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WSJ News Exclusive | BuzzFeed to Use ChatGPT Creator OpenAI to Help Create Some of Its Content

Two recent WSJ stories about BuzzFeed's business come ahead of this stock jump, by

@jtoonkel

@alexbruell

Last night, ~ $10m deal with Meta for creator content: wsj.com/articles/meta- Today, using ChatGPT to assist with content creation: wsj.com/articles/buzzf $BZFD

wsj.com

CEO Jonah Peretti said publisher would use the technology to make more comprehensive quizzes, interactive content.

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"BuzzFeed stock soars more than 90% after report it will use OpenAI to create content" -

@MarketWatch

$BZFD marketwatch.com/story/buzzfeed

For today's edition of

Media Deals,

and I covered: 🚕 Ara Labs (previously Cargo) eyes Series B, CEO Jeff Cripe told me at #SolomonMediaSummit 🍿 Cineworld has reached out to 30 potential buyers

Ara Labs, a Los Angeles-based digital out-of-home company best known for its car-top displays, is preparing to raise new funding, CEO Jeff Cripe tells Kerry.

Cineworld buyers

Spoke with

president Harley Finkelstein about how the company views M&A and its plans for growth. Shopify aims to be one-stop-shop retail ecosystem axios.com/pro/retail-dea via

Shopify's one-stop-shop strategy

The acquisitive company has the "cash flow and the financial flexibility" for M&A, an analyst says

New:

— one of the largest print and digital publishers in the country — is laying off 274 people, roughly 7% of its staff, its CEO Neil Vogel told employees this morning Story below on

Dotdash Meredith to lay off 7% of staff

More than 270 people will be impacted by the cuts.

🚨🚨🚨 #BREAKING :

to reinstate

Facebook and Instagram accounts "in coming weeks" following a 2yr ban,

@NickClegg

, the company's president of global affairs, told me and

@mikeallen

in an interview Read on

Exclusive: Facebook to reinstate Trump

The decision will end a 2-year ban and allow Trump to post and raise money using the platforms.

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News Corp real estate unit may fetch more than $3B

News Corp real estate unit may fetch more than $3B

CoStar poised to buy Move Inc, parent of realtor.com

Jan 25

For today’s edition of

Media Deals,

and I covered: ☀️ #SolomonMediaSummit takeaways 🏠 News Corp’s sale of Move 📺 DirecTV drops Newsmax 😬 Netflix’s #Oscars nominations

Despite the lack of sunlight in the basement of a Midtown Manhattan high-rise, presenters and attendees at yesterday's Solomon Partners' Media and Entertainment Summit had sunny dispositions.

Solomon summit

I spent the last 2mo talking to 20+ employees at the tech unicorn Patreon. They described a mission-driven startup crumbling under the leadership of YouTuber turned CEO Jack Conte There's 6-figure discrimination settlements, sketchy stock sales & more: theinformation.com/articles/at-pa

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Why end something that not only is an important area of coverage because there’s BILLIONS of dollars to follow but also is a section that adds new, younger readers? 😔

Quote Tweet

Mike Hume

@MikeHumePost

This news is sad, upsetting and, perhaps most of all, mindboggling. Over three years, Launcher attracted over tens of millions of users, the majority first-time readers of The Post and almost all of them under the age of 40.

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Jan 25

Back at CNN in 2020, I wrote about major news outlets investing in gaming journalism. That included

@washingtonpost

with

@LauncherWP

cnn.com/2020/09/08/med Devastated to see that vertical end so soon, despite the team’s amazing work. As

@MikeHumePost

told me for the piece:

The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Wired have each announced investments in gaming coverage in recent months. These publications and others are looking to capitalize on this booming industry with the same rigor they've shown in reporting on Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The plan is to investigate the business and culture of the gaming industry with stories that appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike.

"For how much money it generates, it doesn't get nearly enough attention," said Mike Hume, editor of The Washington Post's gaming vertical, Launcher. "The audience is here for gaming. The value of these stories, the value of having more heavyweight outlets in the mix is going to be great. There's a lot more stories out there that need attention. We're a team of six. We can't get to everything."

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In the last six months, Gannett has laid off or bought out almost every journalist at the St. Cloud Times, a newspaper covering a metro area of 200,000. In May, there were 9 employees — by January, only one reporter was left. Now, there are 0. My story:

St. Cloud Times just lost its last remaining reporter

Parent company Gannett has yet to say how the paper will continue operations.

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More details on

layoffs, per memo from Executive Editor Sally Buzbee: — 20 newsroom positions eliminated — 30 open positions will not be filled — WaPo is sunsetting Launcher, its online gaming vertical, and KidsPost, per two sources familiar Memo below:

Quote Tweet

Sara Fischer

.@washingtonpost on Tuesday began notifying employees about layoffs, impacting newsroom staffers axios.com/2023/01/24/was

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#BREAKING: The DOJ has sued

@Google

parent

@alphabet

, accusing it of illegally abusing its dominance in digital advertising and violating the Sherman Antitrust Act — It's the 2nd major antitrust lawsuit filed against Google by DOJ More on

Justice Department sues Google for ad market dominance

It's the second major antitrust lawsuit filed against Google by the DOJ in the last three years.

^ Update to this story: The Washington Post layoffs have begun. "There is still a lot we are figuring out, including how many people will be impacted and whether there will be any effort to find folks other jobs internally" -

@PostGuild

emailed members

Washington Post cuts 20 newsroom jobs, shuts down gaming section

Another 30 open positions will not be filled, according to a note sent to staff.

For today's edition of

Media Deals,

and I covered: ⌛

💰

sells 3.3% stake to Bob Iger + others 🔮 Forecasting a

@FiveThirtyEight

sale 🍿 #Oscars2023's box office rebound

Whether or not Standard General's $5.4 billion deal for Tegna gets approved could come down to the Biden administration's success — or failure — in finally breaking the FCC's deadlocked commission,...

