Mediagazer: How Wall Street's pressure for growth, the demise of the traditional theatrical release window, and Hollywood's risk aversion are impacting studio executives (The Hollywood Reporter)

5:15 AM ET, April 4, 2025

Top News:

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty head Stephen Capus says the US government turned off satellite services that transmit its Russian-language program into Russia — The head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said on Thursday that the US government had switched off a satellite that transmitted its Russian-language programme into Russia.

Discussion: The Straits Times, New York Times, @newsguy.bsky.social, @passantino.bsky.social, @open-spectrum.bsky.social, @juliadavisnews, @brucedlittle.bsky.social, @druidorbital.bsky.social and Radio Free Europe/Radio …

Adam Satariano / New York Times:

Sources: the EU is preparing to penalize X this summer for breaking the DSA, including via product change demands and a fine that a source says could be $1B+ — European regulators are considering fining X more than $1 billion, after weighing the risks of further antagonizing Mr. Musk and President Trump.

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

Janko Roettgers / Lowpass:

In a new lawsuit, the trustee for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment's bankruptcy case says ex-CEO Bill Rouhana neglected “the most basic corporate duties” — Also: Trump's tariffs are bad news for TV makers … The executive leadership of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment …

Discussion: Cord Cutters News

The Hollywood Reporter:

How Wall Street's pressure for growth, the demise of the traditional theatrical release window, and Hollywood's risk aversion are impacting studio executives — High-flying execs are dropping like flies right now — at Amazon MGM, and possibly at Warner Bros. — turning what was once …

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

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

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

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

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

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: Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, @bristei, @bristei, Nicole Vap on LinkedIn and Carlos P. Beltran on LinkedIn

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

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: Adweek, Inside Radio, MediaPost, TechCrunch, Spotify, Music Ally, The Hollywood Reporter, Ad Age and The Media Leader

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 5:15 AM ET, April 4, 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 tools for fan engagement, in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia

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

Taylor Lorenz / User Mag:
YouTube quietly removed “gender identity” from its hate speech policy after President Trump took office; Google says enforcement of the policy hasn't changed

Discussion: Google Help Center, @pierrenick@hachyderm.io, @robertscotthorton.bsky.social, Advocate, Tubefilter, @literalgrill.com, @FediVideo@social …, @ianb@mastodon.well.com, @161bklyn.bsky.social, @pupamp.bsky.social, @aridrennen.bsky.social, @tranniehathaway.bsky.social, @taylorlorenz.bsky.social and @Palleas@mastodon.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: New York Post, The Daily Beast, Fox News, The Wrap, @benmullin.bsky.social and @benmullin.bsky.social

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

Discussion: Deadline and TVNewsCheck

Earlier Picks:

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

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

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

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: Samidha Sharma on LinkedIn and 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

From Techmeme:

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump announces a 90-day tariff pause for some countries and a “lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%”, but raises tariffs on China to 125%

Alexey Shabanov / TestingCatalog:
Google announces Agent2Agent, an open interoperability protocol to enable seamless collaboration between AI agents across diverse frameworks and vendors

NPR:
Sources: after Jensen Huang went to Mar-a-Lago last week, the White House reversed course on Nvidia H20 export restrictions to China, in the works for months

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