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☆ News startup Messenger launches with Trump 'exclusive' while advertisers expressed skepticism ahead of debut: 'We can't have another Quibi'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Jimmy Finkelstein's startup The Messenger launched today with a Trump interview leading the site. Advertisers said it'll be tough to sell ads on a site without an established audience. The site led with an interview with former President Donald Trump and ads from the American Petroleum Institute. The Messenger said it'll roll out seven other verticals including business, entertainment, and sports later in the year. Image from The Messenger's launch ad campaign.

☆ CNN boss Chris Licht loved how Trump's town hall turned out, even though it was 'uncomfortable' hearing the audience cheering
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

CNN boss Chris Licht loved the network's town hall with former US president Donald Trump. Licht said that he's aware of the backlash but believes "America was served very well" by the event. While the audience's cheers in response to Trump's answers were "uncomfortable," it was "important," he added. But instead, Trump steamrolled CNN host Kaitlan Collins for 70 minutes. Meanwhile, Trump's campaign told the New York Times that the CNN town hall was a total success — for Trump.

☆ The Messenger, Jimmy Finkelstein's digital news startup, meets advertiser skepticism ahead of May 15 launch: 'We can't have another Quibi'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Jimmy Finkelstein's startup The Messenger will roll out an ad campaign touting its mission to provide unbiased news. An ad campaign by Publicis unit Le Truc will kick off May 22 and is designed to provoke, with copy like "Agendas are for meetings. Image from The Messenger's launch ad campaign. The Messenger said it'll have three to four big advertisers at launch as well as a significant amount of programmatic advertising. The Messenger's ad campaign promotes its ambitions to provide unbiased news.

☆ Tucker Carlson's new Twitter show could spell doom for Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

For Twitter owner Elon Musk, a Fox News-style show on Twitter could cause problems. Tucker Carlson's sudden exit from Fox News last month has fueled weeks of speculation about his next move. Particularly as Musk said "Twitter has not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever" with Carlson. And if Carlson is on board, that paves the way for other, equally provocative creators to go big on Twitter. Musk faces a real risk that a growing number of Twitter users will feel the same way.

☆ Tucker Carlson just moved from one mercurial media boss to another
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | Azmi Haroun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tucker Carlson announced Tuesday his plans to bring his prime time show to Twitter. Tucker Carlson is picking up his megaphone again, but it's unclear how much he'll poke the bear on Twitter under Elon Musk. "I'm stuck with Fox," a text from Carlson to Brett Baier reads. Meanwhile, Carlson's former boss, Rupert Murdoch, reportedly made the decision to oust him, according to the Los Angeles Times. Musk has said that Carlson would be considered a content creator and that he had no hand in Carlson's production deal.

☆ Here's why Semafor's Liz Hoffman would temporarily ban short selling amid the banking crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHere's why Semafor's Liz Hoffman would temporarily ban short selling amid the banking crisisLiz Hoffman, Semafor business and finance editor, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the profits short sellers have made from the current banking crisis and more.

☆ ChatGPT is powered by these contractors making $15 an hour
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( David Ingram | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Out of the limelight, Savreux and other contractors have spent countless hours in the past few years teaching OpenAI's systems to give better responses in ChatGPT. So far, AI contract work hasn't inspired a similar movement in the U.S. among the Americans quietly building AI systems word-by-word. watch nowJob postings for AI contractors refer to both the allure of working in a cutting-edge industry as well as the sometimes-grinding nature of the work. There's no definitive tally of how many contractors work for AI companies, but it's an increasingly common form of work around the world. A spokesperson for OpenAI said no one was available to answer questions about its use of AI contractors.

☆ Elon Musk's call to slow AI development is likely a ploy to let him catch up with the competition, veteran VC says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk has purchased 10,000 GPUs to build an AI model at Twitter, Insider reported. A VC founder said he suspects Musk just wants to catch up with the competition, per Bloomberg. Elon Musk's calls to slow down AI development could just be a ploy to help him catch up, the tech entrepreneur venture capitalist Vinod Khosla told Bloomberg. "I 80% suspect his call to slow down AI development was so he could catch up." In 2015, Musk cofounded OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT which is largely considered to be leading the new boom in AI technology.

☆ Hollywood writers go on strike after contract negotiations fail
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHollywood writers go on strike after contract negotiations failBen Smith, Semafor co-founder and editor-in-chief, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the strike's impact on TV and film production, the shifting media landscape at large, and more.

