Top News:
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The Financial Times names Chief Commercial Officer Jon Slade as CEO, replacing John Ridding on July 1; Slade manages 75% of the FT Group's £500M annual revenue — Financial Times chief commercial officer Jon Slade has been named as the next CEO of the business, to succeed John Ridding.
Discussion:
@ft, Talking Biz News, Financial Times, Nikkei Asia, afaqs!, MediaPost and Financial Times
Todd Spangler / Variety:
In a letter, Skydance alleges Project Rise Partners, the group behind a late $13.5B rival bid for Paramount, “fraudulently misrepresented” its financing — PRP rep calls Skydance accusations ‘outrageous’ and says group has financial commitments to complete a transaction with Paramount
Discussion:
Deadline, MLex, New York Post, The Wrap and Bloomberg
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with WSJ Publisher and Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour on WSJ cutting tech reporting, the content deal with OpenAI, WSJ opinion pages, press freedom, and more — Today, I'm talking with Almar Latour, who is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of its parent company Dow Jones …
Discussion:
Status, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social, Daring Fireball, Talking Biz News and @reckless.bsky.social
Liam Reilly / CNN:
A Florida circuit court judge denies the Pulitzer Board's request to pause a defamation lawsuit by Trump until he is out of office — New York CNN — — A Florida circuit judge on Monday denied the Pulitzer Board's request to pause a defamation lawsuit from Donald Trump until the president is out of office.
Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Miramax appoints former Village Roadshow executive Alix Jaffe as president of television, reporting to CEO Jonathan Glickman, starting March 31 — She succeeds Marc Helwig who departed the company at the start of 2025 after almost five years. — In her new role, Jaffe …
Discussion:
The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and TVNewsCheck
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Sources: Concord Music is in the final negotiations to acquire Stem, an LA-based company involved in music distribution, payments, and royalty services — We also hear that Raine Group is in the middle of it.
Discussion:
Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google updates Chrome extension policy to ban affiliate link injection without user action or benefit, after allegations Honey stole creators' affiliate revenue — Honey was accused of shadily swapping out affiliate links, and now Google has new rules for extensions targeting exactly that.
Discussion:
@zachbussey.bsky.social, @jaypeters.net and Advisorator, more at Techmeme »
Stephen Totilo / Game File:
Mike Verdu, who joined Netflix in 2021 to launch its game offering and took on a new role as VP of Generative AI for games four months ago, has left the company — Mike Verdu, the executive who led Netflix's foray into gaming before changing roles at the company last year, is no longer at Netflix …
Discussion:
Mobilegamer.biz and @stephentotilo.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »
Adriana Gomez Licon / Associated Press:
The US DHS skipped a fully competitive bid process to give two GOP-tied firms part of a $200M TV ad campaign lauding Trump's fight against illegal immigration — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security skipped a fully competitive bidding process to give two Republican-linked firms …
James Hibberd / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney+ and Lucasfilm bring Andor season one to Hulu and the first three episodes to the Disney+ YouTube channel for free, ahead of Andor's season two launch — Disney+ is making episodes more widely available online ahead of the release of season two. — “Oppression breeds rebellion,” says a character in Andor.
Discussion:
Disney Plus on YouTube, The Verge, Game Rant, Streaming Better, Kotaku, SEENIT, @starwars, The Streamable, The Sun, The Manual, @dhmontgomery, @ironcrakka, @simondowens@threads.net, Digital Trends, kottke.org, @avitek.bsky.social, @jaylender.bsky.social, UPI, Polygon, BGR, Cord Cutters News, Entertainment Weekly, Inverse, SlashFilm, Forbes, Deadline, The Wrap, The Playlist and Media Play News
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
ABC: print circulations at UK regional daily newspapers collectively declined 16% YoY in 2024, and no regional daily now has print circulation of 20,000 or more — Print circulations at UK regional daily newspapers collectively declined 16% between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest data from ABC.
Discussion:
@benjitoon.bsky.social and @pressgazette.co.uk
Business Insider:
SoftBank-backed Jellysmack spins off Jellysmack Originals into a new entity, Blue Foxes, led by ex-Jellysmack Originals VPs; Jellysmack keeps Law&Crime Network — - Creator economy startup Jellysmack has spun off part of its original content business into a new entity.
