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The Gannett-Reuters deal aims to supplant The Associated Press, which has resisted journalism's financialization through its longstanding cooperative model — Gannett and Reuters come for one of the final corners for legacy media that had resisted the financialization of journalism.
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Reuters and Gannett plan to launch a content bundle in Q1 2025, sold by Reuters; the bundle won't include access to games and puzzles from Gannett's newspapers — - Customers can access Reuters' national and international coverage, combined via a bundle with Gannett's national news coverage …


Memo: Sameer Singh, TikTok's general manager for North America's ads team, is leaving the company at the end of February, as the company faces a ban in the US — Sameer Singh will remain at the company until the end of February — Sameer Singh, TikTok's North America head of ad sales …
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Ad Age, Business Insider and The Information
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Many advertisers on TikTok say they will shift ad dollars if and when a US ban actually takes effect, as the yearslong saga has dulled any real sense of urgency
Discussion:
Adweek, @saraheneedleman, CBS News, @arozenshtein, @nathanleamerdc, @meghanbobrowsky, Bloomberg and The Information


Meta says the viral AI profiles on Facebook and Instagram were created in 2023 as part of “an early experiment” with AI characters, and it is deleting them — Earlier this week, Meta executive Connor Hayes told the Financial Times that the company is going to roll out AI character profiles …
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A US appeals court rules the FCC did not have legal authority to reinstate net neutrality rules; incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr opposed the 2024 reinstatement — A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday the Federal Communications Commission did not have the legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules.
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Anthropic agrees with three publishers to stop Claude from providing lyrics to their songs or new lyrics based on copyrighted content, pending a court ruling — While the case is proceeding, Anthropic's Claude will no longer provide lyrics to songs owned by the music publishers or new lyrics based on copyrighted material.


Filing: Skydance Media and Paramount Global defend their planned $8.4B merger, calling on the FCC to dismiss opposition from critics as lacking merit — Skydance Media and Paramount Global (PARA.O) on Thursday defended their planned $8.4 billion merger, urging the Federal Communications Commission …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, New York Post, TVNewsCheck and Yahoo Finance


Sources: Getty Images is exploring a merger with rival Shutterstock; deliberations are ongoing and Getty could decide not to pursue a deal — - Getty weighing how to structure combo with stock-photo rival … Getty has been weighing how to structure a combination that would bring together …
Discussion:
Reuters and The Information

Diamond Sports Group emerges from bankruptcy, restructures, and rebrands as Main Street Sports Group, supported by Amazon's Prime Video and FanDuel partnerships — Main Street Sports Group logo — One of the longest-running sagas in sports media has finally come to an official end.


An in-depth look at Elon Musk's criticisms of Wikipedia, as he joins a growing right-wing chorus of voices attacking information sources outside their control — The world's richest man has joined a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking Wikipedia as part of an intensifying campaign against free and open access information.


An unredacted lawsuit from Utah's AG claims TikTok has long known that TikTok Live promoted sexual content streams to minors and facilitated money laundering — - Unredacted lawsuit claims TikTok knew about teen safety issues — Lawsuit also alleges company facilitated money laundering
Discussion:
Reuters, The Information, Gizmodo, KSLTV.com and @ali_lev


Influencer marketing company Later acquires Mavely, which pays commissions to social-media creators for the sales they generate, for $250M in cash and stock — Later, an influencer and social-media marketing company, acquired social commerce app Mavely for $250 million