Mediagazer: Financial Times CEO John Ridding plans to step down on July 1 after 19 years, and will take an honorary FT chair title; the FT will now find a replacement (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

9:15 AM ET, March 6, 2025

Top News:

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Financial Times CEO John Ridding plans to step down on July 1 after 19 years, and will take an honorary FT chair title; the FT will now find a replacement — Financial Times CEO John Ridding is stepping down in June after leading the newspaper group for almost 20 years.

Discussion: Nikkei Asia, Talking Biz News, Financial Times, @pressgazette, Dominic Ponsford on LinkedIn and @ft

Ray Schultz / MediaPost:

Gannett unionized employees and management have reached tentative contract deals at six newspapers in New Jersey and New York after threatened walkouts — Walkouts were averted at six Gannett titles in New Jersey and New York when employees agreed on “ life-changing” increases in pay and job protections.

Discussion: NewsGuild of New York and New Jersey Globe

Andrew Cohen / Awful Announcing:
Gannett posts job listings for an AI sports editor and AI-assisted sports reporter; after flubs in 2023, it paused using LedeAI for high school sports stories

Discussion: @danrshafer, @aaronnagler, @joshua_newman, @andrew_cohen0 and @michaelsocolow

Rebecca Stewart / Adweek:

Publicis acquires Lotame, which analyzes people's online behavior across 109 countries, and plans to integrate Lotame into its Epsilon service — Epsilon integration will give Publicis access to 3.8 billion unique customer profiles globally — Publicis Groupe has acquired data company Lotame …

Discussion: Ad Age, Digiday, The Drum, GlobeNewswire News Room, TipRanks Financial and More About Advertising

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

ITV reports FY 2024 revenue down 3% YoY to $5.34B, Studios revenue down 6% YoY to $2.63B, digital ad revenue up 15% YoY, and its efficiency program saved $77.5M — The U.K.'s ITV revealed strong profit growth in its full-year results for 2024, despite facing challenges from the U.S. actors …

Discussion: Variety, Shares Magazine, MorningstarUK, Reuters, The Standard, The Media Leader, The Hollywood Reporter, ITV Plc and Deadline

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann says Netflix plans to spend ~$18B in cash on content in 2025, up nearly 11% YoY, and the amount is “not anywhere near a ceiling” — Netflix expects to spend in the neighborhood of $18 billion in cash on content in 2025 — and it sees plenty of runway …

Discussion: @tylerbishop, @tvgrimreaper, Deadline, The Wrap and Media Play News

Chris Welch / The Verge:

All Elite Wrestling and Amazon Prime Video announce a new multi-year agreement to offer AEW's pay-per-view events in the US, Canada, and the UK on Prime Video — The new pay-per-view streaming partnership kicks off this weekend with AEW Revolution, which costs $49.99.

Discussion: All Elite Wrestling, Sports Illustrated, TVNewsCheck, @jonalba, Wrestlezone, Slam Wrestling, Cageside Seats, Variety, Awful Announcing, Barrett Media and Advanced Television

Variety:

Variety.com names Zack Sharf as managing editor; Sharf joined Variety in January 2022 as digital news director after seven years at IndieWire — He previously served as digital news director since 2022. … “In the last three years, Zack has helped reinvent Variety's award-winning digital coverage …

Gordon Smith / Journalism.co.uk:

How the Financial Times is using online polls to engage readers and grow subscriptions; polls in FT newsletters regularly record engagement rates above 75% — The newspaper has a loyal, well-informed readership keen to share their opinions. Polls in its newsletters record engagement over 75 per cent

The Wrap:

Sources: LAT's Hector Becerra faced an HR probe in 2022 over alleged “insulting” behavior, including bullying; LAT says it has “been addressed and resolved” — The paper's De Los editor Paloma Esquivel resigned last week, accusing HR of dismissing her complaints against Becerra

Discussion: @sharonwaxman, @sharonwaxman, @sharonwaxman and @gstarr.bsky.social

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

WSJ journalists laid off amid consolidation of tech and media teams include Alexa Corse, Tom Dotan, Asa Fitch, Ben Fritz, Miles Kruppa, and Aaron Tilley — Here are The Wall Street Journal journalists whose jobs were eliminated on Tuesday: — Reporters:

Discussion: @shakeelhashim, @benmullin, @joannastern, @chaykak, @heathersomervil, @od_liam, @seanhollister.bsky.social, Jennifer Merritt on LinkedIn, Joanna Stern on LinkedIn, @joannastern.bsky.social, @willoremus.com, The Wrap, Fast Company, @annkspencer.bsky.social and Talking Biz News

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

UK journalist Graham Johnson estimates he cost News UK £500M through his testimony, books, and legal research since his phone hacking conviction in 2014 — Former tabloid reporter Graham Johnson believes he helped cost the publisher of The Sun £500m.

