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 (Financial Times)

Mediagazer: 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 (Financial Times)

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 …

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:

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’

Alex Weprin /
The Hollywood Reporter: The New York Times to Launch Podcast Subscriptions on Spotify and Apple (Exclusive)

Sean Hollister /
The Verge: The New York Times will now charge for past episodes of its popular podcasts 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

Zac Hall /
9to5Mac: Apple Podcasts adds The New York Times to subscription program, boosting revenue with paywalled shows

Ray Schultz /
MediaPost: ‘The New York Times’ Rolls Out Its Podcast Pay Model

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

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. …

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:

Variety:

Memo: Paramount unveils “phase two” of layoffs and says 90% of them will be complete after this round, following its August plan to cut 15% of its US workforce— Paramount Global unveiled a second wave of staff cuts Tuesday morning, part of a larger bid by the owner of CBS …

Discussion:
Digiday, @dylanbyers, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, TVLine, The Wrap, Variety, Deadline, Adweek, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, AV Club, Next TV, TVNewsCheck, Bloomberg, Advanced Television and Barrett Media

Discussion:

Tim Peterson /
Digiday: Future of TV Briefing: How publishers are turning podcasts into video talk shows

Dylan Byers /
@dylanbyers: SCOOP @PuckNews: CBS News anchor Jeff Glor is among those being cut in latest round of Paramount job cuts, which target 2,000 positions overall....

Dade Hayes /
Deadline: Paramount Initiates Next Round Of Layoffs In Ongoing Effort To Cut 15% Of U.S. Workforce

Brian Steinberg /
Variety: Jeff Glor Exits CBS News Amid Paramount Layoffs

Lynette Rice /
Deadline: Longtime CBS Exec Tina Koyanagi-Rosener & Her 8-Person Team Among Hundreds Cut At Paramount+

Ted Johnson /
Deadline: CBS News' Jeff Glor Among Those Departing Amid Latest Round Of Paramount Global Layoffs

David Cohen /
Adweek: Paramount Global Kicks Off Phase 2 of Layoffs

Alexandra Steigrad /
New York Post: Paramount Global bloodbath continues with ‘phase two’ of planned 2K job cuts

Samantha Masunaga /
Los Angeles Times: Paramount starts second phase of its planned layoffs

Mary Kate Carr /
AV Club: Paramount Global faces another round of layoffs, reportedly directed at streaming

Jon Lafayette /
Next TV: Paramount Starts New Round of U.S. Staff Reductions

Dade Hayes /
TVNewsCheck: Paramount Initiates Next Round Of Layoffs

Hannah Miller /
Bloomberg: Paramount Cuts More Jobs as Part of Planned Reductions

Digiday:

TikTok launches its Search Ads Campaign tool in the US, letting advertisers pick specific keywords to target ads appearing in search results— After months of will-they-won't-they, TikTok is finally getting serious about turning user searches into ad dollars.

Discussion:
TechCrunch, MediaPost, MarTech, The Drum and Ad Age

Discussion:

Aisha Malik /
TechCrunch: TikTok comes for Google's ad business as it starts letting advertisers target its search results page

Laurie Sullivan /
MediaPost: TikTok Lets Advertisers Target Search Results, Calls Keywords The Backbone

Anu Adegbola /
MarTech: TikTok Search Ads Campaign launches in US

Kendra Barnett /
The Drum: TikTok enters search advertising fray as users turn to the platform for product research

Garett Sloane /