Top News:
New York Times:
Sources: former WaPo executive editor Leonard Downie and ex-managing editor Bob Kaiser emailed Jeff Bezos in February, urging him to cut ties with Will Lewis — An emailed message underscores a divide between the chief executive, Will Lewis, and the people who helped build The Post into a force in American journalism.
Reuters:
UK's CMA fines Sky, BT, IMG, ITV, and the BBC a combined £4M+ after they admitted “to breaking the law” by “colluding” on pay rates for freelancers — Britain's competition regulator fined four sports broadcast and production companies about 4 million pounds …
Discussion:
Advanced Television, Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC, Yahoo Finance, @bectu, Broadcast, GOV.UK, The Standard, Deadline, The Independent, @cmagovuk, CMA and RTÉ
Bloomberg:
Good Good Golf, which has 1.75M+ YouTube subscribers, raised $45M led by Creator Sports Capital, with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions and 50+ others joining — The startup's YouTube channel has attracted more than 1.75 million subscribers — Retired quarterback Peyton Manning …
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Bard College acquires Lapham's Quarterly at no cost from the American Agora Foundation, which had placed the print publication on hiatus in November 2023 — The beloved magazine started by Lewis Lapham, who died last year, is being acquired by Bard College.
Discussion:
Lapham's Quarterly and @jeffjarvis.bsky.social
Katherine Hamilton / Wall Street Journal:
Activist investor David Hoffmann, who owns ~10% of Lee Enterprises after investing in October, proposes acquiring the company; $LEE rose ~18% on March 20 — Hoffmann says conversations between the companies have been ongoing since October; he declined to comment on an offer price
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, Tulsa World, @benmullin, Arizona Daily Star, InsideArbitrage and St. Louis Business Journal
Alban Kacher / Reuters:
French media regulator Arcom orders Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Russian channels STS and Channel 5, after finding the channels had ties to a sanctioned entity — French media regulator Arcom has ordered Eutelsat (ETL.PA) to cease broadcasting Russian channels STS and Channel 5 …
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Apple TV+ is losing $1B+ annually even as its subscriptions grew to ~45M in 2024; source: Apple has spent $5B+ per year on content since its 2019 debut — Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook had questions about several pricey movie deals executives of Apple TV+, the company's video-streaming service …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, The Streamable, Fortune, C21Media, Deadline, Reuters, The Guardian, The Indian Express, @waynema, @loudmouthjulia, @kirkneverdied, @joshuaogundu, @loudmouthjulia, Puck, @royprice, Benzinga, @alexweprin, @lukedivita, @benedictevans@threads.net, @worldshaker@threads.net, @loudmouthjulia, @mazzeo, @tim_bays, @alexweprin, @great_katzby, @tvgrimreaper, @trungtphan, @davidclinchnews, @tvgrimreaper, @antennadata, @tvgrimreaper, Entrepreneur, Digital Music News, The Verge, TechCrunch, BGR, Decider, SlashFilm, Variety, TVNewsCheck, IndieWire, @samadams.bsky.social, Consequence, @merrillbarr.com, Yahoo Finance, @wolfsongz.bsky.social, @tylerh.social, Quartz, Christian Grece on LinkedIn, The Times, The Wrap, AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Cord Cutters News, @lauridonahue.bsky.social, @stevensenior.bsky.social and @radiobeartime.com, more at Techmeme »
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Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Antenna: Apple TV+ gained ~3M subscribers in January, when Severance Season 2 came out, up 8% from December and more than any other streamer except Paramount+
Discussion:
TVLine, The Atlantic, MacRumors, Washington Post, Dexerto, Forbes, 9to5Mac, @antennadata, Consequence, @tvgrimreaper, @loudmouthjulia, Deadline, The Wrap, Business Insider and Just Jared
Alex Reisner / The Atlantic:
A look at LibGen, one of the largest online pirate libraries, with 7.5M+ books and 81M+ research papers, allegedly used by Meta and OpenAI to train AI models — Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI. Search through them here. — When employees at meta started developing …
Discussion:
The Atlantic, @bradthor, Music Ally, Fiona Moore on LinkedIn, @ajwestauthor.bsky.social, @jwilker@wandering.shop, @ipcopyright.bsky.social, @philnel@mastodon.green, @annafeatherstone.bsky.social, @karin.kallmaker.com, @kelliehailes.bsky.social, @around.com, @www.johnbleasdale.com, @rr4idic@mastodon.online, @cigitalgem@sigmoid.social, @conordougherty.bsky.social, @joachim123.bsky.social, Marcus on AI, Lou In Progress, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social, @ethanz@social.coop, @invicticide@mastodon …, @michael_w_busch …, @dorotheabaur.bsky.social, @garymarcus.bsky.social, @thecommongreen@mastodon.scot, @beep@follow.ethanmarcotte.com, @katienotopoulos.bsky.social, ARTnews, south downs founding father …, Music Technology Policy, Twisted Dreams, Ellipsus and The Daddy Complex, more at Techmeme »
Jordan Teicher / Nieman Lab:
A profile of Jake Fischer, a rising NBA insider who operates independently on Substack rather than working for traditional media giants like ESPN — While insiders typically work for established media companies like ESPN, Jake Fischer operates out of his Brooklyn apartment and publishes scoops behind a paywall on Substack.
Discussion:
@sarahscire.com and Columbia Journalism Review
Variety:
CEO Phil Spencer says Microsoft Gaming is embracing trial and error as the company bets on a different kind of game-to-film adaption with A Minecraft Movie — The film is a bet by Warner Bros., Legendary and Microsoft on a different kind of adaptation — Throw a pickaxe in Hollywood today …
Discussion:
USA Today, @knoebel.bsky.social, @bondsarahbond.bsky.social, Kari Perez on LinkedIn, WGB, Tubefilter, CNET, Comic Book, Business Insider, Adweek, TechRadar, Axios, Ad Age and Dexerto
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
As Spotify pushes its new video monetization program, sexually explicit videos have appeared on its top podcast charts, violating the company's terms of use — The sexually explicit videos, which Spotify doesn't allow, have shown up alongside some of the most popular podcasts on the service
Discussion:
Lefsetz Letter
Meghnad Bose / Columbia Journalism Review:
How some news outlets are implementing policies to better protect immigrant sources, including helping them understand the implications of talking to the press — Several outlets say they've loosened anonymity policies in recent weeks. — A few days before Donald Trump's second inauguration …
Discussion:
American Press Institute and Meghnad Bose on LinkedIn
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bluesky says it is now sending referral traffic through its “go” subdomain to make it easier for publishers to track the traffic coming from the social network — Social network Bluesky, an open source X rival, has made a change that will allow publishers to better track …
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