Tegna's ticking fees

"An unprecedented number of jobs were cut early on in the pandemic, as a response to temporary advertising headwinds. Now, it looks like those fears are trickling back." -

and me on 2023 starting with sweeping layoffs in media and tech

Media layoffs loom large over 2023

For millions of people across both industries, the layoffs feel like whiplash.

Great dive into ChatGPT in today's

AM -

One of the most vital roles Axios can play is: Hey! Pay attention!

Axios AM: Chatbot & you

Ever wondered "Why are trucks so damn big now?" Me too, so I wrote a story about it. Been working with my partners in crime

@JoannMuller

and

@jared_whalen

for over a year on this story full of charts, illos, and 3D scrolly trucks. I hope you like it 🛻

Pickup trucks have gotten bigger, higher-tech — and more dangerous

America has a unique love affair with pickup trucks — the Ford F-150, for instance, has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for more than 40 years. During that time, pickups have changed...

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For today's edition of

Media Deals,

and I covered: 📈

@PerionNetwork

CEO chats turnaround + M&A 🎨

@doodles

makes first acquisition,

@_Goldenwolf_

Media: Perion's M&A targets

Perion Network is considering putting some of its $400 million in cash toward acquisitions in growing sectors of the ad industry, CEO Doron Gerstel tells Kerry.

Microsoft investing billions of dollars into ChatGPT maker OpenAI

Microsoft investing billions of dollars into ChatGPT maker OpenAI

OpenAI gets financial firepower, and Microsoft gets a deeper foothold in generative AI.

Reddit just hired its first-ever CRO. He tells Insider how Reddit's ad sales team quintupled since 2020, and why a bad economy won't keep it from hiring more this year. New from

@threefirstnames

. businessinsider.com/reddit-hired-i via

@businessinsider

businessinsider.com

Reddit just hired its first-ever CRO. He tells Insider how Reddit's ad sales team quintupled since...

Reddit hired its first-ever CRO, who detailed the company's plans to expand its ad sales headcount and ad products, even as other publishers cut staff.

🚨New

account! We're launching a new account to get people smarter, faster on the latest news and announcements from Axios. Give us a follow to learn more!

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When it's all said and done, James Cameron will have directed three of the four-highest grossing movies ever. On #Avatar's run to $2 billion w/

Avatar sequel hits profitability with $2B global box office

The film's success also means that the franchise will likely live on past its second installation.

As we learn more details about the Monterey Park shooting,

@AAJA

recommends newsrooms cover this tragedy w empathy while centering community stories, and with the context of the stress and anxiety the AAPI community has experienced the last three years.

aaja.org

Updated Statement: AAJA’s Guidance on Covering Violence in Asian American communities, following...

AAJA is devastated to learn about the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, that left seven individuals dead and at least one critically injured. This follows the mass shooting after a Lunar...

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Did some deep cleaning of my bedroom today and found this gem from like… 2015? 😬

Probably a good time to mention that

is hiring, including for 20+ editorial roles.

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Lots of money gets poured into new game studios from ex-AAA devs, blockchain start-ups, and metaverse somethings, but the 2nd biggest publicly disclosed investment into a game co. last year was... - $260 million into FromSoftware (from Sony and Tencent)

Gaming deals swelled in 2022

M&A and private deals climbed, bucking the overall trend.

Our latest: Employees at TikTok and ByteDance have access to a secret back-end button that can make any video go viral, immediately pushing it to more viewers. The practice, which TikTok has never disclosed, is known internally as “heating.”

forbes.com

TikTok’s Secret ‘Heating’ Button Can Make Anyone Go Viral

...

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Today's Signal Boost column: Ousted Netflix worker

@bpagelsminor

scripts new career as investor.

Ousted Netflix worker scripts new career as investor

B. Pagels-Minor lost their job in a controversy over Dave Chappelle's comedy.

Jan 20

"Vox Media is laying off 7% of its staff, according to a memo sent internally from CEO Jim Bankoff" -

This is its third round of cuts just in the past year, having laid off staffers after Group Nine merger and now amid an ad market slowdown

Vox Media lays off 7% of staff amid economic uncertainty

It's the third round of cuts made at Vox Media in the past year.

Jan 20

For today's edition of

Media Deals,

and I covered (+

): 📺 Netflix's next chapter 😠 WaPo Guild vs. Jeff Bezos 🗞️ This week's digest

A major leadership shakeup at Netflix following the most tumultuous year in the company's history signals a new era for the entertainment giant, Sara Fischer writes.

Reed out, Greg in

Media leaders & CEOs, if you want to know how to communicate layoffs effectively, Jim Bankoff is good example -He has always been transparent w staff & public about the # of roles impacted, which depts, & why -Vox never does drip, drip, drip cuts -Employees always told first

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Sara Fischer

Inside CNET’s AI-powered SEO money machine

Jan 20

New: @voxmedia is laying off 7% of staff, “due to the challenging economic environment impacting our business and industry,” per memo sent to staff from CEO Jim Bankoff -Teams impacted: Revenue, Editorial, Operations, Core Services groups -The company laid off 39 people last July

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New: When news broke that CNET was publishing AI-written stories, readers had a lot of questions. But CNET staff are in the dark, too. Red Ventures, which owns CNET, is following a lucrative SEO marketing play. And it's at the expense of the journalism:

theverge.com

CNET employees are wondering: what’s AI and what’s not?

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New with

: At least 60 ppl have joined the Washington Post Guild since layoffs announced last month — The union has ~670 members, about 67% of the eligible staffers — Around 580 are from newsroom w ~76% of eligible newsroom staffers represented