Mediagazer: Vivek Ramaswamy suggests one potential path to wrest control of BuzzFeed, and Jonah Peretti offers broad thoughts on BuzzFeed's current focus on entertainment (Ben Smith/Semafor)

10:55 PM ET, June 2, 2024

Top News:

WaPo says Matt Murray will be Executive Editor until the US presidential election, after which Robert Winnett will take on the new role of Editor — The Washington Post also announced today its intention to launch a new division of the newsroom dedicated to better serving audiences …

New York Times:

The Washington Post's Executive Editor Sally Buzbee steps down, replaced by Matt Murray, former EIC of The Wall Street Journal — Matt Murray, the former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, will take her place. — The executive editor of The Washington Post, Sally Buzbee …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Reuters, @sarafischer, @jeffjarvis, @sivavaidhyanathan@threads.net, @dankennedy_nu@threads.net, @misterblifil@threads.net, @danmitchell.bsky.social, @jayrosen_nyu, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @sulliview, @hugolowell, @brianstelter and Deadline

Washington Post:

Email: Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis says WaPo plans to launch a newsroom division this year focused on “service and social media journalism” — The departure of the first woman to run the nearly 150-year-old news operation was sudden and followed the arrival in January of a new publisher.

Discussion: New York Times, The Information, @adriana_lacy, @jasonshevrin, @susanbordson, @jayrosen_nyu, @very__regular, @michaelroston, @davejorgenson, @sherman4949, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @brianstelter and @willoremus@mastodon.social

Alex Kirshner / GQ:

Q&A with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith on his new docuseries Up For Debate: The Evolution of Sports Media, streaming on ESPN+, his motivation for the series, and more — The reigning king of sports media discusses his new docuseries, his upcoming contract negotiations, and his pick for the next Disney CEO.

Discussion: Stephen A. Smith on LinkedIn

Joseph Menn / Washington Post:

Hacked emails and documents: top editors of US-focused news website The Grayzone received funding from Iran's Press TV, as well as Russia's RT and Sputnik — Misinformation experts say an overlap in funding underscores concern that the spread of falsehoods and propaganda online is entering …

Discussion: Sydney Morning Herald, @charliearchy@mstdn.social, @jasonmbrodsky and @josephmenn

New York Times:

Sources: Paramount and Skydance deal sticking points include legal expenses in case of shareholder lawsuits, potential “go-shop” period, and a shareholder vote — A special committee of Paramount's board of directors supports a merger with Skydance, a studio that has increased its offer in recent days.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @benmullin, Bloomberg, The Wrap, The Desk and Advanced Television

Financial Times:
Sources: a Paramount special committee approved the sweetened offer from Skydance; Paramount's board, chaired by Shari Redstone, will vote on the deal June 4

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Wrap and Reuters

Ben Smith / Semafor:

Vivek Ramaswamy suggests one potential path to wrest control of BuzzFeed, and Jonah Peretti offers broad thoughts on BuzzFeed's current focus on entertainment — The Scoop — In December 2020, in the relative lull between Donald Trump's defeat and Jan. 6, 2021, a right-leaning biotech …

Discussion: @charliehorsephotos …, @kbode@threads.net, @shawnspiritpanther …, @semafor@threads.net, @semaforben and @semaforben

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:

Content creators are amassing audiences of thousands on Twitch by covering political news and raising funds for Palestinians, as other platforms eschew politics — Dozens of content creators are leveraging the live streaming app to raise funds for Palestinians, circumventing political content bans on other platforms.

Discussion: @taylorlorenz and Tubefilter

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:

How TikTok influencers helped a self-published author sell 1M+ copies of her book, including ~700K on the TikTok shop, showing how TikTok changed book marketing — Keila Shaheen's “The Shadow Work Journal” shows how radically book sales and marketing have been changed by TikTok.

