Mediagazer: Director Carl Rinsch pleads not guilty to fraud and money laundering after allegedly taking $11M from Netflix for an unfinished series; trial is set for Sept. 8 (Ethan Shanfeld/Variety)

8:45 PM ET, April 3, 2025

Top News:

Memo: Vanity Fair Editor Radhika Jones tells staff that she will step down this spring after seven years of leading the Condé Nast-owned magazine — Jones, who joined the Condé Nast publication in 2017, will leave in the spring. — There will be a changing of the guard atop Vanity Fair …

Discussion: The Wrap, New York Times, Daily Mail, New York Post, Deadline and The Business of Fashion

Adam Satariano / New York Times:

Sources: the EU is preparing penalties against X for breaking the DSA, including demands for product changes and a fine that a source says could surpass $1B — European regulators are considering fining X more than $1 billion, after weighing the risks of further antagonizing Mr. Musk and President Trump.

Discussion: Reclaim The Net, @bobbyallyn.bsky.social, @kurtwagner.bsky.social, @freeourfeeds.com, @derparrot.bsky.social, @mijrahman.bsky.social, @rickderuiter.bsky.social, @back295.bsky.social, @nickashdown.bsky.social, @originalsp.in, @Vittoria@mastodon.social, Human Events and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »

Ethan Shanfeld / Variety:

Director Carl Rinsch pleads not guilty to fraud and money laundering after allegedly taking $11M from Netflix for an unfinished series; trial is set for Sept. 8 — Rinsch, who was out on a $100,000 bond, appeared in a downtown Manhattan courthouse Thursday afternoon for the arraignment …

Discussion: Rolling Stone and Deadline

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

The Independent says it hired seven people for its AI-written summarization service, Bulletin, and that the stories often outperform the human-written originals — Independent UK editor Chloe Hubbard said the new AI-written service “works commercially”. — The Independent's UK editor …

Discussion: Anne-Marina D. on LinkedIn and @kalihays.bsky.social

Yun Li / CNBC:

Newsmax shares fell 77.5% on Wednesday after a 2,230% surge in its first two days on the NYSE; NMAX rose 5%+ on Thursday — Shares of conservative news channel Newsmax plunged more than 70% on Wednesday as its meteoric rise as a new public company proved to be short-lived.

Discussion: Adweek, Newsmax, TVNewsCheck, The Desk, @bungdan.bsky.social, The Bulwark, @jcole26.bsky.social, @deanobeidallah.bsky.social, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, The Independent and Benzinga

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

Australian PM Anthony Albanese asserts his support for local content quotas on streaming platforms, despite pushing their implementation back from July 1 — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has doubled down on the government's commitment to implement local content quotas for streaming platforms …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Crikey, Time, Reuters and Bloomberg

Bloomberg:

AI video startup Runway raised $308M led by General Atlantic, sources say at a $3B+ valuation, and plans to hire more filmmakers, screenwriters, and others — The deal, which is set to be announced Thursday, pushes Runway's value to just over $3 billion, according to people familiar …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Variety, Reuters and Deadline, more at Techmeme »

Jerusalem Post:

Jerusalem Post EIC Zvika Klein has been released from house arrest after police questioned him several times over four days about his coverage of Qatar — “Contrary to what the Attorney-General's statement suggests, he was not part of any 'apparatus,” representatives of Klein said.

Discussion: @avi.zollman.com, Haaretz, The Times of Israel, The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, New York Times and Breitbart

Denise Petski / Deadline:

MTV's Video Music Awards will be broadcast on CBS for the first time this year; the show will simulcast on MTV and stream on Paramount+ on September 7 — For the first time, CBS will broadcast the 2025 Video Music Awards, live from UBS Arena on Sunday, Sept. 7 (8-11 PM, ET/5-8 PM PT), and streaming on Paramount+.

Discussion: The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, UPI, The Hollywood Reporter and @kevdgrussing.bsky.social

Jessica Testa / New York Times:

Spotify debuts new ad tools, including an AI tool in the US and Canada that generates scripts and voiceovers, and pitches itself to advertisers as “nutritional” — After finally achieving profitability, the streaming platform wants to be a healthy alternative to “doom scrolling.”

