#50 Media Trends & Innovation
Ring Publishing
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AI IN MEDIA
Google’s new “Daily Listen” creates a personalized, AI-generated podcast out of your Discover feed?
Google is kicking off a new experiment in Search Labs called “Daily Listen.” It’s a bit like NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews…Through Discover and Search, Google is aware of what you are interested in. Daily Listen takes all that into account to create a 5 minute or so episode that provides an overview of stories and topics that you follow. (Source: 9to5Google)
Ring Publishing webinar on AI in newsrooms
???Date: Tuesday, January 28???Time: 16:00 CET / 10:00 EST
Are you curious about how AI can be used in newsrooms? Wondering what the next step in the media world could be? Join our free webinar that covers the latest AI trends and tools in journalism. Jovan Proti?, VP of the Board at Ringier Axel Springer, and Jerzy Gulczyński, Managing Director at Ring Publishing, will discuss how AI can support journalists in their daily work. Discover how AI can enhance storytelling, improve efficiency, and address the evolving needs of audiences.
Meta scrambles to delete its own AI accounts after backlash intensifies
Meta promptly deleted several of its own AI-generated accounts after human users began engaging with them and posting about the bots’ sloppy imagery and tendency to go off the rails and even lie in chats with humans.?(Source: CNN)
Adobe’s new AI tool can edit 10,000 images in one click
Adobe is launching new generative AI tools that can automate labor-intensive production tasks like editing large batches of images and translating video presentations. The most notable is “Firefly Bulk Create,” an app that allows users to quickly resize up to 10,000 images or replace all of their backgrounds in a single click instead of tediously editing each picture individually. (Source: The Verge)
BUSINESS MODELS & PERFORMANCE
Publishers expect to have new revenue streams from AI licencing and new product development
Reuters Institute predicts what will change in the media business in 2025, based on publishers’ survey responses. On the business side, almost four in ten (36%) of commercial publishers expect licensing income from tech and AI companies to be a significant revenue stream – twice as many as last year. More widely, subscription and membership remain the biggest revenue focus (77%) for publishers, ahead of both display (69%) and native advertising (59%). With subscription growth slowing, new product development is set to be a more important priority in the year ahead. More than a quarter of our publisher respondents say they are actively thinking about or planning to launch new products around games (29%) or education (26%) with one-fifth (20%) looking to launch an international or foreign language version. Many of these new products are likely to be bundled into ‘all-access’ subscriptions in a bid to reduce churn. At the same time, more than four in ten (42%) say they’ll be looking to launch or trial a ‘youth’ product this year. (Source: Reuters Institute)
DAY-TO-DAY OPERATIONS
The Washington Post lays off 4% of its staff
The layoffs will affect employees across The Post’s business operations, not its newsroom … The bulk of the eliminated positions are coming from The Post’s advertising division. The Post’s chief advertising officer Johanna Mayer-Jones said in a memo to employees that 73 positions under her purview were being eliminated (out of roughly 100 eliminated, as CNN reports).?(Source: The New York Times)
Getty Images and Shutterstock merge to form a $3.7 billion stock photo giant
Getty Images said it has agreed to merge with its rival Shutterstock in a cash-and-stock deal. (…) Getty Images is the bigger company of the two, and its shareholders will own approximately 54.7% of the new entity, while Shutterstock shareholders will own 45.3%. Getty Images also owns the iStock and Unsplash brands. The company will simply be called Getty Images. (Source: Tech Crunch)
The Washington Post’s traffic tanks
According to internal data shared with Semafor in recent weeks, the Post’s daily traffic last year reached a nadir of just a quarter of what it was at its peak in January 2021. That month, the Post had around 22.5 million daily active users. But by the middle of 2024, its daily users hovered around 2.5-3 million daily users. (Source: Semafor)
TikTok pushes users to Lemon8 as ban looms
TikTok's sister app Lemon8 has been sponsoring posts on TikTok encouraging users to migrate to Lemon8 amid a looming ban threat, according to sponsored posts viewed by Axios. The TikTok ban law, taking effect on January 19, also applies to other apps owned by TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance, like Lemon8. Axios suspects ByteDance could be betting that regulators and app store companies are so focused on TikTok that they won't pay attention to its other apps. (Source: Axios)
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