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5:05 AM ET, January 14, 2025

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok denies a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to Elon Musk, calling it “pure fiction”  —  TikTok denied a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to tech billionaire Elon Musk to keep TikTok operational …
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese officials are evaluating an option involving Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US; X would take control of TikTok US and run the businesses together  —  Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok if the company fails …
Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD commits $15M to LA fire relief efforts while Amazon, Comcast, and Netflix donate $10M each, and Sony $5M; SAG-AFTRA pledges $1M for impacted workers  —  Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery commit $15 million while Amazon, Netflix and Comcast add $10 million, Sony chips in $5 million and Paramount contributes $1 million.
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko plans to transfer Mastodon's ownership to a new non-profit, saying it “should not be owned or controlled by a single individual”  —  Mastodon says the decentralized network ‘should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.’
Richard Nieva / Forbes:
Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky  —  Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure …
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: Chuck Todd has told top editors and leaders from other media organizations that he plans to leave NBC when his contract is up this year  —  Chuck Todd has quietly been meeting with Washington media organizations about his post NBC-future.  The former host of Meet The Press …
Ashifa Kassam / The Guardian:
A look at Begum TV, a Paris-based satellite channel that is broadcasting educational and entertainment shows for Afghan women living under strict Taliban rule  —  Begum TV beams educational and entertainment shows into homes of women living under strict Taliban rule
Discussion: spiked
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Research: climate change scepticism “almost entirely disappeared” from UK national newspapers over the past decade but they increasingly oppose taking action  —  But newspapers are instead increasingly arguing against the need to take action to slow climate change.
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: This American Life has discussed staff cuts; last year, the podcast quietly changed its “about” page, revising its listenership from 4M per week to 3M  —  The venerable podcast This American Life is poised to reduce staff for one of the few times since its founding in 1995, Semafor has learned.
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin leaves WaPo to launch The Contrarian on Substack, to combat the “authoritarian threat” with the tagline “Not owned by anybody”  —  New York CNN —  —  Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list …
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Memo: Susan Zirinsky, CBS News president from 2019 to 2021, will return as interim “executive editor” to oversee the unit's editorial standards  —  The veteran producer, who served as the unit's president from early 2019 to the end of 2021, has been asked to return to CBS News as an interim …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
NBCUniversal plans to shut down Universal Kids on March 6, 2025, as NBCU prepares to spin off most of its cable networks into a new, publicly traded company  —  NBCUniversal, which has already been evaluating its stake in the declining pay-TV business, plans to shut down cable network Universal Kids.
 
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 More News: 
Bloomberg:
Filing: Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick to lead the DoD, earned at least $6.2M over the last two years, including $4.6M from his job as a weekend host on Fox News
Zeyi Yang / Wired:
Ahead of a likely US TikTok ban, users flee to Chinese apps Xiaohongshu, aka RedNote, and ByteDance's Lemon8, currently the top two apps in the US App Store
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Rachel Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties to Mondays in 2022, will return to five nights a week as part of MSNBC's plans for Trump's first 100 days
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain will replace Neil Cavuto on Fox News, aiming to bring his “signature podcast style” to the 4pm slot
 Earlier Picks: 
Kerry Flynn / Axios:
T-Mobile agrees to acquire Vistar Media, which focuses on programmatic digital out of home advertising, for $600M in cash; the deal is expected to close in Q1
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is leaving following a botched app revamp that upset customers and stymied growth; Sonos names board member Tom Conrad as interim CEO
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
UK's Daily Mirror gives journalists individual online page-view targets; some print reporters covering more serious news fear the targets will affect quality
 

 
From Techmeme:

Riley Griffin / Bloomberg:
Internal memo: Meta is cutting roughly 5% of its staff through performance-based terminations and plans to hire new people to fill their roles this year

Justine Calma / The Verge:
Biden signs an EO that directs the DOD and DOE to lease land to companies building gigawatt-scale AI data centers and clean power facilities, and more

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Parallels rolls out an “early technology preview” of x86 emulation on Parallels Desktop for Macs with Apple silicon, warning that performance is “really slow”
 
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