Mediagazer: Canada's Torstar sues Meta, claiming Meta breached a three-year, $6.75M contract to pay the Toronto Star for distributing content on Meta's social media sites (Joe Castaldo/Globe and Mail)

4:40 PM ET, February 14, 2025

Top News:

McKay Coppins / The Atlantic:

James and Kathryn Murdoch detail the succession battle that has pitted James and Lachlan Murdoch against each other, leaving the family empire's future unclear — James Murdoch on mind games, sibling rivalry, and the war for the family media empire — James murdoch was seated …

Discussion: Adweek, @theatlantic.com, @richarddeitsch.bsky.social, @janinegibson.ft.com, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @loudmouthjulia, @brianstelter, @benmullin, @stossel.bsky.social, @adriennelaf.bsky.social and New York Times

New York Times:

Court documents reveal the Murdochs' family succession drama in which Rupert Murdoch failed, so far, to lock in his media empire's right-wing bent — Part 1: ‘These companies are my legacy’ — In early December 2023, Rupert Murdoch flew into London to see his two oldest daughters, Prudence and Elisabeth.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube TV says it has “reached a short term extension” to keep Paramount's content, including CBS and Nickelodeon, “as we work toward a deal” — YouTube TV and Paramount Global, still haggling over a new distribution deal, have reached a short-term extension …

Sara Fischer / Axios:

The White House says it will bar AP from events in the Oval Office and on Air Force One over AP's refusal to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico” — - “The Associated Press continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America.

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
The White House blocked AP reporters from official events for the third day in a row, after the organization decided to keep using the name Gulf of Mexico

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Bloomberg, The New York Times, Reuters, The Washington Post, and other major US news outlets say they don't plan to switch completely to “Gulf of America”

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Apple and Google restore TikTok to their US app stores after its January 18 removal, following Trump admin assurances that a ban won't immediately be enforced — - Companies had removed the app to abide by US legislation — Trump signed executive order to delay a potential ban

Discussion: Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Washington Examiner, Forbes, RetailWire, BBC, Breitbart, Android Central, Passionfruit, Billboard, The Verge, Axios, Thurrott, @timsweeneyepic, The US Sun, Entrepreneur, @selinawangtv, Fast Company, Al Jazeera, @markgurman, @michaelsobolik, TechNode, iPhone in Canada Blog, @theapplehub, Sherwood News, Mashable, @markgurman, Tom's Guide, MEDIANAMA, Hollywood Life, @alexeheath, @trungtphan, Retail TouchPoints, Pocket-lint, @jason_kint, UPI, 9to5Google, MacDailyNews, Variety, Politico, TechCrunch, Cult of Mac, Times of India, MediaPost, Wired, Comic Book, Digital Music News, The Boston Globe, Financial Times, Reclaim The Net, The Verge, Adweek, BGR, KTVU-TV, NPR, The Indian Express, CBS News, Digital Trends, Engadget, CNBC, New York Times, AppleInsider, @redrd.bsky.social, @aricohn.com, The Wrap, The Information, Forbes, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, iClarified, ABC7, Business Insider and Just Jared, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Melania Trump's cut of her $40M documentary licensing deal with Amazon is 70%+, and her agents are selling “sponsorships” for the film starting at $10M — First lady's documentary deal with Amazon, president's legal settlements and other transactions near $80 million so far; Trump library a major beneficiary

Joe Castaldo / Globe and Mail:

Canada's Torstar sues Meta, claiming Meta breached a three-year, $6.75M contract to pay the Toronto Star for distributing content on Meta's social media sites — ////The parent company of the Toronto Star is suing Meta Platforms Inc. META-Q, alleging it unlawfully breached a contract to pay …

Andrew Liszewski / The Verge:

Amazon will remove the ability to download ebooks to a computer and send them to a Kindle over USB on February 26; it enabled easy backups and file conversions — After February 26th, you can only download books from the Kindle store to your e-reader over Wi-Fi.

Discussion: Android Police, Gizmodo, Trusted Reviews and Pocket-lint

Amanda Meade / The Guardian:

Australia's ABC Chair Kim Williams calls News Corp's claims that the public broadcaster costs taxpayers more than Netflix “unbalanced and agenda-driven” — In strongly worded statement, Kim Williams says allegations in Murdoch-owned tabloids ‘do not stand up to scrutiny’

Discussion: ABC, ABC, @simonrosenberg.bsky.social and TV Blackbox

Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:

The Paramount-Skydance merger receives approval from the US SEC, following the EU's nod earlier this week; the FCC's approval is still pending — Paramount Global moved a step closer to a deal, technically anyway, as the Securities and Exchange Commission made effective its registration statement outlining the transaction.

