Subscription management platform RevenueCat acquires Dipsea, an app that offers subscriptions for "spicy" audiobooks, as a test ground for RevenueCat's features (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Mediagazer: Subscription management platform RevenueCat acquires Dipsea, an app that offers subscriptions for “spicy” audiobooks, as a test ground for RevenueCat's features (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Top News:

New York Times:

Sources: CNN will begin experimenting in early October with a metered paywall, charging some readers for digital access after they read a set number of articles— CNN will begin experimenting in October with a subscription model, in a major initiative from its chief executive, Mark Thompson.
Discussion: TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, @kalihays1@threads.net, @sherman4949, @dylanbyers, @benmullin, @2xaught7.bsky.social, @benmullin and @paulwiggins

Discussion:

Josh Dickey /
TVNewsCheck: CNN Plans To Paywall News Content Starting Next Month

Josh Dickey /
The Wrap: CNN Plans to Paywall News Content Starting Next Month

Kali Hays /
@kalihays1@threads.net: Even more paywalls are coming, cnn won't be the only one. Fair warning to all of you who love to comment “ugh paywall” “can't read paywall” “paywall can someone post a free link” gonna need you to direct your sense of injustice to the major tech companies (which have also all erected their own type of walled gardens over the last year or so)

Dylan Byers /
@dylanbyers: I think I've reported this at least six times in the last three months... https://www.nytimes.com/... via @NYTimes

Ben Mullin /
@benmullin: scoop: Mark Thompson's team at CNN will launch its paywall in early October. It's one of Mark Thompson's first major business initiatives. The plan is to launch a metered paywall at a low price point and see how readers react: https://www.nytimes.com/...

New York Times:

Hoda Kotb plans to leave NBC's Today early next year but will remain an occasional contributor to NBC; her exit will create two vacancies in the Today franchise— Her exit, planned for early next year, is a seismic shift for NBC and opens up a pair of morning TV's most coveted anchor chairs.

Discussion:
TODAY.com, Axios, ComingSoon.net, Rachel Kay on LinkedIn, Barbara Palmer on LinkedIn, Adweek, The Wrap, CNBC, DNyuz, @todayshow, Fox News, Full Feed, Vanity Fair, Page Six, TMZ.com, HuffPost, Us Weekly, Los Angeles Times, KGW-TV, Next TV, The Hill, TVLine, CBS News, Entertainment Weekly, @bristei, TODAY.com, @brianstelter, CNN, @grynbaum, @drewkerr, Hollywood Life, Mediaite, Black America Web, Variety, @davidaxelrod, Deadline, WRBL-TV, E! Online, New York Daily News, Media Play News, Forbes, The Daily Beast, USA Today and Extra

Discussion:

Sara Fischer /
Axios: NBC “Today” show anchor Hoda Kotb to depart in early 2025

Rachel Kay /
Rachel Kay on LinkedIn: Bittersweet news learning one of my favorite women in broadcast news is stepping down in 2025. — I watch the Today Show every day and Hoda Kotb …

Barbara Palmer /
Barbara Palmer on LinkedIn: hoda kotb announced she will be stepping down from her anchoring duties at the Today Show at the beginning of the year to focus on her two daughters. …

Ethan Alter /
Adweek: Watch Hoda Kotb Announce Her Today Departure

Josh Dickey /
The Wrap: Hoda Kotb to End ‘Today’ Show Run After 26 Years at NBC

Kristian Burt /
CNBC: Hoda Kotb announces she is leaving NBC's ‘TODAY’ show Fox News: NBC's Hoda Kotb announces she will exit flagship ‘Today’ early next year: Time to ‘move on’ Full Feed: Hoda Kotb Announces Departure From Today Show With Moving Letter to Staff: ‘I Will Miss You All’

Savannah Walsh /
Vanity Fair: Hoda Kotb Announces Exit From Today Show: “Time For Me to Turn the Page”

Riley Cardoza /
Page Six: Meet Hoda Kotb's family as she leaves ‘Today’ show to focus on mom, daughters

Marita Vlachou /
HuffPost: Hoda Kotb To Leave NBC's ‘Today’ Show Next Year

Stephen Battaglio /
Los Angeles Times: Hoda Kotb is leaving NBC's ‘Today’ early next year

