Mediagazer: Source: liberal donors like Open Society Foundation donated millions to the National Trust for Local News before the nonprofit acquired Maine newspapers in July (Max Tani/Semafor)

Top News:

Emily Dugan / The Guardian:

The BBC “urgently” investigates Russell Brand's behavior while working on BBC radio shows, after allegations of rape and sexual assault spanning 2006 to 2013 — Corporation says accusations span a number of years, including 2006 to 2008, when comedian worked for Radio 2

Sky News:

One of Russell Brand's accusers tells BBC Radio 4 that a chauffer-driven BBC car took her from school to the star's house in 2006 when she was 16 years old — “Alice” told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour the alleged abusive relationship left her feeling “cheap and dirtied” and went …

Discussion: The Independent, The Independent, Yahoo News, The Sun, BBC, @pogue.bsky.social, BBC, @mwilliamsthomas, The Daily Beast, @emmabarnett, @bbcwomanshour, @davidbelle_, BBC, @adambienkov and @rosamundurwin

Max Tani / Semafor:

Source: liberal donors like Open Society Foundation donated millions to the National Trust for Local News before the nonprofit acquired Maine newspapers in July — The Scoop — Local media in the state of Maine has emerged as an unlikely and asymmetric battlefield for big American political money.

Wall Street Journal:

How Spotify and other streaming services have transformed the sound of music: songs are shorter, albums are longer, and artists collaborate more across genres — To succeed on Spotify and other services, songs are getting shorter, albums are getting longer, and artists are collaborating across genres.

Discussion: news.ycombinator.com, more at Techmeme »

Julia Jacobs / New York Times:

Drew Barrymore pauses her daytime talk show's season premiere “until the strike is over”, after facing an onslaught of criticism over her decision — The host had defended restarting production on Friday despite the writers' strike, but changed course on Sunday, saying, “I have listened to everyone.”

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Katy Perry sells her music rights to Litmus Music, the Carlyle-backed company co-founded by former Capitol Records president Dan McCarroll, for $225M — After months of rumors, Katy Perry has sold her music rights to Litmus Music, the Carlyle-backed company co-founded by former Capitol …

Discussion: Billboard, Music Business Worldwide and Consequence

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:

AI writing startup Writer, used by L'Oréal, Spotify, and Uber to create digital marketing campaigns, raised $100M led by Iconiq Growth at a $500M+ valuation — The company's technology can write and summarize a wide range of text. … Led by Chief Executive Officer May Habib …

Discussion: @glenngabe

Bloomberg:

Sources: Disney has held preliminary talks with potential buyers like Reliance Industries for its Indian assets, including Disney Star and Disney+ Hotstar — - US giant weighs unit sale, piecemeal deal involving sports — Disney mulled strategic options after losing IPL streaming

Discussion: @aagave

Joyce Lee / Reuters:

Netflix and South Korean ISP SK Broadband end lawsuits over streaming services paying for network usage due to surging traffic, and agree to form a partnership — South Korean internet service provider SK Broadband and Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) said on Monday they were ending all lawsuits with each other …

Discussion: MediaNama, Variety and Al Jazeera

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

BBC Studios, the broadcaster's commercial arm, plans to relaunch its ad-supported international news website ahead of the 2024 US elections, to boost revenue — Rollout will start in US ahead of presidential elections as UK public broadcaster looks to boost advertising revenues

Barry Svrluga / Washington Post:

As The New York Times shuts down its sports section, an ode to newspaper sports pages, where a city's teams and stars were evaluated, analyzed, and discussed — If it seems odd for a sports columnist at one major metropolitan newspaper to lament the shuttering of the sports section …

Discussion: Poynter, @852dude.bsky.social and Lefsetz Letter

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Disney's motivation to potentially sell ABC, cable networks, and a minority stake in ESPN is a signal to investors to stop thinking about Disney as old media — - Investors may cheer Disney's decision to consider selling some legacy media businesses even if the deal price doesn't break the bank.

Discussion: Fox News, NBC 7 San Diego, Puck, @sherman4949, @tvgrimreaper, New York Post and CNN