Discussion: Inside Radio, Adweek, Spotify, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Music Ally, The Hollywood Reporter, Ad Age and The Media Leader, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

A look at CBS' bet on its massive overhaul of the Evening News, with greater emphasis on in-depth reporting on the ground from places beyond NYC, DC, and LA — Billboard Women in Music 2025 — The venerable “CBS Evening News” has, for many of its viewers, been something consumed along with dinner.

Discussion: Nicole Vap on LinkedIn, Carlos P. Beltran on LinkedIn, @bristei and @bristei

Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:

Former Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc joins Togethxr, a media and commerce startup focused on women's sports, as executive chair; source: revenue so far in 2025 is $30M — The media veteran joins a group of her industry peers at Togethxr, a company that aims to capitalize on interest in women's sports

Discussion: Deadline and TVNewsCheck

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 8:45 PM ET, April 3, 2025.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

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

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
TikTok tests TikTok for Artists, which provides musicians with analytics and fan engagement tools, in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia

Discussion: TechCrunch, RouteNote Blog, Wall Street Journal, Music Business Worldwide and KRON4, more at Techmeme »

Taylor Lorenz / User Mag:
YouTube quietly removed “gender identity” from its hate speech policy after Trump took office; Google says enforcement of the policy remains unchanged

Discussion: Google Help Center, Tubefilter, Advocate, @Palleas@mastodon.social, @aridrennen.bsky.social, @pierrenick@hachyderm.io, @ianb@mastodon.well.com, @taylorlorenz.bsky.social, @pupamp.bsky.social, @robertscotthorton.bsky.social, @tranniehathaway.bsky.social, @161bklyn.bsky.social, @literalgrill.com and @FediVideo@social …, more at Techmeme »

Agata Pyka / Notes From Poland:
A Polish court awards compensation to two photojournalists who were treated brutally by Polish soldiers while they were reporting at the Belarus border in 2021

Discussion: @notesfrompoland.bsky.social

Sean Burch / The Wrap:
DMGT signs a deal with Storied Media Group to help the Daily Mail and New Scientist license stories to production companies and create branded content

Ben Mullin / @benmullin.bsky.social:
Longtime Washington Post columnist and reporter Eugene Robinson is leaving the paper, citing the “announced ‘significant shift’ in our section's mission”

Discussion: Fox News, New York Post, The Daily Beast, @benmullin.bsky.social, The Wrap and @benmullin.bsky.social

Wikimedia:
Wikimedia says bandwidth usage for multimedia content grew 50% since January 2024, driven by AI training bots; 65% of resource-consuming traffic comes from bots

Discussion: Christopher Petrillo on LinkedIn, @707kat.bsky.social, @eloquence@social.coop, @mhoye@mastodon.social, @carnage4life.bsky.social, Ars Technica, The Register, TechCrunch and Engadget

Earlier Picks:

Pranav Mukul / The Economic Times:
Bengaluru-based Pratilipi, which runs Pratilipi Comics, podcasting studio IVM, and more, raised a $20M Series E at a $100M valuation, down from $265M in 2021

Discussion: YourStory.com

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A look at the ascent of true crime podcaster John Allen, known as MrBallen, and the success of Ballen Studios, which employs 70 people and produces seven shows

Brendan Ruberry / Semafor:
Users complain that three well-known sites that help avoid paywalls, including archive.is, redirected them to Russia's RT for at least five days as of Tuesday

Kaya Yurieff / The Information:
Source: President Trump plans to announce TikTok America, a company that is ~50% owned by US investors and 19.9% by ByteDance, which would license the algorithm

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Newsquest's editorial development director says it now employs 36 “AI-assisted” reporters, freeing up the rest of the newsroom to “be out pounding the beat”

Discussion: What's New in Publishing

From Techmeme:

Kylie Robison / The Verge:
LMArena says it is updating its leaderboard policies after a Llama 4 Maverick version, which Meta said in fine print is not public, secured the number two spot

Matthew Gault / 404 Media:
Framework pauses sales of its six lowest-priced laptops in the US, saying the models would sell at a loss due to the 10% tariff that went into effect on April 5

Reuters:
Sources: US officials say DOGE is using AI to surveil at least one federal agency's communications for anti-Trump talk; a source says DOGE is also using Signal

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page