Andrew Weil /
KGW-TV: Hoda Kotb leaving NBC's ‘Today’ show

Michael Malone /
Next TV: Hoda Kotb To Step Down From ‘Today’ Co-Anchor Post

Dominick Mastrangelo /
The Hill: Hoda Kotb leaving NBC's ‘Today’ show

Rebecca Iannucci /
TVLine: Hoda Kotb to Exit NBC's Today — Watch Her Emotional Announcement

Joey Nolfi /
Entertainment Weekly: Hoda Kotb announces she's leaving Today show to spend more time with family: 'I'm making the right decision'

Brian Steinberg /
@bristei: Hoda Kotb to exit ‘Today’ at year end, opening two critical anchor slots for NBC News morning franchise https://variety.com/...

Brian Stelter /
@brianstelter: After 26 years at NBC, @TodayShow co-host Hoda Kotb is retiring. She is announcing her decision on air now.

Jordan Valinsky /
CNN: Hoda Kotb is leaving NBC's ‘Today’

Michael M. Grynbaum /
@grynbaum: NEW: Hoda Kotb is leaving the @TODAYshow after 17 years. “I have a time pie in front of me,” she tells @nytimes, “and I think my kids deserve a bigger slice of that pie.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

Drew Kerr /
@drewkerr: Eric Adams must be relieved the Hoda Kotb departure news literally took the media spotlight off him for the time being.

Elisabeth McGowan /
Hollywood Life: Why Is Hoda Kotb Leaving ‘Today’? Her Reason Revealed

Jamie Frevele /
Mediaite: JUST IN: Hoda Kotb Announces She's Leaving NBC's TODAY Show

Brian Steinberg /
Variety: Hoda Kotb to Exit NBC's ‘Today’ in Early 2025

David Axelrod /
@davidaxelrod: It's always impressive when someone walks away from the spotlight at the peak of their power and popularity because they know it's time for something new—for them, and their family. Good for you, ⁦@hodakotb⁩! https://www.nytimes.com/... via @NYTimes

Ted Johnson /
Deadline: Hoda Kotb To Depart ‘Today’ Early Next Year

Jessica Yakubovsky /
WRBL-TV: Hoda Kotb announces departure from Today show, “I know I'm making the right decision”

Rachel McRady /
E! Online: Hoda Kotb Shares Why She's Leaving Today After More a Decade

Erik Gruenwedel /
Media Play News: Hoda Kotb Set to Depart NBC News' ‘Today’ Show After 17 Years

Mary Whitfill Roeloffs /
Forbes: Longtime Host Hoda Kotb Says She's Leaving ‘Today’ Show

Dan Ladden-Hall /
The Daily Beast: Hoda Kotb Is Leaving NBC's ‘Today’: ‘The Right Decision’

Charles Curtis /
USA Today: Hoda Kotb tributes pour in after Today Show retirement announcement

The Register:

Matt Mullenweg says WP Engine no longer has free WordPress.org access and directs WP Engine customers having trouble with their websites to WP Engine support— WordPress on Wednesday escalated its conflict with WP Engine, a hosting provider, by blocking the latter's servers …

Discussion:
WordPress News, @viewfromthebox, WP Engine's Status Page, @jbenton, @bgardner, @photomatt, @automattic, @carlhancock, @bowefrankema, @ozskier, @photomatt, @davidtaggart, @photomatt, @vinnysgreen, @benjmay, @patchstackapp, @mgeheren, @stshank, @rmccue, @fjzeit, @bgardner, @shendison, @joshmanders, @keithdevon, @itsdavemartin, Dave Martin, @thespacedmonkey, MarTech, @thedannorris, @dcurtis, @wpdavidv, @taraclaeys, @mrlanphear, @danielcid, @tomfrankly, Search Engine Journal, @seldo, @pressable, @t3dotgg, @williamsba, @raymmar_, @slexaxton, @photomatt, @deviorobert, @tealou, @wordpress, @photomatt, @timbouchard, @tmeister, @runakog@threads.net, @dvk@toot.re, TechCrunch, TechRadar, @Kye@tech.lgbt, @Jayhoffmann@mastodon.social, @bretcarmichael@mastodon …, @jalefkowit@vmst.io, @chris@mastodon …, One Man & His Blog and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Matt Mullenweg /
WordPress News: WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org

Jacob Martella /
@viewfromthebox: Today in Matt destroys the WordPress community: you can't add plugins directly from the .org repo if you have a WP Engine site. And I can confirm that this is happening. https://www.reddit.com/... [image]

Joshua Benton /
@jbenton: This is getting very ugly.

