Mediagazer: World History Encyclopedia, the second most visited history site, says its traffic fell 25% in Nov. 2024 after AI search tools began presenting its information (Alex Kantrowitz/Big Technology)

8:15 AM ET, March 29, 2025

Top News:

Elon Musk says xAI acquired X in an all-stock deal valuing xAI at $80B and X at $33B; xAI was reportedly in talks to raise funds in February at a $75B valuation — Elon Musk said on Friday that his startup xAI has merged with X, his social network, in an all-stock transaction that values …

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Brian Stelter / CNN:

A US district court judge issues a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration's efforts to close Voice of America, in a lawsuit by VOA staff — A federal judge sided with silenced Voice of America journalists on Friday, the latest setback for President Trump's push to shut …

Discussion: New York Times, The Independent, Ilann Maazel on LinkedIn, The NewsGuild, US District Court, Southern District of New York, The Hill, Deadline, The Desk, @brianstelter.bsky.social, @brianstelter.bsky.social, @brianstelter.bsky.social, Roll Call and New York Daily News

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

Trump commutes the criminal fraud sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson, shortly before Watson was due to begin serving a 116-month prison term — President Donald Trump commuted the criminal sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson on Friday, just hours before Watson was due …

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

In a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger, FCC Chair Brendan Carr says the FCC is opening an investigation into DEI practices of Disney and ABC — - Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, is now investigating Disney over its DEI practices.

Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:

World History Encyclopedia, the second most visited history site, says its traffic fell 25% in Nov. 2024 after AI search tools began presenting its information — World History Encyclopedia CEO Jan van der Crabben saw his site show up in Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT. Then traffic dropped 25%.

Discussion: @bcmerchant.bsky.social, @bcmerchant.bsky.social and @kantrowitz.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Klein / New York Magazine:

Guardian US expects $44M in donations in the US and Canada in 2025, up 33% YoY; contributions make up 60% of revenue, which exceeded costs by $16M in 2024 — There was a time in media when having a billionaire owner was an asset. For many outlets, this is still the case …

Discussion: @annala7680.bsky.social, Steve Sachs on LinkedIn, @casmudde.bsky.social, @sulliview.bsky.social, @pressgazette.co.uk, @nymag.com, @charlottetklein.bsky.social and @mattmittenthal.bsky.social

Sharon Knolle / The Wrap:

QVC lays off ~900 employees, or ~5% of its workforce, after consolidating operations with HSN earlier in 2025, as QVC pivots to “a live social shopping company” — The layoffs come as part of a reorganization for the QVC Group after consolidating with rival network HSN earlier this year

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, QVC Group, @jacquegonzales, USA Today, CBS News, Cord Cutters News, @andrewcoye, Business Observer, Retail Dive, Philadelphia Business Journal, 6abc and WWD

Carly Thomas / The Hollywood Reporter:

The Academy apologizes for not publicly supporting Hamdan Ballal, co-director of Oscar-winning No Other Land, after his assault and arrest in the West Bank — Filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was reportedly beaten and detained earlier this week after a conflict in the West Bank.

Discussion: Press Association, Variety, @kimmasters.bsky.social, Arab News, The Wrap, The Independent, Screen Rant, Deadline, Raw Story, IndieWire, Oh No They Didn't! and The Ankler

Washington Post:

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg says the Trump administration's lies regarding Signal chats on Yemen attack plans prompted him to reveal the texts — The Trump administration tried to paint the veteran journalist as a liar, so he felt compelled to prove them wrong — and he had the receipts.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Axios, @ellenwapo.bsky.social, @jswatz.bsky.social, @herbscribner.bsky.social, @nxthompson.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, CBS News and r/Journalism

Oliver Darcy / Status:

Sources: the Los Angeles Times has laid off dozens of employees on the business side this week, including VP of Communications Hillary Manning — The newspaper slashed dozens of business-side staffers this week—including its longtime chief spokesperson—in a painful new round of cuts, Status has learned.