☆ CNN CEO Chris Licht marks one year on the job with a network rebrand, upcoming ad campaign, and a Trump town hall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The network is hoping its May 10 Trump town hall, to be anchored by Kaitlan Collins, delivers ratings. One year into his new role, CNN CEO Chris Licht is quietly working on a major brand refresh of the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned global news network. CNN is planning a new ad campaign, according to this person and a separate person familiar with conversations, once the changes are finalized and approved by Warners CEO David Zaslav. The town hall will mark the first time Trump has appeared on CNN in years. At least on the business side," they added, referencing the audiences and ad dollars a Trump campaign would bring.

☆ Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch reportedly had calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weeks before Tucker Carlson was fired
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Semafor reported. The separate phone calls reportedly happened weeks before Fox News host Tucker Carlson was fired. There is no clear link between the Murdochs' calls with Zelenskyy and Carlson's firing from Fox News. Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had separate phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weeks before Tucker Carlson, who has been critical of Ukraine and Zelenskyy, was fired from Fox News, Semafor reported. The Washington Post reported that during a Fox newsroom meeting, Rupert Murdoch"loudly" challenged Carlson about one of his segments on the Ukraine war.

☆ How ‘Going Viral’ Became a Thing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Virginia Heffernan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Select a party anthem (“YMCA”), a quality in a dream partner (“ravenous”) and presto: your spiritual home. Too many people got Wyoming — more than actually lived in Wyoming — and this turn of events was so exciting that people stomped over to Facebook to protest. Then, according to Ben Smith in his engrossing and suspenseful book, “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” the team at BuzzFeed noticed something that changed media forev —Well, not forever. This is Ben Smith, after all. Co-founder of Semafor, former New York Times media columnist, onetime editor in chief of BuzzFeed News.

☆ Software engineers are panicking about being replaced by AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AI has already begun to threaten the job security of software engineers. In a separate post, a Blind user created a poll asking whether young software engineers are screwed. Earlier this year, Semafor reported that OpenAI had begun teaching its AI software engineering, and Insider previously reported that AI advancements like ChatGPT have already begun to threaten the job security of software developers. Still, some users are optimistic that AI will be beneficial to software engineers. We made it, it didn't make us," a Microsoft worker wrote in response to the fate of software engineers.

☆ The $30 billion reason for Wall Street to save First Republic ASAP
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The bank is seeking to sell assets and raise fresh capital to keep itself going. That's part of the reason the stock is trading down so heavily, with the bank currently valued at a little more than $1 billion. The pitch, according to Hugh Son at CNBC, is essentially this: If First Republic is seized by the FDIC, those same banks will face a bill of $30 billion. Liz Hoffman at Semafor notes that private equity could step in also, taking on some of First Republic's problem assets, with banks taking on the rest. First Republic would then seek to sell shares to replenish its capital.

☆ Insiders say Tucker Carlson overplayed his hand at Fox but the 'whole universe' of right-wing media is courting him now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

the Fox insider said. Lachlan Murdoch had defended Carlson time and again, most publicly in April 2021, pushing back against Anti-Defamation League complaints of the anchor's "great replacement theory" comments. Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch. A second Fox News insider, who is familiar with conversations happening in Australia, said Lachlan Murdoch was looking long term. The board has also put pressure on the Murdoch family to change things at Fox News.

☆ CNN fires anchor Don Lemon in the wake of sexist comments, reported mistreatment of colleagues
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

CNN on Monday fired anchor Don Lemon in the wake of sexist on-air comments and reports that he mistreated female coworkers during his 17 years at the network. Lemon, who had hosted "CNN This Morning" as scheduled, said his agent informed him about his termination Monday morning. Shortly after Lemon first tweeted that he was fired, the network's CEO, Chris Licht, said the anchor and CNN "parted ways." The report was based on more than a dozen former and current colleagues of Lemon, Variety said. He has served as the prime-time anchor of CNN's "Don Lemon Tonight" for more than eight years, the network's website says.

☆ An outsourcing firm cut dozens of contractors who were training the language model behind OpenAI's ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Invisible Technologies laid off 31 contractors hired to train OpenAI's GPT, Insider has learned. OpenAI has reportedly hired about 1,000 contractors globally as its ChatGPT AI gains popularity. San Francisco-based firm Invisible Technologies laid off 31 contractors as of March 16, according to internal Slack screenshots that Insider obtained. Hundreds of Invisible contractors known as "advanced AI data trainers" work with OpenAI to train its GPT bots, internal Slack screenshots show. Invisible laid off contractors based on performance metrics like "quality" and "throughput," Grace Matelich, a partner and operations manager at Invisible, said during the recorded meeting.

