Scarlett Johansson nukes OpenAI in a no-holds-barred statement, the fraud trial of one-time Ozy Media boss Carlos Watson gets underway, Donald Trump's media company posts a $327 million loss, Sundar Pichai defends Google's A.I. search amid publisher backlash, film critics savage Kevin Costner's pricey Western epic, Charlamagne tha God blasts Sean "Diddy" Combs, and more. But first, the A1.

The Vision at Vox

CNN Photo Illustration/Vox

Vox is preparing to celebrate its 10th birthday — making a major change to its business model that reflects how digital news publishers are scrambling to evolve as they are increasingly starved of referral traffic and advertising revenue.

Not only will Vox debut a refreshed website on Tuesday morning to mark its 10th trip around the sun (fear not, the trademark yellow is not going away), it will also launch a membership program, its executives told me Monday, as the digital publisher becomes the latest news outlet to lean into subscriptions to diversify and grow its revenue stream.

The subscription program — which will cost $5 a month, or $50 a year — will give members access to an array of exclusive content, including newsletters, a digital magazine, a monthly bonus episode of "The Highlight Podcast," live virtual tapings of audio programs, interactive video interviews, and more.

"It is so incredibly important to diversify our revenue and business model," Swati Sharma, the editor-in-chief and publisher of Vox, told me by phone Monday. "We have to be strategic."

While the site and its suite of content will continue to remain free to readers, its new members-only program is additive to Vox's existing content and will be the only programming behind a paywall. The outlet will count the revenue it earns from subscriptions as an added stream, with the publisher opting for a hybrid model consisting of multiple forms of revenue, including advertising and grants.

Sharma said that building a members-only tier for Vox's loyal fans was the natural step after finding success soliciting reader donations, which the outlet has done sine 2020. In those four years, it has received more than 100,000 contributions, Vox Media's consumer revenue chief Priyanka Arya told me.

Now, with members-only benefits aimed at enticing subscribers, coupled with the hiring of Bill Carey as executive director of memberships, the digital publication is hoping to strengthen its relationship with readers. 

"We are taking a bet on people caring about news organizations," Sharma told me. "But I think that it's a bet worth taking."

The move could not come at a more critical juncture. News publishers are navigating challenging terrain, and most have been forced to undergo painful layoffs in recent years, including Vox. The stormy seas have been made even more tough by the rapid advancement and deployment of artificial intelligence. Not only has Meta turned its back on news publishers, but Google, which so many outlets have become quite dependent on, announced last week it will infuse its dominant search engine with A.I. That move has prompted alarm over the possibility referral traffic to news outlets will slow to a trickle.

"It worries me and it should worry everyone in journalism," Sharma said.

The daunting circumstance has made establishing direct pipelines between news outlets and audiences as important as ever. Which is likely why so many major newsrooms have signaled they will, in one way or another, wade into creating and/or bolstering subscription models that include members-only content to supplement other revenue streams.

Looking ahead to its next decade, Sharma told me she wants to see Vox identify solutions to some of the biggest problems plaguing the world, expanding on its coverage of issues ranging from climate change to gun violence to loneliness. Sharma emphasized that while it is important to cover such paramount issues, it is equally important to offer readers a way to walk away empowered with steps they can take to help improve society.

"Vox was such an incredible bet to make," Sharma said. "It was offering something very specific at that time, which still resonates ... Vox pioneered the explainer format and that is everywhere today."

"We've explained the news," Sharma added. "The next step is shaping the world."

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The Scarlett Letter: Johansson sure has no problem taking on billion-dollar companies. The actress on Monday disclosed in a stunning statement that OpenAI boss Sam Altman tried to persuade her to record the voice of ChatGPT 4.0. Johansson said that she rejected the offer and was then "shocked, angered, and in disbelief" when the voice of "Sky" was unveiled to the public and it sounded "eerily similar" to her own. Johansson signaled that it was no coincidence, adding that "two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider" the offer. And she noted that OpenAI itself referenced the voice in "Her," the film about the robot portrayed by Johansson.

To that end, Johansson said she was "forced to hire legal counsel" who sent letters to Altman and OpenAI. The company, which has maintained another actress recorded the voice, said it has hit "pause" on the voice amid the backlash. "In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity," Johansson wrote. CNN's Brian Fung, Clare Duffy, and Ramishah Maruf have details here.

🔎 Zooming in: "Johansson is one of the world’s most famous actresses, and she speaks for an entire class of creatives who are now wrestling with the fact that automated systems have begun to erode the value of their work," Casey Newton noted. "OpenAI’s decision to usurp her voice for its own purposes will now get wide and justified attention."

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The Expensive Truth: Need more proof that Donald Trump's media company is struggling? The Trump Media and Technology Group on Monday reported a net loss of $327.6 million last quarter, sending shares of the Truth Social owner down about 5%, closing at $48.38. And yet, that means the money-losing company is still worth north of $6 billion! "I can’t emphasize enough how unusual it is for a company with this little revenue to have this high a valuation," analyst Matthew Kennedy told CNN's Matt Egan. Read Egan's full story here.

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Sundar Speaks: Sundar Pichai sat down with The Verge Editor-In-Chief Nilay Patel for a hard-hitting interview on the "Decoder" podcast published Monday, in which the Google boss defended implementing its new A.I. search feature and repeatedly insisted it will likely benefit publishers. Asked directly about News/Media Alliance chief executive Danielle Coffey telling me last week that the feature will be "catastrophic" for publishers, Pichai said he remains "optimistic" and stressed Google realizes "the value of this ecosystem" and the "symbiotic" relationship it has with news outlets. "If there isn’t a rich ecosystem making unique and useful content, what are you putting together and organizing? So we feel it," Pichai explained. Pichai added that Google is "engaging with a lot of players, both directly and indirectly." He said he understands their concerns. "It’s a big change," Pichai acknowledged. "These are disruptive moments." Check out the full interview here. 

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Costner's Costly Catastrophe: Yikes! Kevin Costner's Western epic "Horizon" — which he told Zach Baron for GQ that he spent $38 million of his own money to make — is getting savaged by critics after its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. With 14 reviews in, the 3-hour epic has a stunningly low 29% score on Rotten Tomatoes. "The first film in the actor-director's planned four-part passion project is baffling – like a three-hour pilot episode for a TV show, with half-formed characters and no discernible structure," the BBC's Nicholas Barber wrote in a scathing review. Barber concluded his review wondering, "How can Horizon be so incoherent?" And that was kind compared to other reviews! The Daily Beast's Esther Zuckerman called the film a "misogynistic, racist, retrograde mess."

► While promoting the film, Costner addressed questions about whether he will return to "Yellowstone" for the show's final season, which Paramount said on Monday has resumed production. Costner told the AP's Jake Coyle that he's "open to" the idea of resuming his role.

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Disgraced Diddy: What was left of the reputation of Sean "Diddy" Combs has evaporated in plain sight after CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister obtained shocking video showing the rapper physically assault his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura — a claim he had previously denied. Combs issued an apology over the weekend, calling his own behavior "inexcusable." But the apology has — to the surprise of no one — failed to quell the fierce backlash he's facing. Cassie's attorney noted that his statement was "more about himself than the many people he has hurt." And others, including those who had previously defended Combs, spoke out in clear terms against him. "Can’t believe anything that comes out of Diddy’s mouth," Charlamagne tha God said Monday. "He’s not sorry, he’s sorry he got caught. He’s sorry that the video leaked, OK?" New York City Mayor Eric Adams even said Monday that the city is mulling whether to rescind the key it had once presented to Combs.