Sources: New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is close to striking a deal to buy The Telegraph for £550M+, more than what others like National World offered (Financial Times)

Mediagazer: Sources: New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is close to striking a deal to buy The Telegraph for £550M+, more than what others like National World offered (Financial Times)

Top News:

Wall Street Journal:

eMarketer expects Google's share of the US search ad market to drop below 50% in 2025 for the first time in 10+ years, as Amazon, Apple, and others make gains— A flurry of new offerings for advertisers is hitting the market — Google's grip on the nearly $300 billion search advertising business is loosening.
Discussion:

John Ballard /
Motley Fool: Billionaires Are Betting Big on These FAANG Stocks, and This $700 Billion Opportunity Explains Why

Paul Kedrosky /
@pkedrosky: WSJ: Google's share of the U.S. search ad market is expected to fall below 50% next year for the first time in over a decade Anecdotally, I use it much less than ever. https://www.wsj.com/... [image]

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life@mas.to: Google is on track to dip below 50% of the search advertising market in the US. — While the Wall Street Journal hypes up TikTok & AI search engines like Perplexity as the cause, the largest gainer is Amazon which now has 22.3% share followed by the Apple's App Store search ads. …

Aravind Srinivas /
@aravsrinivas: Yep, search is going to be disrupted big time in the next five years. [image]

Adam Epstein /
@aepstein_: Amazon's meteoric rise in share of search ad revenue this past decade will be matched in the next decade with a meteoric rise in share of tv ad revenue. [image]

Ashkan Karbasfrooshan /
@ashkan: Google didn't pioneer search ads, Goto/Overture did, but timing helped their superior search product become the dominant platform, reaping all the benefits. But, like all other disrupters, it's being disrupted by social, AI. https://www.wsj.com/...

Aravind Srinivas /
Aravind Srinivas on LinkedIn: Google search business is going to see big time disruption in the next few years from TikTok and answer engines like Perplexity, as per The Wall Street Journal https://lnkd.in/...

Jess Weatherbed /
The Verge: Google is testing verified checkmarks in search

Brad Pareso /
Adweek: Publisher Traffic Spiked Thanks to Google's Gen AI Overview Tweaks as Ad Rollout Begins

Financial Times:

Sources: New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is close to striking a deal to buy The Telegraph for £550M+, more than what others like National World offered— Offer could end 16-month battle to control the conservative British national newspaper — New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is closing …

Discussion:
The Times, Telegraph, Hindustan Times, Bloomberg and The Guardian

Discussion:

Tom Saunders /
The Times: New York Sun owner closing in on deal to buy Telegraph Hindustan Times: Business News LIVE Updates Today October 7, 2024: New York Sun owner nears £550 million deal for Telegraph newspaper: Report

The Conversation:

As Congress tries to force carmakers to install AM radios as a matter of public interest, it should push licensed stations to abide by public interest standards— A lament about the demise of AM radio has been rising in the halls of Congress. — Several automakers, most notably Tesla and Ford …

Discussion:
Barrett Media, RADIO ONLINE, Inside Radio and Radio Ink

Discussion:

Dr. Ed Cohen /
Barrett Media: The “Radio For Every Home” Act of 2025

Lori Lewis /
Inside Radio: State AGs Urge Congress To Protect ‘Life-Saving’ AM Radio Following Hurricane Helene.

New York Times:

Former NYT investigative reporter David Burnham, whose work uncovering corruption in the NYPD during the 1970s inspired the movie Serpico, dies at the age of 91— Tipped off by the detective Frank Serpico, he wrote an explosive series on police corruption in New York City, sparking an investigation by the Knapp commission.

Discussion:
@schwellenbach, @sergenyt, @proflhunter, @carlmalamud@official … and Deadline

Discussion:

Nick Schwellenbach /
@schwellenbach: David had a huge influence on my approach to journalism, namely how important it is to take a systematic approach to covering government agencies. He was a generous and no-bullshit guy. We need more David Burnhams. R.I.P. David. https://www.nytimes.com/...

Serge Kovaleski /
@sergenyt: David Burnham, Times Reporter Who Exposed Police Graft, Dies at 91 Tipped off by the detective Frank Serpico, he wrote an explosive series on police corruption in New York City, sparking an investigation by the Knapp commission. https://www.nytimes.com/...

Larry Hunter /
@proflhunter: Sad to hear the great David Burnham died. In addition to his spectacular reporting, he founded the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, one of the first great sources of open data. A true hero. https://www.nytimes.com/...

