Top News:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Streaming TV appears to have entered its franchise era; Netflix plans spinoffs of the Addams Family, Peaky Blinders, and action movie Extraction, among others — Sequels and prequels have already taken over the movie business. Now they're coming for TV. — Good afternoon from Los Angeles …
Discussion:
TVLine, Forbes, ScreenRant, Gizmodo, ComingSoon.net, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw, more at Techmeme »
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New York Times:
Disney, WBD, and other studios are licensing more content to Netflix in return for much-needed cash, but are holding back their most popular movies and shows — When building their own streaming companies, many entertainment studios ended lucrative licensing deals with Netflix.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
The EU Commission opens an official DSA investigation into X, focusing on illegal content, disinformation, ad transparency, “deceptive design”, and data access — X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, may have broken the European Union's tough new Digital Service Act rules …
Discussion:
Variety, TechCrunch, Associated Press, The Guardian, Gizmodo, Engadget, @safety, European Commission, UPI, The Information, Washington Post, New York Post, New York Times, Wired, BBC, Politico, Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg, The Daily Beast, 9to5Mac, @jamestitcomb, @carnage4life@mas.to, @thierrybreton, @vorobyov and @artemr, more at Techmeme »
Wall Street Journal:
The trial of Hong Kong media mogul and activist Jimmy Lai begins; Lai faces possible life imprisonment if convicted on charges of collusion with foreign forces — Media mogul faces up to life in prison if convicted under national security law — HONG KONG—The most high-profile case …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Flipboard says it will fully integrate with ActivityPub and is testing the move with select accounts, including Semafor, Medium, Polygon, Digiday, and The Verge — Instagram Threads isn't the only app joining the decentralized social web, which includes Twitter/X rival Mastodon and other apps …
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: The Messenger editors clashed with publisher Jimmy Finkelstein in November after a directive to remove Trump indictment stories from the homepage — The Scoop — During former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York last month, an editorial order came down from the top …
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Newsquest's head of editorial AI Jody Doherty-Cove says the UK regional publisher now has seven “AI-assisted reporters” publishing “thousands” of articles — The company's head of editorial AI said it had published “thousands” of AI-assisted articles.
Dave Collins / Associated Press:
Alex Jones proposes paying Sandy Hook families $55M+ over 10 years, far below the $1.5B awarded; the families seek to liquidate his assets and media company — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' latest bankruptcy plan would pay Sandy Hook families a minimum total of $55 million over 10 years …
Discussion:
CNN, @MylesRyden@social.vivaldi.net, Newser, New York Times, NPR, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg and WKYC-TV
Savannah Maher / Marketplace:
How new local ownership, in one year, revived The Deming Headlight, after Gannett turned the small-town New Mexico newspaper into “a ghost paper” without staff — The Deming Headlight's office shares a downtown block with a barber, a hearing aid supplier and quinceañera dress shop …
Colin Mann / Advanced Television:
Ofcom: 44% of TV staff and 54% of radio staff are based outside of London; women and people from minority ethnic groups remain underrepresented at senior levels — Around half of TV and radio broadcasters' employees are now based outside of London, but more needs to be done to increase diversity …
Discussion:
Broadband TV News, Ofcom, Ofcom, Ofcom, Deadline and Broadband TV News
Bloomberg:
Disney seems to have more than its share of boomerang executives, which include Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, both once seen as potential successors to Bob Iger — A number have returned or are angling to come back — from retired Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, who resumed his duties a year ago …
Aron Pilhofer / The Lenfest Institute for Journalism:
A look at the lessons learned at News Catalyst, an initiative that provided tools to build digitally sustainable local news outlets, ahead of its 2024 shutdown — As The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, a joint venture between the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation …
Discussion:
Tyler Fisher on LinkedIn, Shannan Bowen on LinkedIn, LinkedIn and Becca Aaronson on LinkedIn