#45 Media Trends & Innovation

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Microsoft Copilot Daily will give users an AI-generated summary of news and weather

At the start of October, in a broader announcement about its latest AI features, Microsoft quietly unveiled Copilot Daily which “helps you kick off your morning with a summary of news and weather, all read in your favourite Copilot Voice”. Copilot Daily will only pull from authorised content sources, such as Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst Magazines, USA Today Network and Financial Times. Publishers are being paid – although on what terms we do not know – for content when it is used in Copilot Daily. Press Gazette calls the launch a moment of significance for the news industry as media outlets will get a new, sizeable, and AI-personalized source of traffic and revenues all at the same time.?

(Source: Press Gazette)

Google’s NotebookLM now lets you guide AI-generated audio conversations

Google has updated the podcast-like audio summarization feature of its AI note-taking and research assistant NotebookLM. Users can now guide podcast-like conversations and focus on specific topics instead of just generating holistic audio summaries. Until now, Audio Overviews would automatically generate AI conversations from users’ sources. But since conversations sometimes revolve around content that isn’t important, Google is introducing an update that allows you to customize the overviews based on your needs. This lets users make the audio more focused on a particular topic within their content. A dedicated “Customize” control is available before the existing “Generate” button to let you provide instructions for the AI hosts in the audio to focus on a specific point.

(Source: Tech Crunch)

News Corp seeks massive damages from AI firm Perplexity for stealing content from The Wall Street Journal and New York Post

The damages sought include “three times actual damages, actual damages, and Perplexity’s profits” for each instance of trademark dilution by the AI company, as well as $150,000 both for every piece of Dow Jones (The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s) and NYP Holdings (New York Post) content copied by Perplexity and for every time the publishers’ content has been reproduced by the search engine.

(Source: Press Gazette)

The first AI-hosted radio station is launched in Poland

Polish online radio station Off Radio Krakow is switching to an AI-powered model featuring three on-air personalities. The AI DJs include 20-year-old Eli Nowa, ?a journalism student, and pop culture expert”, 22-year-old Kuba, a ?technology and music specialist,” and ?23-year-old, socially engaged Alex – touching topics related to queer identity and culture." The agents will program the music for the station and interview celebrities and politicians. Staff who previously worked for the station but have now lost their jobs have criticised the move, which they say sets a "dangerous precedent for the industry"

(Source: Keep Going Pod)

BUSINESS MODELS & PERFORMANCE

The Sun launches registration wall for premium content

The Sun has begun rolling out a registration wall asking users to sign up for free to read certain stories. The Sun appears to be using the new feature mainly on its biggest columns and sports analysis. There are two key benefits of the registration wall for media outlets - registered readers can be targeted with content based on their browsing interests and can also be shown advertising which is sold for more money.

(Source: Press Gazette)

After two years, Semafor has 750,000 newsletter subscriptions

On the occasion of its second birthday, the Semafor news startup boasted its results. The most important of them are 750 000 newsletter subscriptions, global partnerships with over 65 of the world's most influential companies, and 75 events around the world, from Washington to Zurich and Lagos to Doha and New York, including the flagship World Economy Summit in Washington, which has the ambition to become the new Davos for the United States.?

(Source: Semafor)

OPERATIONS

LinkedIn will start highlighting developing news stories in its app

LinkedIn is boosting efforts to promote news articles and work with news publishers. It’s testing a new News Banner atop the feed on its mobile app, highlighting news stories that are developing online. And it’s expanding a new advertising program to let news publishers sell ads before videos they place on the site, splitting the ad revenue with LinkedIn. Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal will each earn more than $2 million this year from the program. (Source: The Information)

Meta is laying off employees at WhatsApp, Instagram, and more

According to people familiar with the matter, Meta has begun laying off employees across various departments, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Reality Labs. Rather than a mass, companywide layoff, these smaller cuts seem to coincide with reorganizations of specific teams.

(Source: The Verge)

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