Discussion: @sandwichspy, @worrierprincess, Linda Secondari on LinkedIn, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, Los Angeles Times and Hacker News, more at Techmeme »

Laura Wagner / Washington Post:

The Times Guild leaders say NYT, while rolling out expanded bio pages for staff, made “petty” cuts to the language in which staffers extolled their Guild work — After rolling out expanded bio pages designed to ‘bolster trust with readers,’ the Times excised language in which staffers extolled their work with the Guild

Discussion: Business Insider

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

YouGov: the news sources Americans say they trust the most aren't always used most heavily; YouTube and Facebook are often sources for news but not trusted much — That's particularly true among Republicans. — Americans in 2024 again have a source of news that they agree is reliable …

Discussion: YouGov

Brian Welk / IndieWire:

The Tribeca Festival and OpenAI plan to feature five short films made using OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora on June 15 — “Nanny” director Nikyatu Jusu is among the five filmmakers who created a film for the festival using the tech. — Post — Short films generated by artificial intelligence …

Discussion: Bloomberg and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

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More News:

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Meta says 40M+ US and Canadian adults aged 18 to 29 use Facebook daily, the highest number in three years, reflecting efforts to win back younger users

Discussion: Deadline, 24/7 Wall St., Meta and Reuters

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Sources: TikTok pauses plans to launch its e-commerce business in major European markets to focus on growth in the US where it's fighting the divest-or-ban law

Michael Hytha / Bloomberg:
LA-based Webtoon, owned by South Korea's Naver, files for a US IPO; sources: the online comics platform could seek to raise up to $500M at a $3B-$4B valuation

Discussion: @ca_ecostrategy, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Reuters and The Korea Times, more at Techmeme »

Tom Dreisbach / NPR:
Salem Media is halting distribution of the film and book 2000 Mules and removing the film from its platforms; it apologized to a man who sued for defamation

Max Tani / Semafor:
Details of CNN's ad packages for its Biden-Trump debate on June 27: a top-tier level with a $1.5M minimum, limits on spending by campaigns and PACs, and more

Discussion: New York Post, Reuters and Adweek

Diana Falzone / Mediaite:
Eric Bolling, formerly of Sinclair and Fox News and host of Newsmax's 8pm show The Balance, is leaving the network after three years

Discussion: Eric Bolling, @ericbolling, Adweek, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, Deadline and The Wrap

Earlier Picks:

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
A look at Robert Allbritton's NOTUS, a nonprofit national politics outlet that employs 10 full-time fellows and is intended to act as a journalist incubator

Discussion: @herbscribner, @structstories, @kylewilsontharp, @kenvogel, @tchingarande, @ron_fournier, @evanmcs, @kbode@threads.net, @kbode@threads.net and Brad Bosserman on LinkedIn

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Startup Fable Studio announces Showrunner, a streaming service that lets users watch AI-generated series and create their own series by writing prompts

Discussion: Fadi Ismail on LinkedIn, B. Earl on LinkedIn, Tubefilter and The Guardian

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Moonbug Entertainment names Courtney Holt, previously Spotify's head of studios and video, as managing director for the Americas, taking over from Andy Yeatman

Discussion: Courtney Holt on LinkedIn, The Wrap, Deadline and Advanced Television

Nieman Lab:
A look at the term “fact-based journalism”: its rise coincided with “fake news” in 2016, but the term is redundant as all journalism is fact-based

Discussion: Josh M. on LinkedIn, @davidpwhelan@mastodon.world and @nw@ioc.exchange

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Disney and Comcast's NBCUniversal hit an impasse in Disney's buyout plans for NBCU's 33% Hulu stake, with a significant disagreement over valuation

Discussion: Media Play News, @tvgrimreaper, The Information, The Desk, The Streamable and The Media Leader

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Rest of World retracts an article on WhatsApp misinformation “tip lines” in India after several fact-checking orgs detail how it was “riddled with inaccuracies”

Discussion: @india_mca and @dau_mca

From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace approves lifting its ban on “certain widely used foreign platforms”, naming WhatsApp and Google Play as the first two apps

Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Filing: Apple asks to participate in the remedial phase of Google's US antitrust case, saying it can't rely on Google to defend their revenue-sharing agreements

Sheldon Reback / CoinDesk:
US and Japanese law enforcement say North Korean hackers were responsible for stealing 4,502.9 bitcoin, worth $308M, from Japanese exchange DMM in May 2024

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