Top News:
Peter White / Deadline:
Sources: WBD initiates a round of layoffs in its cable TV divisions, affecting well under 100 employees and largely impacting the Discovery side of the company — Deadline understands the company is set to lay off employees on the cable television side of its business.
Discussion:
The Desk, Variety, Adweek, Los Angeles Times, AV Club, The Wrap, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, Cord Cutters News, Washington Times, Irish News and Newsweek
Max Tani / Semafor:
UnitedHealthcare sues The Guardian for defamation over a May 21 story about nursing home cost-cutting, accusing the outlet of capitalizing on its CEO's killing — The Scoop — UnitedHealthcare is suing The Guardian for defamation over a story the publication ran related to its billing for nursing home residents.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News, Alternet.org, Becker's Hospital Review, @maxtani.bsky.social and InsuranceNewsNet
Barbara Tasch / BBC:
The BBC rejects a White House claim that it took down a Gaza story, after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of taking “the word of Hamas” — The BBC has rejected incorrect White House criticism of its Gaza coverage, describing a claim that it had taken down a story as “completely wrong”.
Discussion:
Deadline, Townhall, The Daily Caller, KRDO, @adamemedia, @saulstaniforth, @mrneilmorrow, NPR, @owenjonesjourno, Canadian Press, @efischberger, @alhewitt6, @bbcrosatkins, @mishtal, @brianstelter, Le Monde, The Hill, New York Times, NBC News, TheJournal.ie, NewsMax.com, Mediaite, HuffPost and The Guardian
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Russell Simmons sues HBO and the directors of On the Record for $20M, alleging they defamed him in their documentary on sexual assault allegations against him — Russell Simmons is suing HBO and the filmmakers behind the “On the Record” documentary for $20 million, alleging they defamed …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Deadline, Billboard, TMZ.com, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, New York Post, Rolling Stone, AV Club, TVNewsCheck, New York Daily News, Vibe, Baller Alert and Stereogum
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Newsweek acquires adtech firm Adprime, a demand-side platform focused on healthcare marketers, to strengthen its health vertical and grow B2B revenue — The tie-up is part of a broader bid from the publisher to diversify its advertising — The 93-year-old publisher Newsweek has acquired …
Discussion:
Roy K Lee on LinkedIn, Danielle Varvaro on LinkedIn, Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn and MediaPost
Tom Levitt / The Guardian:
UK-based BBC Persian journalists say their families in Iran are being terrorised and punished by the Iranian regime, with a sharp escalation in 2025 — BBC says ‘sharp and deeply troubling escalation’ this year of Iran targeting families of UK-based BBC Persian journalists
Discussion:
@jftaveira1993, @lgsentinel, @Wen@mastodon.scot and @ianmoody.bsky.social
Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
AMC Entertainment has reached an agreement with National CineMedia to run ads right before the start of a film, starting July 1 — Starting July 1, AMC theaters will feature a “platinum spot” that's shown on screens right before the start of a film. The theater chain, which has struggled financially …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Kotaku, SlashFilm, The Ankler and Media Play News
Sean Burch / The Wrap:
WGA East threatens a strike by Vox employees without a new contract that includes The Dodo Union staffers along with better pay, AI protections, and more — The strike threat, made by WGA East, says it wants a joint contract that includes The Dodo Union colleagues
Discussion:
@mediaevan and @mediaevan.bsky.social
Attila Mong / Committee to Protect Journalists:
Since November 2024, Serbia had a sharp rise in attacks on journalists amid political unrest, including 23 physical assaults and 128 total attacks and threats — What journalists called a “witch hunt” atmosphere against government critics in Serbia one year ago has since escalated into a rise …
Discussion:
Al Jazeera, BBC and TheJournal.ie
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Meta has talked with Disney, A24, and other companies about exclusive content for a premium VR device it plans to launch next year for less than $1,000 — Tech company has talked with Disney and A24 about exclusive content for a premium VR device — Meta Platforms is courting Hollywood …
Discussion:
UploadVR, @mikeisaac, @peark.es, MarketWatch, Sherwood News, @frydawolff.bsky.social, @jtoonkel, TVNewsCheck and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Simon Owens / The Long Story with Simon Owens:
How Vox built a huge YouTube presence, becoming an incubator that invented its own visual language, as ex-staffers like Johnny Harris grow their own channels — The company became a skunk works incubator that invented its own language of visual storytelling.
Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
Reddit sues Anthropic, alleging it accessed Reddit 100K+ times after saying it had stopped; Reddit has reached formal licensing deals with OpenAI and Google — The online discussion forum says Anthropic continued to access its site over 100,000 times after saying it stopped
Discussion:
The Register, Moneycontrol, SiliconANGLE, eWeek, Livemint, Neowin, TechCrunch, Forbes, Superior Court of California, Engadget, Entrepreneur, @essobi, Silicon UK, @luke_metro, New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, Dexerto, The Information, The Decoder, CNBC, Cryptopolitan, PYMNTS.com, @meghanbobrowsky, Reuters, Newser, @alexjc, Barron's Online, Maginative, The Verge, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, Bloomberg and New York Daily News, more at Techmeme »
