Mediagazer: Magazine and newspaper subscription app Readly had 464K full-paying subscribers at the end of 2023, up 2.7% YoY, and a £9.10 ARPU, up from £7.80 in 2022 (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

Top News:

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Reliance and Disney merge their media businesses in India, creating the country's largest media conglomerate; Reliance values it at $8.5B and will invest $1.4B — Reliance, its portfolio Viacom18 and Disney are merging their media businesses in India, creating the largest media entity in the South Asian market.

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Filing: Disney will take non-cash pre-tax impairment charges of $1.8B to $2.4B related to Reliance JV; Disney will be a minority shareholder with a 36.8% stake — Reliance will invest $1.4 billion into the joint venture, which is valued at $8.5 billion, while Disney will provide a content license.

Discussion: Reuters and Deadline

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

Mehdi Hasan raises $4M to launch Zeteo, a digital media company on Substack, offering a weekly streaming show he hosts, contributor pieces, a podcast, and more — Hasan, whose MSNBC cancellation triggered an outpouring from fans, follows other political pundits who have struck out on their own

Discussion: The Hill, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Deadline, @jeremymbarr, @pressgazette, @mehdirhasan and @mehdirhasan

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

A group of top journalists, including from CNN, BBC, and CBS, sign an open letter asking Israel and Egypt to provide foreign media “unfettered access” to Gaza — A group of top international journalists have joined forces to demand that Israel and Egypt provide foreign media with “unfettered access” to Gaza.

Discussion: Sky News, The Hill, @alexcrawfordsky, Lucy Carrigan on LinkedIn, @clarissaward and Press Gazette

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Adobe unveils Project Music GenAI Control, a platform that can generate audio from text descriptions or a reference melody and let users customize the results — There's plenty of GenAI-powered music editing and creation tools out there, but Adobe wants to put its own spin on the concept.

Discussion: The Verge and @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org, more at Techmeme »

Angelique Jackson / Variety:

Study: 77 of the top 100 top-grossing domestic films in the US in 2023 featured more male characters than female characters in speaking roles — The latest 'It's a Man's (Celluloid) World' report shows 77% of movies had more male than female characters — A new study indicates that the tenets …

Discussion: Screen Rant, IndieWire and Deadline

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: TikTok reached out to Universal with a proposal the music company felt didn't address its concerns on compensation, platform safety, or AI protections — Universal's showdown with the platform is testing the value of the seconds-long song snippet—and who has the most power in today's music economy

Discussion: CMU, @lucas_shaw, Bloomberg, @jbflint, Billboard and Music Business Worldwide

Jem Aswad / Variety:
TikTok removes all songs published by Universal Music Publishing Group, expanding a licensing spat; at first only songs owned or distributed by UMG were removed

Discussion: Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Drew Thurlow on LinkedIn, Reuters, TechCrunch, Digital Music News, Rolling Stone, Music Business Worldwide, The Ankler, CMU and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

Max Tani / Semafor:

In an email to some staff, ABC News president Kimberly Godwin said Trump's recent comments about Black Americans were “as racist as they come” — The Scoop — Kimberly Godwin, the president of ABC News, said privately that recent comments by President Donald Trump about Black people were “as racist as they come.”

Discussion: New York Post, The Hill, @maxwelltani, Reuters and Boing Boing

Dara Kerr / NPR:

Time owner Marc Benioff tells a reporter, who is looking into his Hawaii land acquisition, that he knows where she is staying and her family's personal details — WAIMEA, Hawaii — A life-size bronze statue of a cowboy sits at the center of Waimea. The cowboy is riding a horse, lasso in hand, pursuing a wild bull.

Discussion: New York Post, @scotian.bsky.social, @rustyhammer.bsky.social, @davidfolkenflik, @brianmannadk and Mitakuye Oyasin

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Magazine and newspaper subscription app Readly had 464K full-paying subscribers at the end of 2023, up 2.7% YoY, and a £9.10 ARPU, up from £7.80 in 2022 — Readly CEO Philip Lindqvist says there is still “ample” room to grow in UK and Europe. — The chief executive of …

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

Axel Springer and 31 other media groups in Europe file a $2.3B lawsuit against Google, alleging that they suffered losses due to its digital ad practices — Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google was hit with a 2.1-billion-euro ($2.3 billion) lawsuit by 32 media groups including Axel Springer and Schibsted …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Nexstar Q4: $1.3B net revenue, down from $1.5B YoY, core ad revenue down 5.9% to $449M, with political ad sales down 88.7% to $30M, and a $52M loss for the CW — Nexstar reported its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings Wednesday, revealing its TV ad sales were down 36% from Oct. 1- Dec. 31.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, The Desk, @matthewkeyslive, @matthewkeyslive, Business Wire, @tvgrimreaper and TVNewsCheck

Newshub:

WBD proposes shutting down Newshub, one of New Zealand's major newsrooms, on June 30, as part of which ~200 journalists and other staff could lose their jobs — One of the country's major newsrooms could close, thanks to a collapse in TV advertising revenue and changes in viewing habits.

Discussion: WORLD SCREEN, Associated Press, Vicki MacRae on LinkedIn, Daz Martin on LinkedIn, Kim Grade Apr on LinkedIn, Glenn Conway on LinkedIn, Mary Sue Critchlow on LinkedIn, Nicky Greville on LinkedIn, The Desk, Nikki Wright on LinkedIn and Reuters