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Happy Friday. Confusing times at YouTube: on Wednesday AMO broke news that, according to the company’s VP for Europe, it was actively preparing a product that would integrate publisher paywalls into the video platform. It would have been a huge move for subscription publishers. |
But alas, it wasn’t to be — for now, at least. YouTube got in touch yesterday fully walking back the exec’s comments. They claimed he was misquoted, but the transcript is pretty unambiguous. Sounds like he just said something he wasn’t meant to. Whoops. You can read his full remarks, plus YouTube’s U-turn statement, at the story below. |
Meanwhile: The Epoch Times want to talk about why they’re far more than the pro-Trump, Covid-skeptical brand they’ve been made out to be; Le Monde’s CEO explains why his deal with OpenAI’s so great; and an OpenAI executive explains why you’re probably never going to get one. |
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This week I sat down with Griff O'Brien, co-founder and CEO of Estate Media. In just over two years and on $2.65M of total capital raised, Estate Media has done over $6M in cumulative revenue, signed 30 of the 37 biggest agents in America, and reaches 750,000 realtors through its owned-and-operated channels alone. Griff walked me through the tension of running a half-B2B, half-consumer brand under one roof, what really happened when Estate Elite — the $1,500-a-year membership — failed, and why he now believes international real estate could become the single biggest line of the business. |
Watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts. |
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Paywalls
YouTube Walks Back Executive’s Claim on Publisher Paywall Integration |
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YouTube vice president for Europe Pedro Pina had said on stage at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Marseille on Wednesday that “we have product and engineers” working on “a paywall that has a conversation between YouTube and the current paywall of publishers.” |
Read full story here. |
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Editorial strategy
In a TikTok World, The Epoch Times Is Taking the Long Road. Why? Call it a Feeling |
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The Epoch Times caught negative press attention in recent years for its support for Donald Trump and its coverage of Covid. But Hadas Slonim, who spent 18 years building Epoch Magazine Israel before moving to the U.S. in April 2025 to work out of the organization’s NYC headquarters, says she has been working to correct “a misunderstanding about what we are.” |
Read full story here. |
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AI
Le Monde CEO: OpenAI Deal a ‘Win-Win’ With No Cannibalization—but Traffic ‘Marginal’ |
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The CEO of France’s leading daily said his licensing deal with OpenAI was driving “additional readership, additional subscriptions” and that referrals from ChatGPT were converting to subscribers at 173 times those from Google Discover. He also dismissed a rumor that OpenAI is only willing to strike one deal per country, arguing once one big publisher strikes a deal, smaller ones will follow. |
Read full story here. |
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AI
OpenAI Signals Disinterest in Widespread Content Licensing, Arguing Robots.txt a ‘Clear Standard’ |
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Although he wouldn’t say so explicitly, OpenAI’s executive in charge of media partnerships made clear at a conference this week that the company is not planning on striking deals with small or medium publishers. |
Read full story here. |
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