Brian Gardner /
@bgardner: My heart is breaking. 💔

Brian Gardner /
@bgardner: Many things out of my control, but some are not. I will continue to: ✴︎ Advocate for #WordPress. ✴︎ Make myself available to you. ✴︎ Create for the community. Please reach out if there is any way I can support you or your business.

Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: @deviorobert ... They do, they just don't want to spend it. It will cost them a lot more than the 8% deal they turned down. @automattic: Automattic is deeply committed to open source, and we will continue to safeguard its ideals and the community that supports it. We want to make this clear: Using “WP” is not a trademark issue.

Carl Hancock /
@carlhancock: For the record, if someone sued me I'd stop supporting them too unless I was compelled to do so by a judge. Just saying.

Bowe Frankema /
@bowefrankema: This is the absolute low point in #WordPress history. Crippling core functionality remotely due to a corporate conflict goes against everything the software stands for, and utterly destroys the mission of an open web, and the community that helped build it.

Dave Amirault /
@ozskier: This is absolutely insane and such a disgusting abuse of power by @photomatt. I have clients using @wpengine and now they can't easily install plugins or update themes. #WordPress [image]

Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: @bgardner @wpengine Happy to unblock you, drop your legal claims and get a trademark license. @davidtaggart: This Wordpress vs WP Engine mess is the dumbest damn thing I have ever seen. Whatever the backstory ends up being @photomatt just shot the WP ecosystem in the stomach. It will see a slow and steady death. Right now like 40% of sites are on WP. In 10 years it will be 20% or

Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: @init_sh Nope! None of them have publicly attacked me and https://wordpress.org/.

Vinny Green /
@vinnysgreen: Let's triage the obvious problem before we start concerning ourselves with anything that appears as problem. WP Engine and Silverlake have never been in position to screw up WordPress as bad as Matt is screwing it up now.

Ben May /
@benjmay: Wondering if this is a new option lol @patchstackapp: All @patchstackapp users with protection turned on at #WPengine will continue to receive virtual patches to all of the latest security vulnerabilities as usual. Meanwhile, we hope the situation resolves soon and users are able to update to patched versions ASAP.

Michael Geheren /
@mgeheren: Not being able to do @WordPress updates because of the @photomatt/@wpengine fight is infuriating. For a small nonprofit, being caught in the middle of this could be costly if we need to migrate our sites to a new host. That money/time should be used for our mission.

Stephen Shankland /
@stshank: The fight between @WordPress and @wpengine just got orders of magnitude uglier, with the latter's paying customers now unable to update their site plugins (which is to say secure their websites). WordPress statement: https://x.com/...

Ryan McCue /
@rmccue: For the continued health and vibrancy of the WordPress project, WP Engine must win. https://journal.rmccue.io/... @fjzeit: Imagine if every large open source initiative went daggers at the commercial operations that profit from it without suitable financial support in return. Sure, the WP drama has other angles around appropriate conduct wrt impact upon users but the fundamental issue is solid.

Brian Gardner /
@bgardner: I want to share: https://wordpress.org/ has blocked @wpengine customers from updating and installing plugins and themes via WP Admin—disrupting essential work for #WordPress users, agencies, freelancers, and plugin developers. Please read: https://wpenginestatus.com/...

Scott Hendison /
@shendison: It took @wpengine support chat over 20 minutes to tell me that “this is a known issue”, and they'll update me by email, but NOW I know that it's an issue for ALL websites you host? WTF?!? Why not tell your support chat? Is this related to the @photomatt criticism / drama from [image]

Josh Manders /
@joshmanders: Automattic was an investor in WPEngine's Series A round. They had zero issues with what WPEngine has been doing until now. Imagine if I convinced Vercel to invest in my series A for Primcloud because I was going to have specialized hosting for Next.js and then a decade later

Keith Devon /
@keithdevon: @WordPress Some of my clients use WP Engine. You're hurting them. You're hurting my business. You're hurting the WordPress community.