☆ The demise of BuzzFeed News marks the end of an era for digital media
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

BuzzFeed News, the digital news outlet that harnessed the power of social media to take the internet by storm, is shuttering. Back then, BuzzFeed was the envy of media and its employees the cool kids of the industry. Lists and quizzes saturated social media feeds and dominated the internet. As the dinosaurs of the social media era get their lunch eaten by newcomers such as TikTok, so are the outlets that previously wielded those same platforms as their superpowers. BuzzFeed News gave BuzzFeed writ large prestige that the other content companies of the bygone era (ViralNova, Distractify, etc.)

☆ DeSantis may have overreached when he went to war with Disney, and Trump smells blood in the water
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Florida Gov. "DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney," Trump wrote earlier this week. "DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney," Trump crowed on his social media platform Truth earlier this week. The Florida governor wanted to burnish his national image by torching Disney. And by gobbling up intellectual property and broadcasting rights, Disney continues to be virtually inescapable.

☆ BuzzFeed News will shut down
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —BuzzFeed News, the Pulitzer Prize-winning digital news website that that took the internet by storm roughly a decade ago and inspired jealousy from legacy media organizations, will shutter, BuzzFeed chief executive Jonah Peretti announced Thursday. “While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization,” Peretti told staffers. BuzzFeed has “begun discussions with the News Guild,” the union which represents staffers at the company, about the actions. “HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News,” Peretti told employees. The news that BuzzFeed News will shutter prompted an outpouring of messages posted online from former BuzzFeed News staffers who expressed sadness and dismay.

☆ GOP critics pile on DeSantis over Disney feud: 'I don't think Ron DeSantis is a conservative'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ron DeSantis' ongoing feud against Disney has drawn criticism for months. "I don't think Ron DeSantis is a conservative based on his actions towards Disney," Chris Christie said. DeSantis' political rival, former President Donald Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social that DeSantis is being "absolutely destroyed by Disney." "I just don't think — it's not good for Governor DeSantis. I don't think it's good for the Republican party."

☆ No evidence Dominion lawsuit has damaged Fox's core business or viewership: Semafor's Ben Smith
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailNo evidence Dominion lawsuit has damaged Fox's core business or viewership: Semafor's Ben SmithBen Smith, Semafor co-founder and editor-in-chief, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss Fox's $787.5 million settlement in the Dominion lawsuit and more.

☆ DeSantis and allies ramp up Disney fight as more Republicans criticize his tactics
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

DeSantis ripped Disney repeatedly this week over its recent maneuvers to thwart the governor's efforts to seize some control of the company's Orlando parks and properties. Meanwhile, his handpicked board of supervisors overseeing Disney World's special tax district increased the pressure on Disney. The board took that step two days after DeSantis floated a range of possible actions against Disney World, including developing land nearby. That legislation, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics, "should never have been signed" by DeSantis, Disney said in a March 2022 statement. The state's Republican governor and GOP-held legislature targeted the special tax district that has allowed Disney to essentially govern itself for decades.

☆ Chris Christie joins Trump in bashing DeSantis over Disney clash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Dan Whitcomb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks at the Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoApril 18 (Reuters) - Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joined former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday in criticizing a fellow Republican, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, over his feud with the Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N). "I don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative based on his actions towards Disney,” added Christie, who is also said to be considering a run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Trump, who could be DeSantis' top rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has called the Florida governor's war with Disney a "political stunt" and suggested it could backfire on the party. DeSantis and the Florida legislature have been working to eliminate the virtual autonomy the company has enjoyed over the Disney World resort and amusement parks for more than 50 years, saying that constitutes an "unfair advantage."

☆ Elon Musk is reportedly planning an AI startup to compete with OpenAI, which he cofounded
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is planning to launch an artificial intelligence start-up that would go head-to-head with OpenAI, the Financial Times reported Friday. "It's real and they are excited about it," a source familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. Musk was once a major financial backer at OpenAI, committing $1 billion over multiple years, according to an earlier report from Semafor. Beyond Microsoft and Google, Amazon announced it's entering the generative AI space on Thursday. Read more at the Financial Times.

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