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Paramount shares rose ~7% after news that Skydance and National Amusements had reached a tentative deal; source: the deal could be done as soon as this weekend — A deal between the two parties could potentially be completed by as early as the weekend, an individual familiar with the matter tells TheWrap
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Seeking Alpha, Reuters, The Information and Los Angeles Times
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Sources: Skydance reached a preliminary deal to pay $1.75B for National Amusements and agreed to a 45-day period where other Paramount bidders can make offers — Skydance would pay $1.75 billion for National Amusements under the preliminary deal — David Ellison's production company …
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Sources: Paramount Global is in exclusive talks to sell BET for $1.6B-$1.7B to buyers that include BET CEO Scott Mills and Chinh Chu, who runs CC Capital
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Stereogum, Fortune, @reigncoates, Vibe, @mattbelloni, Fast Company, IndieWire, New York Post, The Wrap, The Desk, Variety, The Streamable, Axios, Cord Cutters News, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Times and Forbes


Q&A with Adam Mosseri on Threads' first year, not leaning into political content, driving engagement, focusing on real time content, fediverse, and more — Programming note: With this post, we now go on a short summer break. See you back here July 15. — A year ago this week, Meta introduced Threads to the world.
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Engadget, The Information, TechRadar, @willoremus@threads.net, @mosseri@threads.net, @ricmac@mastodon.social, @kurtwag8@threads.net, @J_aa_p@mastodon.social, @crumbler@threads.net, @rolle@mementomori.social, Bloomberg, @drewharwell@threads.net, Fast Company and @tchambers@indieweb.social, more at Techmeme »
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Mark Zuckerberg says Threads has 175M+ MAUs, up from 150M in April, ahead of its one-year anniversary on July 5; source: Meta may turn on ads in Threads in 2025 — A year and a half ago, Threads was but a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg's eye. — Now, the rival to Elon Musk's X has reached …
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MediaPost, @zuck@threads.net, 9to5Mac, PhoneArena, @alexheath@threads.net, @mattnavarra@threads.net, @technicallymims@threads.net, @documentingmeta@threads.net, Garbage Day, Neowin, MobileSyrup, @walthickey, @benedictevans@threads.net, Washington Post, @kevinrothrock@infosec …, @carnage4life@threads.net, Android Headlines, Axios, @maxwelltani, @willoremus, Reuters, The Information and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »


The Murdoch-owned Sun in the UK abruptly switches political allegiance, endorsing the Labour Party ahead of the July 4 election — After years of critical coverage, tabloid backs Labour for first election since 2005, saying: ‘It is time for a change’ — The Sun newspaper has made an abrupt volte-face …
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The Sun, @johnbuckley_, @janemartinson, @leohickman, @thesun, @gmhales, @garethharding, Financial Times, Boing Boing and New Yorker


Some WH reporters say Biden's mental fitness could have been better covered before the debate, particularly after the release of Robert Hur's report in February — President Joe Biden's White House repeatedly and aggressively shot down reports on the president's age and any possible limitations …
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New York Times, Poynter, Semafor, Rolling Stone, Reason, CBS News, Fox News, Deadline, The Daily Beast, New York Post, Columbia Journalism Review and San Diego Union-Tribune


Local news outlet Decaturish is sold to family-owned Appen Media, which runs weekly papers in the northern Atlanta suburbs; founder Dan Whisenhunt will remain — Whisenhunt felt he had three options: close, borrow money to grow or sell to a bigger company.
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Atlanta Business Journal, @alexip718, @decaturish, Decaturish, @decaturish, @davempayne, @decaturish and @decaturish


Leaked recording: a TC Energy executive claims its communications team “packaged” a February 2024 WSJ editorial blasting Biden's natural gas policy — A TC Energy exec claimed credit for an article signed by the Journal's editorial board, saying 'Our communications team packaged …
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@emmamci, @trilliumflowers, @fatimabsyed and @trilliumflowers


Brad Stone, editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, which moved to monthly circulation, says print may make a comeback as readers want “distraction-free luxury” — Editor of Businessweek Brad Stone said he believes print journalism could make a comeback as the 95-year-old title moved from weekly to monthly circulation this week.
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Talking Biz News


A federal court in Texas temporarily blocks the US government's ban on noncompete agreements that was set to take effect September 4 — A federal court in Texas has partially blocked the government's ban on noncompete agreements that was set to take effect September 4.
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Journalists need to reject formulas that have made them ineffective, like presenting “both sides”, after the SCOTUS ruling giving presidents unrestricted power — This is the first in a series of posts. — Dear journalists: This is your moment.
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Semafor, @karlauerbach@sfba.social, @fheinderyckx@mastodon.social, New York Post, @androcat@toot.cat, @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social, @mkb@mastodon.social, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @BruceMirken@mas.to, @dkiesow@threads.net, Melanie Sill on LinkedIn, Melanie Sill on LinkedIn, Fox News, @tofugolem@mastodon.social, @dangillmor@mastodon.social and @melaniesill@mastodon.social


Telegram rolls out the ability for creators to share paid content to channels using its Stars digital currency and for channels to convert Stars to Toncoin — Telegram launched a digital currency called Stars for in-app use last month. Now, the company is expanding its use cases to paid content.
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MediaPost, more at Techmeme »