Forbes:

A TollBit analysis of 160 websites on its content licensing service finds AI search engines drive 96% less referral traffic than Google Search — AI companies promised publishers their AI search engines would send them more readers via referral traffic. New data shows that's not the case.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @paulmarks12, @rahll, @cterryobserver, What's New in Publishing, Australian Financial Review, @rashishrivast18, @ednewtonrex, @rashishrivast18, @pressgazette and @rashis.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:

Nielsen: Trump's address to Congress drew 36.6M viewers, a larger number than three of Biden's addresses to Congress but smaller than any in Trump's first term — The speech drew a larger audience than Joe Biden's last State of the Union but fell short of any from Trump's first term.

Discussion: Variety, USA Today, Forbes, @radarradar.bsky.social, Media Play News, Winnipeg Free Press, Adweek, PoliticusUSA, Los Angeles Times, TVLine, TVNewsCheck, New York Times, The Wrap, Bloomberg and Deadline

Jack Greenberg / YouTube Official Blog:

YouTube debuts an $8/month Premium Lite tier in the US, offering most videos ad-free and music with ads, 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, @jon.turningfortune.com, @film_girl, transistor.fm, Waleed Diab on LinkedIn, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, 9to5Google, MacRumors, The Verge, Variety, Engadget, BGR, The Wrap, Streaming Better, Cord Cutters News and Billboard

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

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, YouTube Official Blog, Digital Music News, TVNewsCheck, The Desk, Music Ally, The Information and The Hollywood Reporter

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Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

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Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

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More News:

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Tom Llamas will succeed Lester Holt as anchor of NBC Nightly News after Holt signs off in early summer

Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget:
Amazon announces an “AI-aided dubbing” pilot program on Prime Video, starting with dubbing in English and Latin American Spanish on 12 movies and series

Discussion: Advanced Television, Broadband TV News, Deadline, BGR, @thedesk.net, Quartz, Reuters and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Sesame Workshop cuts staff as it continues to look for a TV or streaming outlet for Sesame Street; production of the series' 56th season resumes next month

Discussion: NPR, Cord Cutters News, Adweek and TVNewsCheck

Variety:
A look at Neon's unconventional strategy to win an Oscar for Anora, including merchandise like branded thongs and spending $18M, a fraction of its rivals

Discussion: @brentalang and IndieWire

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Q&A with Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Daniels, and Jackie Alemany on co-hosting MSNBC's The Weekend beginning in April, the channel's transition period, and more

Discussion: Bradley Singer on LinkedIn, Advocate and @msnbcpr.bsky.social

Earlier Picks:

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The Sun names Jon Lloyd, previously behind TV content formats like Come Dine With Me, as its director of video to lead a video-first commissioning strategy

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

Discussion: MediaPost, Authority Magazine, Adweek, 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

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Awful Announcing, TV Tech, Media Play News, Winnipeg Free Press, Barrett Media, The Streamable, WORLD SCREEN, Stacey Richman on LinkedIn, Front Office Sports, @nick-waters.bsky.social, Sports Video Group and Advanced Television

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

Discussion: SPLICETODAY.com, The Independent, @mediaevan, New York Post, @thejeffmanghera.bsky.social, @joshsternberg.com, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @mattdpearce.com, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social and Mediaite

From Techmeme:

Samantha Subin / CNBC:
The Nasdaq closes down 4%, with Meta down 7%, Nvidia down 6%, Amazon down 5%, and Apple down 4%, as the White House says Trump's tariffs on China now total 145%

Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI recently gave staff and third-party groups just days, vs. several months previously, to evaluate risks and performance of its latest models

Charles Rollet / TechCrunch:
The DOJ charges AI shopping app Nate's ex-CEO, Albert Saniger, with fraud, alleging the app relies heavily on workers in the Philippines; Nate had raised $50M+

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