Discussion: The Streamable, Associated Press and The Wrap

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

A look at the rapid rise and fall of Talk Tuah, a podcast by “hawk tuah girl” Haliey Welch, showing how podcasting lets people cash in on viral internet fame — During the fourth quarter of 2024, Haliey Welch's show ranked No. 11 in the entire US — Hello, and welcome back to Soundbite.

Discussion: Barrett Media

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:

AMC Networks posts Q4 revenue down 12% YoY to $599M, a $254M operating loss, subscription revenue down 4% to $314M, and 12.4M streaming subscribers by year-end — AMC Networks took a $268.7 million goodwill impairment charge on its domestic operations reporting unit.

Discussion: The Desk, Advanced Television, Bloomberg, Deadline, Streaming Better, Cord Cutters News, AMC Networks, Media Play News, Yahoo Finance, Variety, The Wrap and TVNewsCheck

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More News:

Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
In an AMA, Steve Huffman says Reddit is planning to roll out paid subreddits in 2025 and is “laying the foundation” to monetize commerce within subreddits

Discussion: Engadget, @drahardja@sfba.social, @JessTheUnstill@infosec …, @arstechnica@mastodon.social, @autumnwolff.bsky.social, @stefan@stefanbohacek.online, @karlbode.com, The Register, CNBC and r/RDDT, more at Techmeme »

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Instagram is testing a dislike button for comments; Instagram will not show a dislike count and dislikes may eventually count toward ranking comments

Discussion: MediaPost, Digital Trends, Engadget, Trusted Reviews, @mosseri@threads.net, MacRumors, The Verge, Pocket-lint, @heaney_555@threads.net and New York Post, more at Techmeme »

Sean Burch / The Wrap:
The Washington Post's national politics reporter Ben Terris is leaving to join New York Magazine as its Washington correspondent, replacing Olivia Nuzzi

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @chaykak, @bterris and @henryporters

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
The Guardian signs a licensing deal with OpenAI, a day after becoming a part of a lawsuit filed against AI startup Cohere for alleged copyright infringement

Discussion: MediaPost, TechCrunch, Deadline, Engadget, OpenAI, @brandyljensen, @kimmonismus, Axios, CityNews Toronto, Plagiarism Today, Talking Biz News, BetaKit, Canadian Press, The Logic and The Information

Kendra Barnett / Adweek:
Reddit says content licensing deals with Google and OpenAI account for ~10% of its revenue but it's focused on its ad revenue business, which grew 60% YoY in Q4

Discussion: Bloomberg, @kendrabarnett.bsky.social, Kiplinger, MediaPost and The Information, more at Techmeme »

Jon Lewis / Sports Media Watch:
Report: ESPN chose not to renew its US F1 media rights package expiring in 2025; F1 executives met with Netflix and NBC during Super Bowl week in New Orleans

Discussion: Front Office Sports, Barrett Media, Awful Announcing and Spyglass

Earlier Picks:

The Indian Express:
JioStar, the joint venture that merged Viacom18 and Star India, launches JioHotstar, a streaming service in India offering JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar content

Discussion: Advanced Television, TechCrunch, The Hindu, WORLD SCREEN, Hindustan Times, JioHotstar helpdesk, Deadline and Reuters

David Cohen / Adweek:
DoubleVerify announces steps to further prevent clients' ads from appearing on sites hosting CSAM, after Adalytics found major brands appearing on unsafe sites

Discussion: MediaPost, DoubleVerify, DoubleVerify, Ad Age and The Media Leader

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku reports Q4 revenue up 22% YoY to $1.2B, vs. $1.15B est., net loss down 55% YoY to $35.5M, and streaming households up 12% YoY to 89.8M; ROKU jumps 15%+

Dan Primack / Axios:
Slow Ventures raised $60M+ for a fund to invest in creators who are authorities on niche areas like automotive; the fund appears to be the first of its kind

Discussion: @business, Business Insider, Bloomberg and Tubefilter

Charlotte Klein / New York Magazine:
Sources detail The New York Times' search for The Daily's co-host, aiming to make a decision this spring; CNN's Audie Cornish has spoken with NYT about the role

Discussion: The Information, Barrett Media, @karaswisher.bsky.social and @charlottetklein.bsky.social

From Techmeme:

CNBC:
OpenAI closes a $40B funding round, the most ever raised by a private tech company, at a $300B post-money valuation; SoftBank led the round with $30B

Ian King / Bloomberg:
At the Intel Vision conference, CEO Lip-Bu Tan says Intel plans to spin off non-core assets, create new products including custom semiconductors, and more

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman says OpenAI is planning to “release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the coming months”

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