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The 2010s were a frothy time for digital publishing. Billions of dollars flowed into publishers like BuzzFeed and Vice, with big media companies and venture capitalists betting those start-ups would eventually make lots of money. The jury trial of Carlos Watson, who is charged with trying to defraud investors in the digital media start-up he co-founded, Ozy Media, is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection in federal court in Brooklyn. Mr. Watson has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. It remains unclear what Mr. Watson’s defense will be when the trial begins, or whether he will take the stand.
Persons: BuzzFeed, Carlos Watson, Watson, bluffing ” Organizations: Ozy Locations: Brooklyn
Eight daily newspapers owned by Alden Global Capital sued OpenAI and Microsoft on Tuesday, accusing the tech companies of illegally using news articles to power their A.I. All are owned by MediaNews Group or Tribune Publishing, subsidiaries of Alden, the country’s second-largest newspaper operator. In the complaint, the publications accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of copyrighted articles without permission to train and feed their generative A.I. products, including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. This, it said, reduced the need for readers to pay subscriptions to support local newspapers and deprived the publishers of revenue both from subscriptions and from licensing their content elsewhere.
Persons: OpenAI, Paul, Paul Pioneer Press — Organizations: Alden Global Capital, Microsoft, New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, The Sun Sentinel, San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post, Orange County Register, Paul Pioneer Press, U.S . Southern, of, MediaNews Group, Tribune Publishing Locations: Florida, Orange, U.S, of New York, Alden
One America News, a right-wing cable news network, on Monday retracted a report claiming that Donald J. Trump’s former fixer had been the person who actually had an affair with the porn star whose claims of a sexual relationship with Mr. Trump are key to his criminal trial. The retraction came after the fixer, Michael D. Cohen, hired a leading defamation lawyer to address the false report, which was posted on the network’s website on March 27. The lawyer, Justin Nelson, had represented Dominion Voting Systems in a suit against Fox News that cost that network $787.5 million to settle. Mr. Nelson worked with Mr. Cohen’s longtime lawyer, Danya Perry, in what was a remarkably quick about-face by OAN. There are no monetary damages, but the story is being removed from the website “and all social media,” the network said in a statement on Monday.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, Michael D, Cohen, Justin Nelson, Nelson, Cohen’s, Danya Perry Organizations: America, Voting Systems, Fox News, Mr, OAN
Satirical news website The Onion was sold to a company called Global Tetrahedron. Global Tetrahedron is also the name of a fictional evil megacorporation in a long-running Onion gag. But it's a real company, and Twilio founder Jeff Lawson appears to be behind it. AdvertisementJeff Lawson, the cofounder of cloud computing company Twilio, appears to have purchased the satirical news website The Onion from G/O Media. When asked whether he had purchased The Onion, Lawson played coy.
Persons: Jeff Lawson, , Lawson, Jim Spanfeller, Katie Robertson, Spanfeller, coy, O Organizations: Service, O, New York Times Locations: San Francisco, Chicago
For five years, the owner of The National Enquirer has been trying to find a buyer to take it off its hands. But repeated attempts at a sale have turned into a tabloid-worthy saga of its own. The embattled publication is back in the spotlight because of the hush-money trial of former president Donald J. Trump, which centers on the “catch and kill” practices The National Enquirer deployed in an attempt to bolster Mr. Trump’s chances in the 2016 election. David Pecker, the former publisher of The Enquirer and a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s, is the prosecution’s first witness and will testify again on Thursday. His testimony so far has detailed just how enmeshed The Enquirer was with the Trump campaign, a relationship that saw Mr. Pecker pushed out and that contributed to a tangled web of aborted deals as its owner tried to unload it over the last few years.
Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Trump, Stormy Daniels, David Pecker, Mr, Pecker Organizations: National Enquirer, Trump, The Locations: U.S, New York
The Onion Is Sold by G/O Media
  + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Katie Robertson | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +1 min
G/O Media announced on Thursday that it had sold The Onion, a satirical news site, to a group of digital media veterans. The Onion, which started in 1988 in Wisconsin as a weekly satirical newspaper and later became a website, is known for its parodies of current events. For the last decade, it has republished the same headline after nearly every mass shooting: “‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”In an email to G/O Media staff that was obtained by The New York Times, Jim Spanfeller, the chief executive, said the company was “undergoing an extensive review of our portfolio with the intention of coring down to our leading sites in terms of audience and revenues.” He said G/O Media had agreed to sell to “a new Chicago-based firm called Global Tetrahedron.”“This company is made up of four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy-based content,” Mr. Spanfeller wrote. “The site’s new owners have agreed to keep The Onion’s entire staff intact and in Chicago, something we insisted be part of the deal.”
