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The New York Times sues Open AI and Microsoft, a major Open AI backer, for copyright infringement. In its complaint, which was filed Dec. 27, the Times claimed that the companies have used Times content, without its consent, to help create such AI products as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot. “Defendants have effectively avoided spending the billions of dollars that The Times invested in creating that work by taking it without permission or compensation,” the Times said in the complaint. The paper is seeking damages, as well as asking that the tech companies be blocked from using its content and destroy any data sets that incorporate Times-generated material. Earlier this month Axel Springer and OpenAI reached an agreement to compensate the publisher for the use of its content in ChatGPT and OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tools.
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LinkedIn appears to be profiting from the exodus of advertisers turning away from Elon Musk’s X. The Financial Times reports that the platform’s ad revenues were up 10.1 percent year on year for 2023, reaching close to $4B. According to research firm Insider Intelligence, growth of 14.1 percent is expected for 2024. The FT said that prices for LinkedIn were spiking due to a surge of interest from advertisers—rising by up to 30 percent. The report also noted that more big brands are leaving Musk’s increasingly divisive platform. “A few weeks ago most of our clients were off X. Now they are all off X,” one ad agency executive told the FT. However, LinkedIn has yet to claim a top spot in the digital advertising market, accounting for just 1.5 percent of digital advertising by Insider Intellgence’s estimates—versus 27 percent for Google and 21 percent for Meta.
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Salem Media Group sells Regnery Publishing, which has released books from authors including Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, Rand Paul, Tulsi Gabbard and Mitt Romney, to Skyhorse Publishing. The company expects to close the transaction by the end of the year. Regnery will keep its name and operate as an imprint of Skyhorse. One of the largest independent book publishers in the US, Skyhorse has had fifty-seven New York Times bestsellers and currently has over 10,000 titles in print. “We see a lot of synergies and opportunities for growth and will work hard to promote, market and sell the books we have acquired and those that are pending,” said Skyhorse Publishing president and publisher Tony Lyons.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
