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According to an internal email to Washington Post sports staff, the paper isn't sending any reporters to cover the winter Olympics next month. The decision comes as major layoffs are expected in the coming weeks.

Email from Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng to staff

Major senior leaders on the business side are out at Business Insider today, I'm told. Chief Revenue Officer Maggie Milnamow and head of global sales Orlando Reece are both leaving the company.

Introducing the Substack TV app, now in beta Taking subscriber video to the bigger screen

Substack says it's launching a Substack TV app on Apple TV and Google TV. Users will be able to watch video posts and Substack livestreams...

on.substack.com/p/introducin...

CNN has started carrying full Trump speeches live again a lot more. The network is currently taking Trump's speech at Davos live, yesterday it aired most of his speech from the White House briefing room relatively uninterrupted.

New: The editor of Welt is out after an internal investigation by parent company Axel Springer that focused on his conduct at a holiday party last month.

We'll have more in tonight's @semafor.com media newsletter...

www.semafor.com/article/01/1...

Inbox: New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an amicus brief today in support the NYT lawsuit against the Pentagon over press access

Gavin Newsom has been in touch with the California attorney general's office about this topic, I'm told. CA AG just announced that it was opening an investigation into the "proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok."

New: 3% of Politico staff will be laid off today, including fewer than 10 people in the newsroom, I’m told.

Notably, Politico is also planning to announce a new subscription business aimed at finance/investment professionals.

News organizations held off on reporting Venezuela raid The American news organizations held their stories over concerns about endangering US troops.

First in @semafor.com: NYT, WaPo learned of the secret US raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin but held off publishing what they had at the administration's request to avoid endangering US troops www.semafor.com/article/01/0...

The Washington Post editorial board comes out in favor of the Venezuela attack/operation to capture Maduro

CBS News EIC Bari Weiss had concerns about the CECOT piece, I’m told. The network decided to hold the segment pending, among other things, comment or an interview with White House officials next year…

NYT statement to me: "David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event. Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner."

A month ago, NYT columnist David Brooks wrote a column decrying the media and political fixation on the Epstein story.

This afternoon, House Democrats released a new tranche of photos of an event that Brooks attended with Epstein.

New: When the Washington Post ran tests on its AI personalized podcasts, the paper found that between 68% and 84% (!!) of the pods had potential issues.

Still, the paper decided to release the product anyway, saying it would “iterate through the remaining issues”

www.semafor.com/article/12/1...

Exclusive: Washington Post’s AI-generated podcasts rife with errors, fictional quotes Errors in the Post’s new AI-generated podcasts have frustrated the paper’s journalists.

www.semafor.com/article/12/1...

New: WaPo staff are fuming about the new AI personalized pods, noting they have errors like misattributing/inventing quotes, inserting commentary.

WaPo's standards editor privately called the mistakes "frustrating," another editor said "if we were serious we would pull this tool immediately."

American Canto sold 1165 physical copies in its first week, per bookscan.

New: Democratic lawmakers warned WBD in a letter that their party may try to block or unravel any acquisition of WBD by Paramount, citing nat sec concerns around financing...

All, Today, we’re introducing our latest customer audio offering: “Your Personal Podcast,” a personalized, AI podcast experience only available in The Washington Post app. App users will be able to shape their own briefing, select their topics, set their lengths, pick their hosts and soon even ask questions using our Ask The Post AI technology. This is a conversational, digestible format completely personalized to the user's individual preferences – All based on our best-in-class Washington Post journalism. Here’s how it works: On our Washington Post app, subscribers and registered users will find access to “Your Personal Podcast” via their habit tile, and our “Listen” tab. Users can then personalize their podcast experience by choosing their preferred topics, selecting the AI hosts, and setting the duration. (Currently, our beta version limits the duration to a maximum of 8 minutes.) Once a user begins listening, they soon will be able to ask follow-up questions to explore topics in greater depth. In line with our mission and plan, “Your Personal Podcast” is the ultimate intersection across our critical initiatives of premium experiences, customer choice and AI platform and products. It also reinforces our audience segmentation work, which has revealed our target audience is excited to be offered new ways to access our journalism. More specifically, they are busy and on the go with a growing appetite for audio and video news. “Your Personal Podcast” is another way for us to meet these customer needs. The product is in beta, which means we will continue to improve it based on user feedback. A big thank you to the many teams who collaborated with us across the company to get us to this exciting stage. Listen to a podcast that listens to you and try this out today. Vineet and Bailey

The Washington Post is launching a personalized AI podcast, saying users will be able to "shape their own briefing, select their topics, set their lengths, pick their hosts and soon even ask questions using our Ask The Post AI technology."

Amazing tidbit: I'm told that Politico is putting Donald Trump at the top of its upcoming annual Most Influential People in Europe list. Trump participated in an interview for the series with Politico's Dasha Burns…

New: The Chicago Tribune is suing Perplexity alleging the AI company has been “unlawfully profiting off of the newspaper's content in building its AI-driven search engine.”

In a note to staff, Business Insider EIC Jamie Heller says the publication is launching a pilot program called Business Insider AI News Desk that will use AI to “help publish quick news stories.”

Several stories a day will now be “created by AI and edited by a person.”

Exclusive: How Trump is trying to remake American culture — starting with his favorite buddy-cop franchise The president is offering some creative input on potential upcoming projects.

New in tonight's @semafor.com media newsletter: Trump is using his new connections at Paramount for an important cause: Lobbying Larry Ellison to revive the Rush Hour franchise www.semafor.com/article/11/2...

Per a note to staff, Business Insider is joining Microsoft’s publisher content marketplace program. BI CEO Barbara Peng says the program will “compensate publishers when our trusted journalism is used in its Al-generated results.”

Some internal tension on the White House Correspondents Association email listserv today. Some journalists are complaining that background info circulated to the group by a reporter working for Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya did not mention the murder of Jamal Khashoggi...

Exclusive: The old MSNBC relaunches into a new media world The network, now called MS NOW, is in the midst of its biggest gamble since it launched in 1996.

www.semafor.com/article/11/1...

My piece for @semafor.com on the launch of MS Now. The strategy, so far:
- New pods
- YouTube explainers, “simulcasting" on YT
- Live MS Now events across the country
- Paid subscription products
- An expanded role for Pablo Torre
- Collaboration, potential deal w/Crooked Media

Exclusive: Vox to partner with Patreon for new paywalled shows Vox said it hopes to supplement its shows with live newsroom conversations and community features such as chats.

From last night's @semafor.com media newsletter: @vox.com is joining Patreon www.semafor.com/article/11/1...

Yahoo Finance is launching a prediction markets hub with Polymarket to “help investors better follow prediction markets and the forces shaping them.”