Persons: , Jim Spanfeller, Mr, Spanfeller, Organizations: O Media, The New York Times Locations: Wisconsin, Chicago
Michael Abramowitz will be the next director of the federally funded broadcaster Voice of America, its parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, announced on Friday. Mr. Abramowitz, 60, is currently the president of Freedom House, a pro-democracy nonprofit organization, a role he has held since 2017. Voice of America, which was founded in 1942, aims to offer unbiased news to audiences around the world. “These countries are waging ferocious information warfare aimed at undermining democracies, aimed at undermining the United States, and we need to fight back,” Mr. Abramowitz said in an interview. is one very important tool for the United States government in this information war.”
Persons: Michael Abramowitz, Mr, Abramowitz, ” Mr, , Organizations: of America, U.S . Agency for Global Media, Freedom, U.S . Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Washington Post . Voice of America, United Locations: U.S, China, Russia, Iran, United States
The voting technology company Smartmatic reached a settlement on Tuesday in its defamation lawsuit against One America News Network, a far-right broadcaster, over the amplification of election falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. The terms of the settlement were confidential and could not immediately be learned. Smartmatic filed the lawsuit in 2021, accusing OAN of amplifying baseless claims that Smartmatic had been involved in rigging the presidential election through its voting machines. Lawyers for Smartmatic and OAN did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Smartmatic also sued Fox News and Newsmax for defamation over their coverage of election conspiracy theories.
Persons: Smartmatic, OAN Organizations: One America News Network, U.S, District of Columbia, Smartmatic, Fox News
NPR is facing both internal tumult and a fusillade of attacks by prominent conservatives this week after a senior editor publicly claimed the broadcaster had allowed liberal bias to affect its coverage, risking its trust with audiences. Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in an essay published Tuesday by The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”Mr. Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, castigated NPR for what he said was a litany of journalistic missteps around coverage of several major news events, including the origins of Covid-19 and the war in Gaza. He also said the internal culture at NPR had placed race and identity as “paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”Mr. Berliner’s essay has ignited a firestorm of criticism of NPR on social media, especially among conservatives who have long accused the network of political bias in its reporting. Former President Donald J. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to argue that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded, an argument he has made in the past.
Persons: Uri Berliner, Mr, Berliner, ” Mr, Donald J, Trump Organizations: NPR, The Free Press Locations: Gaza
Axios Sees A.I. Coming, and Shifts Its Strategy
  + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Katie Robertson | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: 1 min
In the view of Jim VandeHei, the chief executive of Axios, artificial intelligence will “eviscerate the weak, the ordinary, the unprepared in media.”The rapid rise of generative A.I. — and its implications for how people will discover and consume news — has unsettled many media executives. Now he’s becoming one of the first news executives to adjust their company’s strategy because of A.I. Mr. VandeHei says the only way for media companies to survive is to focus on delivering journalistic expertise, trusted content and in-person human connection. For Axios, that translates into more live events, a membership program centered on its star journalists and an expansion of its high-end subscription newsletters.
Persons: Jim VandeHei, VandeHei
Fortune named Anastasia Nyrkovskaya as its next chief executive on Tuesday, making her the first woman to lead the 95-year-old business publication. She takes over from Alan Murray, who announced in October that he would step down in 2024 after nearly 10 years at Fortune. Ms. Nyrkovskaya had been the chief financial officer and chief strategy officer since 2019. In an interview, Ms. Nyrkovskaya said Fortune was profitable and had added more than 130 positions in the past 12 months across the editorial and business sides. The company now has about 360 workers, including just over 100 in the newsroom.
Persons: Fortune, Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, Alan Murray, Nyrkovskaya, Organizations: Fortune
She had previously worked as director of publications and editorial at the American Civil Liberties Union and as an editor at The New York Times for 20 years. “Terry is truly the best candidate to lead the Los Angeles Times’s journalism organization now and we’re fortunate she accepted the role,” said Chris Argentieri, the president and chief operating officer of The Los Angeles Times. Tensions between him and Mr. Merida rose before Mr. Merida’s departure, strained partly because of an incident over reporting about a wealthy doctor and his dog. Dr. Soon-Shiong tried to dissuade Mr. Merida from having the newsroom pursue the story, according to people with knowledge of their interactions. The company has said that Dr. Soon-Shiong had made a request for “truthful, factual reporting” on the story.
Persons: , Tang, “ Terry, , Chris Argentieri, Patrick Soon, Merida’s, Shiong, Mr Organizations: American Civil Liberties Union, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times Locations: Angeles, Merida
One year ago on Friday, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich received a chilling phone call from the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. Their son, Evan, a foreign correspondent for The Journal who was on a reporting assignment in Russia, had missed his daily security check-in. “We were hoping this was some kind of error, that everything is going to be fine,” the older Mr. Gershkovich recalled. But the stunning reality became clear: The Russian authorities had detained Evan and accused him of spying for the American government, making him the first American reporter to be held on espionage charges in Russia since the end of the Cold War. The Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently denied that Mr. Gershkovich is a spy, saying he was an accredited journalist doing his job.