Dave Martin /
@itsdavemartin: I shared my thoughts on Matt's recent comments. Here's my summary of the primary issue: WPEngine extracts a great deal of value from the WordPress ecosystem without giving much back to the WordPress commons in return. You can read my full thoughts here: https://davemart.in/... @thespacedmonkey: My thoughts on WP Engine drama. I feel like saying that WPE doesn't contribute to WordPress and WordPress ecosystem seems a little disingenuous. WPE, has sponsored countless WordCamps and local meetups. There bought and kept open source plugins like ACF & wpgraphql

Dan Norris /
@thedannorris: Big test happening now for Open Source CMS tech. It's always been confusing to me what was allowed and what wasn't. We named WP Curve pretty much because we saw @wpengine and others use that wording and assumed it was OK, but it's always been a grey area.

Dustin Curtis /
@dcurtis: Automattic's bizarre, unconvincing fight with WP Engine is bad for Wordpress, bad for open source software, and bad for the web. There has to be more to the story than a petty fight over disabling revision history. It makes no sense.

David Vogelpohl /
@wpdavidv: Schools, governments, emergency service websites, churches, non profits, healthcare websites. These are just some of the types of important websites Mullenwonka is exposing to security risks by blocking their sites from accessing .org. DANGEROUS, SHAMEFUL, WRONG.

Tara Claeys /
@taraclaeys: @LilJimmi @photomatt Massive panic and confusion coming from my clients who own their own accounts at WPE but have no idea what that means. It will cost them money to move, and cost us many hours to access their DNS and help move their sites to ... possibly the next company that gets banned? @mrlanphear: This latest stunt by Matt Mullenweg is unconscionable. You're not harming @wpengine. You're harming their customers. WordPress' customers. My agency's customers. You're about to make my life as a developer a living hell. Fix this before you can't undo the damage. @photomatt

Daniel Cid /
@danielcid: To all WordPress and Linux users out there. Image how would react if Ubuntu (for example) blocked your servers from receiving updates and installing new packages because you never contributed back or donated to Ubuntu. If they found the IP ranges for all your servers and got it

Thomas Frank /
@tomfrankly: This is absolutely the wrong way to handle this dispute. All my sites were previously on WP Engine. If I hadn't moved them a couple years back, I'd be feeling pretty screwed right now. Even though I did, I'm still pretty angry on behalf of all the site owners who did nothing

Roger Montti /
Search Engine Journal: WordPress Bans Thousands Of WP Engine Customers

Laurie Voss /
@seldo: Meanwhile over in Wordpress land things are escalating wildly. You can't power 40% of the web and act this way, people will fork your shit. @pressable: If you're not happy with your hosting at WP Engine but you bought into an annual contract, we want to help set you free. Check out our special offer here: https://pressable.com/...

Theo /
@t3dotgg: WordPress will never die, but today they killed the trust their community had in them.

Brad Williams /
@williamsba: This now affects all of us. This is no longer anti-WPE, this is anti-WordPress. This hurts us all. Unreal. @raymmar_: This is absolutely bonkers. I've been a @wpengine customer for almost a decade and now I'm being punished arbitrarily by a so called “open source” platform. This is a sad day for the WordPress community.

Alex Sexton /
@slexaxton: genuinely have no clue about this wordpress drama but I feel compelled to say that I was on the board of the jQuery foundation during some of the glory years and @photomatt was the ~largest donor. definitely puts his money where his mouth is in supporting dependent oss.

Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: @DavidTaggart Let's check back in ten years! I set my calendar.

Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: @TaraClaeys @LilJimmi No other company has attacked https://wordpress.org/, so you should be fine.

Robert DeVore /
@deviorobert: @DuaneStorey @schutzsmith “they have full access to the GPL code. they just need to host and run it themselves” - @photomatt I'm no mathematician, but I think Silver Lake may have enough money to clone https://wp.org/ and run an independent repository of the themes and plugins + core files found

Téa Smith /
@tealou: This is an absolutely disgusting move from @WordPress So in order to maintain continuity for clients, I need to eat the time sent on manual updates or migrate away from an excellent hosting provider. Not good enough. I stand with @wpengine @wordpress: Pending their legal claims and litigation against https://wordpress.org/, WP Engine no longer has free access to https://wordpress.org/'s resources. https://wordpress.org/... #WordPress

Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt: @hashim_warren ... WP Engine controls the code on your site, as they demonstrated by blocking the meetups widget. They should be able to copy all the GPL code in the repository and provide it to their customers.

