Mediagazer: YouTube says YouTube Music and YouTube Premium now have 125M+ subscribers globally, including trials, after passing 100M subscribers in February 2024 (Murray Stassen/Music Business Worldwide)

11:25 AM ET, March 5, 2025

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YouTube debuts a $7.99/month Premium Lite tier in the US, offering ad-free videos like gaming and news, and plans to launch in Thailand, Germany, and Australia — Today we'll begin expanding our Premium Lite pilot to users in the US. Premium Lite gives viewers a new …

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Wrap, Billboard, The Verge, Engadget, The Hollywood Reporter, BGR, 9to5Google and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:

YouTube says YouTube Music and YouTube Premium now have 125M+ subscribers globally, including trials, after passing 100M subscribers in February 2024 — MBW's Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry.

Discussion: Variety, YouTube Official Blog and @lucas_shaw

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Disney plans to cut nearly 6% staff, or ~200 jobs, across ABC News and Disney Entertainment Networks; ABC is also eliminating 538, which had ~15 employees — The layoffs are being announced to employees as early as Wednesday — About 200 employees are being let go at Disney's ABC News Group …

Oliver Darcy / Status:

Source: WaPo Publisher Will Lewis quietly met with Free Beacon EIC Eliana Johnson last month, where the two discussed recruiting conservative journalists — As Jeff Bezos pushes The Washington Post to the right, publisher Will Lewis quietly met with a conservative editor last month, Status has learned.

Discussion: New York Post, @mediaevan, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social, @mattdpearce.com and Mediaite

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

A look at the LA Times' AI “Insights”: much of the cited sourcing wouldn't pass scrutiny in a newsroom or a classroom, and the political labels can be confusing — The hope: The L.A. Times will appear more “objective” if it presents both sides of an issue, even if one side's written …

Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:

The Los Angeles Times removes Particle's AI-powered “Insights” feature from a column after the tool tried to defend the Ku Klux Klan, just a day after its debut — An AI-generated summary tried to offer “different views” on the hate group.

Discussion: Shelly Palmer, @mattsheffield@mastodon.social, Timnit Gebru on LinkedIn, @sternbergh.bsky.social, @harrymccracken@mastodon …, The Guardian and @ripperoni.com, more at Techmeme »

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Digg founder Kevin Rose and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian buy Digg for an undisclosed sum from Money Group, aiming to focus on “connection and humanity” online — Two decades after creating Digg, a community-focused social message board, Kevin Rose is reviving the site and teaming up with a founder of Reddit.

Discussion: Digiday, Reuters, Associated Press, TechCrunch, Inc.com, The Verge, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, @dannygroner.bsky.social and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Patch CEO Warren St. John says its AI-curated newsletters, with 400K subscribers, have grown Patch's reach from 1,100 to 30K US communities in just a few months — - Of Patch's 3 million newsletter subscribers nationally, 400,000 subscribe to its new AI newsletter products, per St. John.

Discussion: Mike Carraggi on LinkedIn

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

WPP invests in Stability AI as part of a deal to use its models across images, video, and audio, and says it is increasing its AI investment to ~£300M per year — AI being used across industry to produce marketing campaigns faster and at lower cost — UK advertising group WPP …

Discussion: Ad Age and Fortune

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

TNT Sports strikes a deal with DAZN to televise 24 of the 63 FIFA Club World Cup 2025 matches on TNT, TBS, and truTV, including the final — TNT Sports will televise 24 of the 63 matches, including the final, on TNT, TBS and TruTV in a deal with the streaming sports service, which retains global rights.

Discussion: Advanced Television, Front Office Sports, @nick-waters.bsky.social and Sports Video Group

Benjamin Svetkey / The Hollywood Reporter:

Streaming has been a major setback for classic movies, largely due to platforms that ignore or bury old films; the oldest film on Netflix is from 1973 — The oldest title available on Netflix last month was 1973's ‘The Sting.’ Where does that leave the next generation of film lovers?

Discussion: @chrisyogerst.com, @tvhilton.bsky.social and Screen Rant

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Memo: WSJ Editor Emma Tucker announces the layoffs of some reporters and editors, and the creation of new jobs, amid a consolidation of tech and media coverage — Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker sent out the following on Tuesday:

Discussion: The Wrap, @katie_robertson, @jessicalessin and @annkspencer.bsky.social

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