Top News:
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
AI search engine Perplexity says it was working on revenue-sharing deals with publishers when Forbes criticized it for misusing content from Forbes and others — The Scoop — Perplexity, the AI search startup that recently came under fire from Forbes for allegedly misusing its content …
Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline:
Sony Pictures Entertainment buys Alamo Drafthouse Cinema; 35 cinemas will keep operating under the Alamo brand, and Alamo's Michael Kustermann will remain CEO — Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has just bought Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. D eadline first told you the chain was up for sale and being shopped around to studios.
Discussion:
Engadget, Variety, CNN, Reuters, SlashFilm, Gizmodo, New York Times, The Wrap, IndieWire, CBS News, Associated Press, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, The A.V. Club, Chris Drazba on LinkedIn, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Consequence, The Verge and Bloomberg
Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
CNN signs a deal to use AP stories on its website, the first time it has done so since cutting ties 14 years ago to focus more on original reporting — CNN staffers fear a new deal with the Associated Press may spell layoffs at the third-place cable news network.
Discussion:
Editor and Publisher and NewscastStudio
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
The National Music Publishers' Association files an FTC complaint against Spotify, saying Spotify's decision to offer audiobooks reduced songwriters' royalties — Spotify's audiobook bundle has put it at war with music publishers … The audiobooks addition gave Spotify leeway to reclassify …
Discussion:
Billboard, Rolling Stone and Music Business Worldwide
Margaret Sullivan / The Guardian:
Replacing Will Lewis at WaPo would be Jeff Bezos' cleanest, best move, but if he won't, he and Lewis should publicly commit to newsroom independence, and more — The paper's reinvention, with the appointment of Will Lewis as publisher, is a mess - but there's still time to turn things around
Discussion:
Axios, @dankennedy_nu@journa.host, @esmcintyre, @markjacob16, @davidgura@threads.net, @sulliview and Washington Post
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Tom Jones / Poynter:
Experts on journalism ethics and standards criticize Lauren Windsor's secret recordings of US Supreme Court judges and her failure to fully identify herself — Lauren Windsor calls herself a journalist. But she didn't act like one when she deceived Alito to get him to talk.
Discussion:
Slate, CNN, Fox News, Poynter Institute on LinkedIn, @davidpwhelan@mastodon.world, New Republic and NewsNation
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Rolling Stone:
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suggests partisan funding of ProPublica is to blame for its coverage of the court, in a secret recording at a recent dinner
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suggests partisan funding of ProPublica is to blame for its coverage of the court, in a secret recording at a recent dinner
Discussion:
Semafor, Fox News, New Republic, Minnesota Reformer, @digiphile@threads.net, Slate, @killick@dmv.community, @normornstein, @eisingerj, @eisingerj, @justinelliott, @rollingstone, @rollingstone, @rollingstone, @anatosaurus, @markjacob16, @lawindsor, @7im, @allysammarco@threads.net, @adamparkhomenko@threads.net, @ernie.tedium.co, @jstatepost@mstdn.social, @slackermom.bsky.social, @macloo.bsky.social, The Daily Beast, @JasonPerseus@mas.to, Boing Boing and NewsNation
Chris Stein / The Guardian:
A look at crime-reporting social media accounts in Washington, DC, which seek accountability from leaders but often ignore context and veer into fearmongering — Critics say crime-reporting social media accounts in Washington DC promote accountability from leaders but ignore context and veer into fearmongering
Andrew Marchand / New York Times:
Sources: NBC Sports and TNT Sports are expected to join Fox in presenting Big East men's and women's basketball games in 2025-26; CBS is still holding talks — Editor's note: An earlier version of this article misstated the year NBC, TNT Sports could join Fox as broadcast partners for Big East basketball games.
Discussion:
The Streamable, Awful Announcing, Barrett Media, Sports Media Watch, Bloomberg and CNN
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Q&A with Jingna Zhang, the founder of anti-AI social platform Cara, about its focus on artists, having nearly 900K users, generative AI vs. creativity, and more — Artists are fleeing Meta's platforms over fears their work will be used to train AI. Photographer Jingna Zhang's Cara …
New York Times:
Sources: Shari Redstone was irked that Skydance's revised Paramount terms reduced National Amusements' value from $2B to $1.7B, affecting her family's holdings — There were several hitches in the last week as Skydance, Paramount and its parent company, National Amusements, reached the final stages of negotiations.
Discussion:
Reuters, Variety, CNBC, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, @mattbelloni, The Hollywood Reporter, Dylan Jones on LinkedIn, Digital Music News, CNN, @lucas_shaw, NewscastStudio, @benmullin, @richlightshed, Deadline, Bloomberg, Next TV, TrekMovie.com, Fast Company, The Guardian, Quartz, IndieWire, Media Play News, The Hill and Wall Street Journal
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Jack Nicas / New York Times:
How The New York Post, TMZ, and 100+ other sites around the world distorted a NYT story to claim that a remote Amazon tribe got addicted to porn due to Starlink — A Times story about the arrival of high-speed internet in a remote Amazon tribe spiraled into its own cautionary tale on the dark side of the web.
Discussion:
@jacknicas, @jones3d, @elonmusk, @seangraf and @oftenwrongsorry
Nick Visser / HuffPost:
Howard Fineman, who spent three decades at Newsweek and later became HuffPost's political editor and global editorial director, dies at 75 of pancreatic cancer — Fineman, who provided a critical look behind the curtain of Capitol Hill as a regular analyst on cable television, died of pancreatic cancer.
Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
The Institute for Nonprofit News survey of 346 member outlets for 2023: 71% of outlets are digital-first, about 33% reported declines in web traffic, and more — While the sector is still growing, that growth is slowing, by some metrics. And audience data for 2023 shows that across all outlets surveyed …
Discussion:
@risj_oxford, @localnewsini and Institute for Nonprofit News