Tim Bouchard /
@timbouchard: Matt's out of line. If he wants to waste money chasing bogus legal claims he should do it without affecting the people. Absolute insanity #WordPress

Enrique Chavez /
@tmeister: I totally agree with this take. Not only must #WPEngine win, but Matt should be removed from any position with decision-making power on any #WordPress entity (.org, .com and the foundation).

Runako Godfrey /
@runakog@threads.net: The way this is written makes WordPress look bad. Petty management, opaque accusations, the whole thing. I don't know what went down, but this does not look like a mature reaction from the organization that powers 40%(?) of websites. https://wordpress.org/...

Danny van Kooten /
@dvk@toot.re: I'm pretty uncomfortable with these kinds of posts and use of language on the WordPress.org blog, regardless of whatever the f. is happening. — https://wordpress.org/...

Kye Fox /
@Kye@tech.lgbt: This has escalated to WP Engine being blocked from updates using the repositories on the open source project's servers. This is going to be the end of WordPress if it keeps up. https://wordpress.org/... #WordPress #wpengine

Jay Hoffmann /
@Jayhoffmann@mastodon.social: Every time I think Matt has found a point of no return, he goes a little bit further. — This is egregious, sloppy, and destructive for a community and software that I truly love. — https://wordpress.org/...

Bret Carmichael /
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social: WordPress has confirmed that it terminated WP Engine's access to the plugin repo. Any legal consequences aside, this presents a lot like a malware attack. Instead of installing malware directly, WordPress is blocking WP Engine sites from receiving security updates that might prevent it, including critical severity ones. …

Jason Lefkowitz /
@jalefkowit@vmst.io: I am sincerely starting to wonder whether Matt Mullenweg is OK — https://wordpress.org/... [image]

Chris Wiegman /
@chris@mastodon.chriswiegman.com: I wasn't totally convinced that it was time to abandon #WordPress completely but now I know that it is definitely the right time to do so. How long until this happens to every host? https://wordpress.org/...

Adam Tinworth /
One Man & His Blog: What the hell is happening at Automattic (part 2)?

Ivan Mehta /
TechCrunch: Automattic sends a cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, alleging unauthorized use of the WordPress trademark, after WP Engine sent a C&D letter on September 23

RELATED:
Matt Mullenweg: Matt Mullenweg says Automattic has “been attempting to make a licensing deal” with WP Engine “for a very long time, and all they have done is string us along”

Discussion:
TechCrunch and @photomatt@mastodon.social, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Ivan Mehta /
TechCrunch: The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained

Matt Mullenweg /
@photomatt@mastodon.social: WPE & Trademarks — I've been writing and talking about WP Engine a lot in the last week, but I want to be crystal clear about the core issue at play. In short, WP Engine is violating WordPress' trademarks. Moreover, they have been doing so for years. …

The Hollywood Reporter:

CNN won 11 awards in the 2024 News & Documentary Emmy Awards, ABC News won eight including three credited to Hulu, and National Geographic won five— The awards were handed out at the Palladium Times Square in New York City on Wednesday. — CNN, ABC and National Geographic are among …

Discussion:
Variety, Barrett Media, Deadline, CNN, GoldDerby and TVNewsCheck

Discussion:

Michael Schneider /
Variety: 'It's Bisan From Gaza and I'm Still Alive' Wins News & Doc Emmy Despite Calls For Its Disqualification; Big Winners Include CNN, ABC, Nat Geo

Daniel Montgomery /
GoldDerby: 2024 News and Documentary Emmy winners list: The best in nonfiction media awarded on September 25-26

Carly Thomas /
TVNewsCheck: ABC, CNN & National Geographic Among Top Winners At News Emmys, Night One

RELATED:
The Wrap:

Palestinian journalist Bisan Atef Owda wins the Emmy for Outstanding Hard News Feature: Short Form, after the Academy rejected a push to rescind her nomination— Other winners from the News & Documentary ceremony include ABC and CNN with multiple wins each

New York Times:

Sources: ESPN lays off NBA senior writer Zach Lowe as part of continuing cost cutting; his salary, in excess of seven figures annually, was the biggest factor— ESPN has parted ways with NBA senior writer Zach Lowe as part of the network's continuing layoffs, sources briefed on the decision told The Athletic on Thursday.

