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>> Sam Whitmore

Gen AI: The Big Fizzle?

Goldman Sachs took 32 pages to say pretty much that. The media business may turn out to be an outlier, an industry perfectly suited to

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Semafor Goes AI Crazy

Fourteen of 19 tech stories in the Semafor technology section are about AI. Two of the five outliers were about TikTok’s potential sale. Semafor sells

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FRIDGE NOTES

Talk About An Awkward Interview…

Tomorrow at 1:05p PDT, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas will be interviewed by WSJ reporter Deepa Seetharaman as part of this year’s WSJ Tech Live event. It might be awkward, because on Monday, WSJ parent News Corp. sued Perplexity for appropriating News Corp. content. Deepa stands to land the interview of the year if Aravind shows up. His lawyers will probably advise him not to.

Update 10/24: Aravind did show and acquitted himself well in every sense of the term.  The Hollywood Reporter has the story.

The Atlantic Goes Monthly Again in Print

The Atlantic soon will publish 12 print editions a year, up from ten. “The greatness of print and especially a print magazine is that it sits still for you,” EIC Jeffrey Goldberg tells CNN. “It doesn’t beep and flash and demand that you do things.”

TechCrunch Redesigns

TechCrunch redesigned this week. Still green, less clutter. Built for the phone. Events and newsletters rank higher in the home page scroll than startups, venture and AI. No enterprise section. Parent Yahoo invested this money to build engagement. More changes due in 2025, EIC Connie Loizos says.

Wired To Launch Awards Program

Adweek’s Mark Stenberg reports that Wired is getting into the awards business. The Wired 101 Awards will debut in October. Be on the lookout for the announcement.

BI’s AI-based Paywall Increased Conversions by 75 Percent

BI’s publishing software knows what you’ve clicked on before and where you came from. Through Google Analytics, BI also knows how all readers react to certain content. Once you visit, BI knows whether to ask you to subscribe, or to register, or just to let you see everything for just that one visit. Conversions rose 75 percent this year. Digiday got the scoop (subscription required).

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