Carl Malamud /
@carlmalamud@official.resource.org: I knew David fairly well. We were both working out of the ACLU offices next to the Supreme Court in Washington. He was a total curmudgeon but also totally sweet and generous with his time. He went on from there to create a wonderful FOIA center in New York, I did a deep dive into the Internet. …

Financial Times:

The BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 agree a deal with Amazon to put free streamer Freely, developed by joint venture Everyone TV, on Amazon's US smart TVs— Agreement with US tech company is set to provide a boost to broadcasters' new platform Freely — BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 …

Discussion:
Advanced Television, Reuters, The Sun, RXTV, Broadband TV News, Deadline and The Media Leader

Discussion:

Colin Mann /
Advanced Television: Freely on Fire TV

Sachin Ravikumar /
Reuters: Amazon Fire TVs to carry Freely streaming platform in boost for BBC and ITV

Jamie Harris /
The Sun: Amazon reveals major shake-up for Fire TVs with new free UK streaming service coming in days

Marc Thornham /
RXTV: Freeview replacement Freely coming to Amazon Fire TVs

Julian Clover /
Broadband TV News: Freely agrees distribution deal with Amazon Deadline: ‘Downton Abbey’ Star Leading Channel 5 Drama ‘The Puzzle Lady’; Freely Amazon Deal; Cannes Directors Fortnight; Directv October 7 Anniversary - Global Briefs

Jack Benjamin /
The Media Leader: Freely comes to Amazon Fire TV

Semafor:

Substack, which still isn't profitable but has added 1M+ paid subscribers over the past year, is trying to become a primary way creators of all mediums get paid— Seven years since its launch, the newsletter platform Substack has consolidated its dominance of the independent news business.

Discussion:
@semaforben, @emily_sundberg, Jason Whittaker on LinkedIn and @semafor, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Ben Smith /
@semaforben: .@maxwelltani mustread on what is going on with Substack, which seems to have won its lane — newsletters — but needs to move into others to succeed as a business and sell to ... Stripe? https://www.semafor.com/...

Emily Sundberg /
@emily_sundberg: Feed Me in @semafor tonight (thanks @maxwelltani) https://www.semafor.com/... [image]

Jason Whittaker /
Jason Whittaker on LinkedIn: The “remarkable” rise of Substack, writes Maxwell Tani at SEMAFOR, with a million new subs in the last year - half via its recommendation engine, most news-based products: … @semafor: 🟡 NEW: Seven years since its launch, Substack has consolidated its dominance of the independent news business. Now, it's trying to position itself as something more, @maxwelltani reports. https://www.semafor.com/...

New York Times:

How SmartLess, a podcast by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, became a rare cultural tent pole that continues to thrive after its pandemic birth— Started during the pandemic, this venture is the first step in a media empire being built by the actors Sean Hayes, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman.

Discussion:
@frankdigiacomo, @stuartemmrich and Deadline

Discussion:

Frank DiGiacomo /
@frankdigiacomo: Super interesting and informative piece about ‘Smartless’ and the podcasting business by my friend @SridharPappu https://www.nytimes.com/...

Stuart Emmrich /
@stuartemmrich: The actors ⁦@SeanHayes⁩, ⁦@arnettwill⁩ and ⁦@batemanjason⁩ started the ⁦@SmartLess⁩ podcast in the middle of the pandemic. It's now a $100 million media business. Read the cover story in the ⁦@nytimes⁩ Sunday Business section https://www.nytimes.com/...

New York Times:

Watches of Switzerland Group, one of the world's largest watch retailers, buys watch enthusiast website Hodinkee and says its coverage will remain independent— Neither Benjamin Clymer, its founder, nor the Watches of Switzerland Group would disclose terms, but they stressed that coverage would continue to be independent.

Discussion:
@reb40, @ilyakan2004, @kstahl, @hiddenvaluegems, @penttijokinen, @will__stern, @cllctmedia, @aspeciale, @rafat, @robbreport, @etkeld, London Evening Standard, The Mirror, City A.M., MarketWatch, Fortune, Forbes Australia, Bloomberg, cllct, Hodinkee, Daniela Morena on LinkedIn, Benjamin Clymer on LinkedIn, Lorcan McCabe on LinkedIn, Katie Reed on LinkedIn, Adam Schoenberg on LinkedIn and Coverager

Discussion:

Aston Girl /
@reb40: #WOSG Acquisition of Hodinkee, a ‘leading platform for luxury watch enthusiasts’ We're not allowed to know what they paid or any financials except that “The acquisition will be funded out of existing financing facilities and will not materially impact our leverage position” 🤷🏻 ♀️ [image]

