Mediagazer: Sources: Sony made multiple filings in India to pull out a pact to merge its India operations with Zee Entertainment (Anto Antony/Bloomberg)

7:25 AM ET, February 29, 2024

Top News:

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra says the company expects to take about a $1B charge in Q1 due to ongoing programming shifts and previously announced layoffs — Paramount Global expects to take a $1 billion charge in the current quarter due to ongoing programming shifts and the layoffs it announced earlier this month.

Discussion: Variety, Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Media Play News

Laya Neelakandan / CNBC:
Paramount reports Q4 revenue of $7.64B vs. $7.85B est., and profit of $514M, up from $21M the year prior; Paramount+ reached 67.5M global subscribers, up 4.1M

Discussion: NBC 7 San Diego, Paramount, The Streamable, Adweek, @jtoonkel, @sherman4949, Quartz, MediaPost, Barrett Media, Next TV, Media Play News, The Hill, Bloomberg, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

Anto Antony / Bloomberg:

Sources: Sony made multiple filings in India to pull out a pact to merge its India operations with Zee Entertainment — - Japanese firm has informed an Indian company court: sources — Puts an end to the 2021 pact while rivals bulk up in India … The Japanese entertainment firm …

Discussion: Reuters

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

The White House calls on Fox News to correct coverage of bribery claims against Biden by an informant now charged with lying; source: Fox declines to make fixes — The White House is formally calling on Fox News to correct its dishonest coverage of bribery and corruption allegations against President Joe Biden.

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Substack debuts direct messaging, letting users have private one-on-one conversations; by default, users will only receive DMs from people they're connected to — Substack is introducing direct messaging, allowing users to have private one-on-one conversations, the company announced today.

Discussion: On Substack, @bristoliver, @decodingfoxnews, @substackinc, The Verge and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Analysts: Reliance-Disney India media merger will create an entity that captures 85% of India's on-demand streaming service audience and ~50% of the TV viewers — The merger of Indian media assets of Reliance, its portfolio Viacom18 and Disney will create an entity that captures 85% …

Discussion: CNN, Moneycontrol, @refsrc, @chandrarsrikant, @refsrc, @chandrarsrikant and Reuters

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

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

Discussion: Observer, Reuters and Deadline

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

How newspaper leaders tried and failed to see how tech would change the business of journalism, framed by the career of digital newspaper pioneer Roger Fidler — Roger Fidler tried his best, but the excellent business of journalism is gone for good. Can the idea of “news” survive in a digital world?

Discussion: @niemanlab, Scott Talan on LinkedIn, @froomkin, @ron_fournier, @dearclarissa, Rick Green on LinkedIn, Steve Timble on LinkedIn, @notthattimd, @dlepeska, @davidclinchnews, @fingolas@journa.host, @michellemanafy@journa.host and @TimKarr@mastodon.social

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

An analysis of educational backgrounds of 460 NYT newsroom staff members shows the Ivy League is over-represented; about 75% of staffers are not Ivy Leaguers — They're not a majority, based on a new look at education data, but they are wildly overrepresented.

Discussion: @chronotope, @chronotope, @jbenton, @jbenton, @jbenton, @genepark and @niemanlab@mastodon.social

Yiwen Lu / New York Times:

Raw Story, AlterNet, and, in a separate case, The Intercept sue OpenAI in a NY federal court for copyright infringement; The Intercept is also suing Microsoft — Raw Story, AlterNet and The Intercept sued for copyright infringement over the way the ChatGPT creator trains its technology.

Discussion: MSPoweruser, Raw Story, The Guardian, Engadget, The Wrap, The Verge, US District Court, Southern District of New York, The Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Beast and Tech Startups, more at Techmeme »

Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:

Q&A with OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair on paying out $15B+ to creators since inception, negative perceptions of the site, hosting sports and other content, AI, more — The platform's boss is proud of its adult-content creators — and dismissive of banks that shun them

Discussion: @1br0wn, Keily Blair on LinkedIn and @1br0wn@eupolicy.social, more at Techmeme »

Charlie Nash / Mediaite:

Vice shuts down a virtual town hall after laid off employees invited to the virtual meeting inundated leadership with thumbs down emojis — A virtual Vice Media town hall had to be prematurely shut down on Wednesday after staffers flooded the meeting with thumbs-down emojis to protest the company's mass layoffs.

Discussion: @oliverdarcy@threads.net

Jem Aswad / Variety:

ASCAP reports $1.737B in 2023 revenue, up 14.1% YoY, and $1.592B available for royalty distributions; US performance revenue surpassed $1.327B, up 12.6% YoY — The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) announced record financial results for 2023 …

Discussion: Inside Radio, RAIN News and Billboard

Radio & Television Business Report:

The E.W. Scripps Company names Kate O'Brian as president of news, responsible for Scripps News, Court TV, and all news operations at local media stations — CINCINNATI — The E.W. Scripps Company has selected Kate O'Brian to fill the newly created role of President/News.

Discussion: Variety, FTVLive and The E.W. Scripps Company

Rhodri Talfan Davies / BBC:

The BBC says it is running 12 generative AI pilots, including reformatting and translating existing content and a “headline helper” for journalists — Rhodri Talfan Davies is the BBC's Director of Nations. He's responsible for bringing teams together across the BBC to shape …

Discussion: Clare Spencer on LinkedIn and MSPoweruser

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