Persons: Ella Milman, Mikhail Gershkovich, Evan, Gershkovich Organizations: Street, The, U.S Locations: Russia, , American, Moscow
But there are some signs of hope. The new class of news start-ups — Puck, Punchbowl News, The Ankler and Semafor are among the most prominent — have kept spending down and hired carefully. They have attracted top journalists by putting them at the heart of the enterprise, sometimes as part owners in the companies. “There was possibly a mismatch 10 or 15 years ago between funding structures and media companies,” said Jon Kelly, the co-founder and editor in chief of Puck, whose 14 reporters write about topics including politics, finance and media. “And I think that the entire industry has learned from that.”
Persons: , fatefully, , Jon Kelly, Puck Organizations: Punchbowl News Locations: Punchbowl
OpenAI filed a motion in federal court on Monday that seeks to dismiss some key elements of a lawsuit brought by The New York Times Company. The Times sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft on Dec. 27, accusing them of infringing on its copyrights by using millions of its articles to train A.I. technologies like the online chatbot ChatGPT. Chatbots now compete with the news outlet as a source of reliable information, the lawsuit said. In the ordinary course, one cannot use ChatGPT to serve up Times articles at will.”
Persons: OpenAI, Chatbots, ” “, , Organizations: The New York Times Company, The Times, Microsoft, Southern, of, New York Times Locations: U.S, of New York
The New York Times Wins 3 Polk Awards
  + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Katie Robertson | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +1 min
The New York Times on Monday won three George Polk awards, including two for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Long Island University, the home of the journalism awards, announced the winners in 13 categories, which were selected from 497 submissions of work done in 2023. This year is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Polk Awards, which will be celebrated with an event in April inviting all past recipients. Sixteen will be honored as George Polk career laureates, including Dean Baquet, a former New York Times executive editor; Nikole Hannah-Jones, a staff writer at The Times Magazine; Christiane Amanpour, the CNN chief international correspondent; and the former Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron. The awards are named for the CBS journalist George Polk, who was killed in 1948 while covering the Greek civil war.
Persons: George Polk, ” John Darnton, Dean Baquet, Nikole Hannah, Jones, Christiane Amanpour, Martin Baron Organizations: New York Times, Monday, Long Island University, Polk, Times Magazine, CNN, Washington Post, CBS Locations: Israel, Ukraine
The New York Times Company added 300,000 paid digital subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2023, the company said on Wednesday, helping to push annual revenue for digital subscriptions above $1 billion for the first time. The Times reported total revenue of $676.2 million in the last three months of the year, essentially flat compared with a year earlier. Adjusted operating profit increased 8.5 percent, to $154 million. It was “a strong year for The Times that showcased the power of our strategy to be the essential subscription for every curious person seeking to understand and engage with the world,” Meredith Kopit Levien, the company’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. The company has focused in recent years on pushing a bundle of products to subscribers: its core news report as well as games like Wordle and Spelling Bee; its product review site, Wirecutter; a recipe app; and The Athletic, its sports news website.
Persons: ” Meredith Kopit Levien Organizations: New York Times Company, The Times, Athletic
When Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of The Los Angeles Times, hired Kevin Merida to be the newspaper’s top editor nearly three years ago, he hailed the journalist as someone who would maintain the publication’s high standards and journalistic integrity. Their relationship was strained in part by an incident in December when Dr. Soon-Shiong tried to dissuade Mr. Merida from pursuing a story about a wealthy California doctor and his dog, three people with knowledge of the interactions said. The previously unreported incident occurred as The Los Angeles Times, the largest news organization on the West Coast, struggled to reverse years of losses amid a difficult market for newspapers. Mr. Merida resigned this month. It is not unheard-of for the owner of a publication to be consulted on sensitive reporting, particularly if it could jeopardize the newspaper legally or financially.
Persons: Patrick Soon, Kevin Merida, Shiong, Mr, Dr, Merida Organizations: Los Angeles Times Locations: Merida, California, West Coast
Business Insider said on Thursday that it was laying off 8 percent of its staff, the latest in a wave of sharp job cuts in the media industry this month. Barbara Peng, Business Insider’s chief executive, said in an internal note that the job cuts were part of a plan, announced late last year, to shift focus solely to news coverage of business, tech and innovation. “We have already begun to refocus teams and invest in areas that drive outsize value for our core audience,” Ms. Peng wrote. “Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization.”Ms. Peng added: “We’re committed to building an enduring and sustainable Business Insider for the coming years and beyond.”