Discussion: Breitbart, @pinemikey.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social and @passantino.bsky.social

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Google will pay $100M in cash to settle a 2011 lawsuit accusing the company of charging for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted — Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a long-running lawsuit claiming it overcharged advertisers by failing …

Discussion: The Verge and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Student Press Law Center:

A press freedom coalition condemns US immigration officials' detention of a Turkish Ph.D. student who co-wrote an op-ed supporting Palestinians in March 2024 — - Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) — The Student Press Law Center and 10 other free speech …

Discussion: @hamishmckenzie, Freedom of the Press …, @penamerica, @brianstelter, @penamerica, The Federalist, ABC News, PEN America, @freedom.press, @mshelton.bsky.social, @splc.org, The Tufts Daily and Reuters

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Kate Lamb / The Guardian:
Amid increasing intimidation of journalists in Indonesia, journalists working for Tempo, an outlet critical of the government, received dead animals as threats

Discussion: @bermudezlievano.bsky.social, @eveshi.bsky.social, WIPs galore, Editor and Publisher and Committee to Protect …

Jake Kanter / Deadline:
A look at AI-generated fake movie trailers on YouTube; WBD, Paramount, and Sony have earned ad revenue from some videos instead of defending their copyright

Discussion: @denispacheco.bsky.social, @tasharobinson.bsky.social, @redactedrodriguez.bsky.social and @peterhallhuman.bsky.social

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Penske Media and Tasty Media plan a Spanish-language edition of The Hollywood Reporter with original content, following editions in Italy, India, and Japan

Discussion: Diego Ortiz on LinkedIn

Olivia Solon / Bloomberg:
AppLovin hires a law firm to investigate short sellers' allegations that the mobile ad company's ad performance numbers are fraudulent

Discussion: The Register, Adweek, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Barron's Online, Business Wire, Benzinga and Investor's Business Daily

Patience Haggin / Wall Street Journal:
Adalytics: DoubleVerify, IAS, and Human Security, paid by advertisers to detect bots, regularly miss such traffic; DoubleVerify missed 21% of bot visits

Discussion: Paul Kurrie on LinkedIn, Integral Ad Science, MediaPost, Jim Gordon on LinkedIn, Charlie Tysse on LinkedIn, Jay Friedman on LinkedIn and Dr. Augustine Fou on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:
Court documents: India criticizes Elon Musk's X for wrongly labeling an official website, used to notify tech firms of harmful content, as a “censorship portal”

Discussion: @thomashansen.bsky.social

Earlier Picks:

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
FICCI-EY: India's media and entertainment sector revenue hit $29.4B in 2024, with digital media accounting for 32%, surpassing TV for the first time

Discussion: Digital Music News, Music Ally, The Economic Times, Press Trust of India, EY, MIT OpenCourseWare and Deadline

Matt Stevens / New York Times:
A report on California's creative economy finds entertainment jobs in 2024 were 25% below 2022; LA County's 2024 shooting days fell 42% compared to 2022

Discussion: Hollywood Life, Variety and Deadline

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
JioStar, the joint venture that merged Viacom18 and Star India, says its streaming service JioHotstar has passed 100M subscribers

Discussion: WORLD SCREEN

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
AP photographer Evan Vucci and AP Chief White House Correspondent Zeke Miller testified Thursday about damage done by the White House ban on the wire service

Discussion: The Independent, New Jersey Online, @seungminkim, @peterbakernyt, CNN, Stephanie Smith on LinkedIn, Wall Street Journal, Lindsay Stewart on LinkedIn, Agence France-Presse, The Hill, Saeed Ahmed on LinkedIn, @whoa-magic.lol, Giada Zampano on LinkedIn, Mediaite, @danlinder.bsky.social, Deadline, @kyledcheney.bsky.social and Associated Press

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Meta adds a Friends tab on Facebook that will show content just from users' friends, with no recommended posts, as it brings back “OG” Facebook experiences

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:
Sources: a16z is in talks to join the Oracle-led frontrunner bid for TikTok's US arm, after being approached along with Blackstone Group and others

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: in recent weeks, Meta executives including Mark Zuckerberg have pressed US trade officials to oppose an impending EU fine and cease-and-desist order

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