Discussion:

Ben Strauss /
Washington Post: Zach Lowe, star NBA journalist, laid off by ESPN

Jimmy Hascup /
New Jersey Online: ESPN layoffs continue with shocker: ‘This move is tough to figure out’

Patrick Howell O'Neill /
@howelloneill.bsky.social: please put a trigger warning on that salary for journalists working on anything but sports [embedded post]

John Fleming /
@johnjf125: I'm sure he'll go to The Athletic or The Ringer in a heartbeat, but is ESPN really this invested in spending half their payroll to have Pat McAfee run around shirtless and Stephen A. Smith yell directly at the New York Knicks?

Tyler Greever /
@tyler_greever: Coupling this with Woj retiring is one hell of a way to get people amped up for your NBA coverage.

Alex Sherman /
@sherman4949: Tectonic shift in ESPN's NBA coverage in the past week.

Chris Walder /
@waldersports: ESPN doesn't want knowledgable, sensible personalities. They want loud, obnoxious, hot take artists who can gain traction on social media. This is ridiculous. Zach Lowe is one of the best basketball writers on the planet.

Philip Rossman-Reich /
@philiprr_omd: Zach Lowe is what we all should want our NBA coverage to be. Endlessly curious about every facet of the league and smart about teaching why it's so fascinating. He is also a genuinely great guy from the few interactions I've had with him. He's the model for NBA coverage.

Robby Kalland /
UPROXX: ESPN Laid Off Zach Lowe In Latest Shakeup To Their NBA Coverage

Frank Madden /
@fmaddennba: I'm sorry WHAT??????? Woj retires and ESPN responds by laying off the single best writer/analyst/podcaster in the NBA universe? Good lord what a clown show.

Dan Devine /
@yourmandevine: If this is true, it is galactically stupid.

Marc Tracy /
@marcatracy: I'm just a country NBA fan and ex-media reporter, but ... I think Lowe operated wonderfully as a sort of loss leader in front of the paywall, helping all of us be better NBA fans —> consuming more ESPN, and was less of a fit behind that specific paywall https://x.com/...

Michael McCarthy /
Front Office Sports: NBA Insider Shams Charania Drawing Interest From NBC, Amazon

Charles Curtis /
USA Today: ESPN lays off Zach Lowe, beloved NBA analyst: What we know

Flipboard says it is federating 250 publisher profiles and 4,000 of their curated Magazines, including ABC News, the AP, The Atlantic, PBS, and USA Today— BYMARCI MCCUE — Today Flipboard is federating 250 publisher profiles and 4,000 of their curated Magazines, making it possible …

Discussion:
@mike@flipboard.social, @Flipboard@flipboard.social and @tchambers@indieweb.social

Discussion:

Mike McCue /
@mike@flipboard.social: Another day, another set of amazing Flipboard accounts to federate. Today includes 250 top tier publishers along with more than 4,000 magazines they curate to let you follow specific things like: — Design Trends by Apartment Therapy (@design-trends-AptTherapy) — Science by The Atlantic (@science-TheAtlantic) … @Flipboard@flipboard.social: 📣 It's been a while since we've federated a batch of publishers — so to make up for it, here are 250, and they're big ones. — Today, we're bringing names like @abc, @RollingStone, @forbes, @BleacherReport, @NationalGeographic and @newyorktimes to the fediverse. …

Tim Chambers /
@tchambers@indieweb.social: I continue to be impressed at the commitment to the fediverse from @Flipboard - and what a responsible and good actor they have been to the entire Fedi. Their latest news: — “Flipboard Brings 250 Publishers to the Fediverse - Flipboard...” — https://about.flipboard.com/ ...