Persons: Barbara Peng, ” Ms, Peng, , Ms, “ We’re,
Journalists at The New York Daily News walked off the job on Thursday for the first time in more than three decades. Newsroom workers at The Daily News Union, which formed in 2021, are in negotiations for their first contract. The union called a one-day work stoppage to protest staffing cuts, as well as a new policy that requires workers to get advance approval for overtime. The Daily News, founded in 1919, was once a formidable city tabloid that raced for scoops against its rival, The New York Post, and was one of the largest newspapers in the country by circulation. But in recent years, the paper has been hollowed out by ownership changes and staffing cuts as it struggled against ever-declining circulation and dwindling revenue.
Organizations: The New York Daily News, The Daily News Union, Daily News, The New, The New York Post, Tribune Publishing, Alden Global Capital Locations: The New York
Even by the standards of a news business whose fortunes have plummeted in the digital age, the last few weeks have been especially grim for American journalism. Prominent newspapers like The Washington Post are shedding reporters and editors, and on Tuesday, The Los Angeles Times laid off more than 20 percent of its newsroom. Esteemed titles like Sports Illustrated, already a shadow of their former selves, have been gutted overnight. An average of five local newspapers are closing every two weeks, according Northwestern University’s Medill School, with more half of all American counties now so-called news deserts with limited access to news about their hometowns. Of 1,100 public radio stations and affiliates, only about one in five is producing local journalism.
Persons: Organizations: Los Angeles Times, Cable, Sports, Northwestern University’s Medill School Locations: Washington
The announcement ends uncertainty about the extent of the cuts, after negotiations were held between the union and Times management. Dr. Soon-Shiong wrote in a note to staff that he and Mr. Merida had “mutually agreed” that Mr. Merida should leave. News of the layoffs — which will shrink the newsroom to the size it was when Dr. Soon-Shiong bought it — was delivered on Tuesday in a brief email to affected employees. “We are saddened to have to take this step and thank you for your work for the Los Angeles Times,” the email said. The cuts affected many departments at The Los Angeles Times, including its business desk, its Washington bureau and its “Fast Break” desk, which covers breaking news.
Persons: Kevin Merida, Shiong, Merida, Shani Hilton, Sara Yasin, Organizations: The Times, Times, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times Locations: Merida, Washington
Around twilight on Thursday, Los Angeles Times journalists gathered at Flora, a rooftop bar not far from the paper’s headquarters, to toast their departing editor, Kevin Merida. In the days since, internal negotiations between the company and the employee union have included talk of about 100 job cuts, or about 20 percent of the newsroom, according to two of the people, who also have knowledge about the discussions. It has put journalists at The Times at odds with their owner, the biotechnology billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong. Those relations reached a nadir on Friday when employees walked off the job, in the newsroom’s first union-organized work stoppage in the 142-year history of the newspaper. The tensions escalated even further on Monday, after several of the state’s congressional representatives sent Dr. Soon-Shiong a letter raising concerns about the scope of the cuts and employees received a note informing them that two other senior editors had departed.
Persons: Kevin Merida, Patrick Soon Organizations: Los Angeles Times, The Locations: Flora, Merida
A few years ago, desperate to avoid being acquired by a hedge fund, staff members of The Baltimore Sun made public pleas for a local entrepreneur to buy their publication. That request was recently realized: A Maryland businessman, David D. Smith, bought the storied newspaper, returning the 186-year-old newspaper to local hands for the first time in nearly 40 years. But Mr. Smith may not be quite what The Sun’s journalists were hoping for. Mr. Smith is the executive chairman of the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the country’s largest local television station operators with nearly 200 stations, including Fox45 in Baltimore. Sinclair has been a reliable ally for former President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Smith reportedly told Mr. Trump in 2016, “We are here to deliver your message.” In 2018, the company required its stations to film promos echoing some of Mr. Trump’s attacks on the news media.
Persons: David D, Smith, Sinclair, Donald J, Trump, Organizations: The Baltimore Sun, Sinclair Broadcast Group Locations: Maryland, Baltimore
There’s an old saying about the news business: If you want to make a small fortune, start with a large one. As the prospects for news publishers waned in the past decade, billionaires swooped in to buy some of the country’s most fabled brands. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post in 2013 for about $250 million. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotechnology and start-up billionaire, purchased The Los Angeles Times in 2018 for $500 million. Marc Benioff, the founder of the software giant Salesforce, purchased Time magazine with his wife, Lynne, for $190 million in 2018.
Persons: Jeff Bezos, Patrick Soon, Marc Benioff, Lynne Organizations: Amazon, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times
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