover ChatGPT when they all have deals with ChatGPT.

Alfred Hermida /
@hermida: The deals between news publishers and AI companies are a double-edged sword via @trtworld. https://www.trtworld.com/...

Damon Kiesow /
@dkiesow@threads.net: Trying to decide if journalism taking what amounts to lobbying money from tech platforms is smart opportunism or craven collaboration?

Nilay Patel /