Ilya Kan /
@ilyakan2004: @Billhuang1223 @FundamentalGoob I think they overpaid vs other cash allocation opportunities. And from what I remember listening to a podcast with Hodinkee's founder it's a nice distribution platform but as a biz maybe just OK. Really depends on what they paid. Probably marginally profitable if even profitable

Kevin Stahl /
@kstahl: How much do you think John Mayer and Tom Brady just made in this Hodinkee / Watches of Switzerland deal?! @hiddenvaluegems: $WOSG.L acquires @Hodinkee - online watch reviews and a digital retailer of luxury watches. Congrats to Ben Clymer, the founder of Hodinkee. The price is not disclosed but according to WOSG, the deal “ will not materially impact [its] leverage position.” Looks like a good move [image]

Pentti Jokinen /
@penttijokinen: Opportunistic move in the watch industry slump, $WOSG Watches of Switzerland picks up Hodinkee. [image]

Will Stern /
@will__stern: Major news in the watch space. Hodinkee is one of my favorite reads, period. @cllctmedia: NEW: Hodinkee acquired by Watches of Switzerland. The site is the most widely read watch publication on earth with 20m readers per month. https://www.cllct.com/...

Alessandro Speciale /
@aspeciale: Watches of Switzerland is acquiring Hodinkee, the US watch site backed by LVMH and Tom Brady, following its losses from a move into selling pre-owned models online https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @business @iamandyhoffman #Switzerland @rafat: The lesson here is same as always: even in vertical media, if you raise too much money, chances are you will trip up with overambition and overspending much like consumer media startups and suffer the same fate. Likely a mercy buy, even if decent buyer. https://www.nytimes.com/... @robbreport: The Watches of Switzerland Group just acquired the watch media company Hodinkee. The two hope to work together to benefit the watch community. https://robbreport.com/...

Eric Kelderman /
@etkeld: Hodinkee, the Watch Fan Site, Is Sold to a British Retailer 1) HOLY COW 2) given the topic and audience, seems like the NYT should have identified what watches appear on their subjects' wrists - I see a Rolex Daytona on Clymer... https://www.nytimes.com/...

Anna Wise /
London Evening Standard: Watches of Switzerland buys US luxury watch enthusiast platform

Maria Ward-Brennan /
City A.M.: Watches of Switzerland snaps up US media firm in online luxury push

Christian Moess Laursen /
MarketWatch: Watches of Switzerland Group Adds to Online Presence with Hodinkee Acquisition

Anthony DeMarco /
Forbes Australia: Watches of Switzerland acquires popular watch website Hodinkee

Andy Hoffman /
Bloomberg: UK Rolex Dealer Buys Watch Site Backed by LVMH, Tom Brady

Benjamin Clymer /
Hodinkee: Hodinkee Joins Forces With Watches Of Switzerland

Daniela Morena /
Daniela Morena on LinkedIn: It is an exciting day for the team at HODINKEE, Inc. as it was announced that the company was acquired by the Watches of Switzerland Group. …

Benjamin Clymer /
Benjamin Clymer on LinkedIn: 17 years in the making, I am proud to say that we have sold HODINKEE, Inc. to Watches of Switzerland Group PLC - joining forces with an iconic, century-old partner to the entire industry. …

Lorcan McCabe /
Lorcan McCabe on LinkedIn: Beyond thrilled for the announcement today - a partnership a decade in the making. Huge congratulations to Benjamin Clymer and welcome to the team …

Katie Reed /
Katie Reed on LinkedIn: Welcome to the team Hodinkee! A very big thank you to Victoria Gomelsky for delivering this story with such care.

Adam Schoenberg /
Adam Schoenberg on LinkedIn: I'm thrilled to share that Hodinkee is officially joining the Watches of Switzerland Group! This is a monumental step for our team …

Shefi Ben-Hutta /
Coverager: Watches Of Switzerland acquires watch site Hodinkee

ProPublica:

Sources and records: Trump Media has forced out its COO, CPO, and other executives after internal allegations that CEO Devin Nunes is mismanaging the company— Several people involved with the former president's company, operator of Truth Social, believe the departures …

Discussion:

Lily Mae Lazarus /
The Daily Beast: Trump's Truth Social Riddled With Scammers Ripping Off Users

Matthew Impelli /
Newsweek: Donald Trump's Truth Social Loses Top Executive

Paolo Confino /
Fortune: Trump Media COO Andrew Northwall resigns, per SEC filings

Kevin T. Dugan /
New York Magazine: Trump Media Has Major New Problems

Kevin Breuninger /
CNBC: Trump Media COO quits; DJT turns over more shares to SPAC investor in court fight

Luke /
@jdluckenbach: Alleged mismanagement by Nunes. One person said they include allegations of misuse of funds, hiring of foreign contractors and interfering with product development.