Variety:

AI company Runway launches The Hundred Film Fund, offering grants of $5,000 to $1M for 100 short films and feature-length movies that use generative AI— Runway is launching The Hundred Film Fund, an initiative to help produce and fund as many as 100 short films and feature-length movies …

Discussion:
@dfwsam.bsky.social: I have to wonder, what'll the average energy cost & thermal output be, for short film vs feature length? Possibly by genre, if it catches on.

Christina Lee Storm /
Christina Lee Storm on LinkedIn: I'm passionate about exploring the use of emerging technologies in storytelling with curiosity, constant iteration, and resilience. … @YakyuNightOwl@mastodon.world: @Mediagazer Have the robot herders considered helping minorities before the robots? — Maybe they look more like the robots, so they can't relate to the real human filmmakers.

Fifi Lamoura /
@fifilamoura@eldritch.cafe: @Mediagazer Gross.

TechCrunch:

Subscription management platform RevenueCat acquires Dipsea, an app that offers subscriptions for “spicy” audiobooks, as a test ground for RevenueCat's features— On the heels of its earlier $12 million fundraise, subscription management platform RevenueCat has made its first acquisition — and it's an unusual one.

The Guardian:

The Economist's events division, Economist Impact, faces backlash after an investigation found it has large sponsorship contracts with three tobacco companies— Exclusive: Experts pull out of health conferences run by Economist Impact after revelations of commercial links

Discussion:
@qubcancerprof and @mattjhodgkinson@scicomm.xyz

Discussion:

Mark Lawler /
@qubcancerprof: The statement that funding from tobacco companies is not used for health related events by Economist Impact is disingenuous & insults our intelligence. Window dress it but if you're funded by tobacco company you can't do health related events. Period! https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Matt Hodgkinson /
@mattjhodgkinson@scicomm.xyz: “Independent journalism for independent thinking”, says The Economist. Meanwhile in the real world: — “three tobacco companies, which own some of the world's most popular cigarette brands including Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, Dunhill & Pall Mall, have multimillion-dollar contracts with Economist Impact …

Digiday:

Business Insider Chief Subscriptions Officer Katie Friedman says a test of an AI smart paywall from December 2023 to April 2024 increased conversions by 75%— This article was provided as an exclusive preview for Digiday+ members, who were able to access it early.

Discussion:

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: How Business Insider's paywall strategy has helped increase subscriptions Insider, Inc. on LinkedIn: AI is a driving force behind Business Insider's smart paywall strategy — and it's working. — “This is the first time that we really actually …

David Clinch /
David Clinch on LinkedIn: “Business Insider's registration wall strategy also got a refresh, changing it from a metered approach (with the registration wall hitting after five read articles) to it also being left up to AI. …

Katie Friedman /
Katie Friedman on LinkedIn: Very proud of an awesomely talented team at Business Insider who have made all of this happen. Onward and upward!

Thomas Swann /
Thomas Swann on LinkedIn: Sharing some excellent work by our Subscriptions team and the migration to a more highly automated and intelligent paywall strategy. … @bipressroom: Katie Friedman, Chief Subscriptions Officer @BusinessInsider, spoke with @KayleighJBarber @Digiday #digidaypublishing about the role artificial intelligence plays in BI's efforts to increase subscriptions, resulting in a 75% increase in conversions https://digiday.com/...

Simon Owens /
@simondowens@threads.net: Business Insider launched a smart paywall that “determines the content that individual users are most likely to pay to access based on their previous reading habits, which platform they come to the website from and the propensity that each genre of content has for converting readers.” …

Poynter:

A Muck Rack survey of 402 US journalists found that their primary sources of stress include workload, salary, and the expectation that they always be “on”— A Muck Rack survey found high levels of burnout and exhaustion among journalists. One potential reason? The upcoming election.

Discussion:
Media Nation, @risj_oxford, @jackcarterbenjamin …, Muck Rack and r/Journalism

Discussion:

Dan Kennedy /
Media Nation: David Folkenflik stands up for ethics; plus, journalism flunks the stress test, and media notes @risj_oxford: 56% of US journalists have considered quitting their job this year due to exhaustion or burnout. 40% have done so in the past. <25% have access to mental health services at work. -from @muckrack's work-life balance in journalism report via @angelanfu https://www.poynter.org/...

Jack Benjamin /