Mediagazer: A review finds UK police correctly investigated Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson over alleged racism after a complaint about a tweet she later deleted (Vikram Dodd/The Guardian)

7:25 AM ET, March 7, 2025

Top News:

Sean Burch / The Wrap:

Paramount files two motions in Trump's lawsuit against CBS News, one seeking dismissal on First Amendment grounds and the second saying Texas is the wrong venue — Paramount says President Trump's lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris is “an affront to the First Amendment”

Discussion: The Hill, Axios, The Independent, @peterstefanovic.bsky.social, Variety, Deadline, Mediaite, @bejust.bsky.social, Cord Cutters News, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and Georgetown Law

Andrew Marchand / New York Times:

Sources: ESPN and Stephen A. Smith agree to a five-year $100M contract that has Smith continuing on his daily First Take show and scaling back other commitments — Stephen A. Smith has agreed to a new contract with ESPN worth at least $100 million for five years, an agreement that will result …

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

A journalist using the pseudonym Dissent Doe, who runs US-based DataBreaches.net, refuses a UK court order to remove two posts on a cyberattack at HCRG — A U.S.-based independent cybersecurity journalist has declined to comply with a U.K. court-ordered injunction that was sought following …

Discussion: DataBreaches.Net

Nate Silver / Silver Bulletin:

Disney was never particularly interested in running FiveThirtyEight as a business; the data-driven approach to political coverage still has a bright future — Last night, as President Trump delivered his State of the Union address 1, the Wall Street Journal reported that ABC News would lay off …

Discussion: Daring Fireball, @adrianbarnard, @naphisoc, @brettgwinn, Status, Townhall, Front Office Sports, @transitive.bsky.social, @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social, Poynter, The Gateway Pundit, The Guardian, HuffPost and The Daily Wire

Michael Savage / The Guardian:

Memo: BBC News CEO Deborah Turness announces a new department that will use AI to give people more personalized content and focus on reaching under-25-year-olds — Boss says BBC News's reach is ‘defying gravity’ and it must use AI to ‘support and accelerate our growth’

Discussion: @peteprodge.com, @lisazed.bsky.social, @lisazed.bsky.social, @brianstorms@mastodon.social, Claes de Vreese on LinkedIn, @mrrobertbob.bsky.social, @Lazarou@mastodon.social, TVNewsCheck and @michaelsavage.bsky.social

Vikram Dodd / The Guardian:

A review finds UK police correctly investigated Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson over alleged racism after a complaint about a tweet she later deleted — Telegraph columnist was visited by ‘exemplary’ officer after complaint about inaccurate tweet she later deleted

Discussion: GB News and Jersey Evening Post

Washington Post:

A look at the Trump administration's strategy to transform its traditional press shop into a rapid-response influencer operation via memes, TikTok, and podcasts — The Trump administration has transformed its traditional press shop into a rapid-response influencer operation, and “they're all offense, all the time.”

Discussion: New York Magazine, @drewharwell.com, The Gateway Pundit, The Information, The Hill, Daily Mail, @mehdirhasan.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, @jeisinger.bsky.social, Melanie Sill on LinkedIn, @chikitty.bsky.social, @astroboy58.bsky.social, @davidnakamura.bsky.social, @davidenrich.bsky.social, @drewharwell@threads.net, @janemayer.bsky.social and PR Daily

Reuters:

Vivendi says the net asset value of its investments was €4.83B as of December 31, 2024, following the French publishing group's spinoff of three companies — Vivendi (VIV.PA) said on Thursday that the net asset value of its investments amounted to 4.83 billion euros ($5.23 billion) …

Bloomberg:

Sources: the FCC asked 13 public radio stations, including Boston's WBUR, for details on past sponsorships by March 31, to assess potential guideline violations — The Federal Communications Commission sent letters to 13 public radio stations asking them to compile materials detailing past sponsorships …

Discussion: @dkistner1111.bsky.social

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Audacy says it “has made workforce reductions” to “stay competitive”; sources say ~100 employees were laid off this week and cuts may exceed 300 by mid-March — Radio broadcaster Audacy issued sweeping layoffs this week that have impacted at least 100 workers in local …

Discussion: Barrett Media, @thedesk.net, RADIO ONLINE and Awful Announcing

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

Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:

Production managers, supervisors, and coordinators at Walt Disney Animation Studios ratify their first union contract, which raises minimum wage rates and more — Production managers, production supervisors and production coordinators at the ‘Wish’ studio negotiated for health and pension benefits as well as higher minimum wage rates.

Discussion: C21Media, Variety, Deadline and The Wrap

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S.V. Date / HuffPost:
FEC filings: Brian Glenn, a new favored White House reporter, was Right Side Broadcasting Network's main voice when it was paid $92K by Trump political groups

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Bill Grueskin / Columbia Journalism Review:
Prosecutors say they won't pursue charges against Stanford student journalist Dilan Gohill, arrested while covering a pro-Palestinian protest nine months ago

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Wayne Friedman / MediaPost:
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Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Intangible, which offers an AI tool that allows filmmakers, game designers, and others to create 3D world concepts with text prompts, raised a $4M seed

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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Neal Mohan says YouTube Originals didn't work because YouTube wasn't “good at picking content” and so the company decided to focus on building creator tools

Brian Stelter / CNN:
Washington Post Media Reporter Will Sommer joins The Bulwark, where he will be publishing a twice-a-week newsletter on “the forces driving today's far-right”

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Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Politico unveils an AI tool that lets Politico Pro subscribers generate detailed policy reports using data from Politico's reporting and analysis

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Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Memo: MSNBC hires WABC-TV VP and News Director Scott Matthews to serve as head of newsgathering, and plans to hire 100 journalists as part of its news operation

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Mandy Dalugdug / Music Business Worldwide:
Lyric rights licensing company LyricFind sues Musixmatch and its owner TPG Growth, alleging antitrust violations that threaten competition across the industry

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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
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Rebecca Stewart / Adweek:
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The Wrap:
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Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
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From Techmeme:

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google rolls out a new Gmail encryption model for enterprises in beta that doesn't require senders or recipients to use custom software or exchange certificates

Financial Times:
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CNBC:
OpenAI closes a $40B round, the most raised by a private tech company, at a $300B post-money valuation; SoftBank led with $30B; source: ~$18B is for Stargate

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