Robert Faturechi /
@robertfaturechi: NEW: Trump's media company forced out execs after internal allegations that CEO Devin Nunes is mismanaging Truth Social, according to interviews + records. Several people involved believe the ousters are retaliation following “whistleblower” complaint. https://www.propublica.org/...

Brian Stelter /
@brianstelter: ProPublica: Donald Trump's media company “has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees.” https://www.propublica.org/...

Peter Kafka /
Business Insider: Donald Trump's social-media company has new worries and investors don't care

Dan Ladden-Hall /
The Daily Beast: Trump Media's Misery Deepens as Top Execs Depart

Ariel Zilber /
New York Post: Trump Media execs forced out after complaining about CEO Devin Nunes: report

Jennifer Slack /
@JenniferSlack@mastodon.social: Trump Media fires executive whistleblowers who reported CEO Nunes (remember that weird guy who hated the spoof Nunes' cow account on Twitter?) for a variety of violations. — https://www.propublica.org/... @ProPublica@newsie.social: Top Execs Exit #Trump Media Amid Allegations of CEO's Mismanagement and Retaliation — Several people involved with the former president's company, operator of #TruthSocial, believe the departures were retaliation following internal complaints about CEO Devin Nunes to the company board. …

The Verge:

Matt Mullenweg says WordPress.org “belongs to me personally”, as his WP Engine feud blurs the lines between WordPress.org, WordPress Foundation, and Automattic— The lines between the WordPress open-source project, the nonprofit backing it, and the commercial arm owned by Automattic are blurring.

Discussion:

Scott Williams /
@vwbusguy@mastodon.online: How deep you gotta dig that hole? — Matt Mullenweg: ‘WordPress.org just belongs to me’ — https://www.theverge.com/... #WordPress #opensource #Automattic

Matt Beck /
@mattbeck: One takeaway I have in all of this WordPress drama is that it's amazing it hasn't blown up in Matt's face this way until now. https://www.theverge.com/...

Eva de Valk /
@evadevalk: What a mess https://www.theverge.com/...

Heather Bragg /
@heatherbragg: Considering @wordpress powers 40% of the Internet, this comment is concerning. @alchemyunited: Well, that's one way to silence any dissenting plugin and theme owners on .org. Why wasn't this “business structure” made more transparent sooner? “ https://wordpress.org/ just belongs to me personally,” Mullenweg said during an interview with The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/... [image]

Ari Levy /
CNBC: Why WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg has gone ‘nuclear’ against tech investing giant Silver Lake

Jason DeFillippo /
@jpd@threads.net: This is the beginning of the end for WordPress. Matt proves to be as petty as the rest of the tech oligarchs even though he puts on a nice-boy front. That, and I hate that fucking software with unbridled vehemence. https://www.theverge.com/...

Youness El Andaloussi /
@younelan@threads.net: Watching the new ‘WordPress belongs to me’ attitude and telling employees to leave if they disagree with him puts the WordPress fight in another perspective. I'm not a fan of how wpengine not contributing back but this is not OK. My prediction, unless he does damage control, WordPress will get forked... and will lose in popularity https://www.theverge.com/...

Rob Zazueta /
@robz@toot.robzazueta.com: “'WordPress.org just belongs to me personally,' Mullenweg said during an interview with The Verge.” — https://www.theverge.com/... Listen to him: — It doesn't belong to the community of contributors. — It doesn't belong to the community of committed users - many of whom modify the code in some way to fit their needs, even if it's just a template. …

Thomas Claburn /
The Register: 159 Automattic staff take severance offer and walk out over WP Engine feud

Rick Findlay /
Reclaim The Net: Open-Source vs Profit: WP Engine Takes Automattic to Court in Power Struggle Over WordPress Kellie Peterson: “Nice Guy” Matt Mullenweg, CEO of WordPress.com Cries Foul and Threatens Me With Legal Action

Kamya Pandey /
MEDIANAMA: WP Engine Sues Automattic, Alleges Extortion and Abuse of Power Over WordPress Trademark Dispute

Ivan Mehta /
TechCrunch: 159 employees are leaving Automattic as CEO's fight with WP Engine escalates Matt Mullenweg: Automattic Alignment — Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

The Hollywood Reporter:

An interview with ex-NBCUniversal executive Evan Shapiro on why streaming is a “shitty” business, Netflix ads, and why Hollywood must band together to thrive— After an Iberseries & Platino Industria keynote, the “media universe cartographer” explains why streaming is a “sh**ty” …

Discussion:
@tvgrimreaper

Wall Street Journal:

A look at Google NotebookLM's Audio Overview feature, which was built by Google Labs and has gone viral for its AI-generated “deep dive” podcasts with two hosts— With this Google tool, you can now listen to a show about any topic you could possibly imagine. You won't believe your ears.

Discussion:
Business Insider, @ambermac, @cnbctechcheck, @ericjorgenson, @stevenbjohnson, @omarsar0, @karpathy, @omartosca, @davetroy, @elonmusk, @firstadopter, @stevenbjohnson, @karpathy, Barron's Online, MIT Technology Review, Forbes, MIT Technology Review, Axios and Hard Fork on YouTube, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Ana Altchek /
Business Insider: I tried Google's viral new tool that creates an AI podcast about topics you feed it. It's worth the hype.

Amber Mac /
@ambermac: These are not real people doing a podcast chat about my newsletter intro. Instead, I dropped my 200-word essay text into Google's NotebookLM (a virtual research assistant) and chose the little button at the top that says - Deep dive conversation: Two hosts (English only). Now [video] @cnbctechcheck: We tested out $GOOGL's viral NotebookLM tool using CNBC and Wall Street's favorite study tool: an analyst note. Powered by Google's most advanced AI model, Gemini 1.5 Pro, could this be the next killer app for generative AI? @dee_bosa reports [video]

Eric Jorgenson /
@ericjorgenson: @karpathy How do you fact-check generations like this?

Steven Johnson /
@stevenbjohnson: Love that you're doing this, @omarsar0! Sounds like a great intro (and beyond) to the product.

Elvis /
@omarsar0: 🎓Introduction to NotebookLM Very excited to announce @dair_ai's first FREE course, Introduction to NotebookLM! As an AI educator, researcher, and engineer, NotebookLM unlocks a wide range of use cases. It's not just the podcast generation feature (which is amazing), it's [image]

Andrej Karpathy /
@karpathy: @EricJorgenson Good q worth noting that the Wikipedia page is in the context window when the pod is generated, this increases the accuracy a lot provided original material is ok. It's when you try to “zero shot” prompt straight up you'd expect a hazy recollection, quite possibly hallucinations. @omartosca: Many people have praised NotebookLM for their approach to genAI podcasting, even the UI for researching, but they all forget to praise the model behind. Gemini is more powerful and impressive than people think, they just need to get out of the gpt and Claude bubbles.

Dave Troy /
@davetroy: Google's NotebookLM is by far the most actually useful AI product of the current generation, for people that actually need to augment their own capacity. Being able to process multiple large and complex sources and pull out key details (names, organizations, key themes, etc) is

Elon Musk /
@elonmusk: @karpathy Interesting

Tae Kim /
@firstadopter: Congrats to Google Labs and the NotebookLM team for creating one of the most compelling AI products yet. Great stuff. It offers a glimpse of AI's future with Gemini's longer context window capabilities and unlocking the siloed knowledge inside corporate internal databases [image]

Steven Johnson /
@stevenbjohnson: Wow. Such a great case study in why we designed NotebookLM from the beginning around curated sources It's basically the foundation of the product: curate the information you need the AI to have expertise in—and then transform it into whatever form you want.

Andrej Karpathy /
@karpathy: Deep Dive is now my favorite podcast. The more I listen the more I feel like I'm becoming friends with the hosts and I think this is the first time I've actually viscerally liked an AI. Two AIs! They are fun, engaging, thoughtful, open-minded, curious. ok i'll stop now.

Andrej Karpathy /
@karpathy: Over the last ~2 hours I curated a new Podcast of 10 episodes called “Histories of Mysteries”. Find it up on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/... 10 episodes of this season are: Ep 1: The Lost City of Atlantis Ep 2: Baghdad battery Ep 3: The Roanoke Colony Ep 4: The Antikythera [image]

Rhiannon Williams /
MIT Technology Review: The Download: Google's AI podcasts, and protecting your brain data

Melissa Heikkilä /
MIT Technology Review: People are using Google study software to make AI podcasts—and they're weird and amazing

Scott Rosenberg /