Check out Mini-Mediagazer for simple mobiles or Mediagazer Mobile for modern smartphones.
8:05 PM ET, July 25, 2025

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Paramount says it expects its merger with Skydance to close on August 7; the new company will trade on Nasdaq as PSKY  —  In just under two weeks, Paramount Global will complete its takeover by the smaller Skydance Media to form “Paramount Skydance Corp.” — and bringing a rollercoaster M&A ride to its conclusion.
RELATED:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
The FCC approves the Paramount-Skydance deal, granting the transfer of licenses for 28 CBS-owned local TV stations to the Skydance-led ownership group  —  The FCC has granted approvals necessary to clear the way for the $8 billion merger of Paramount Global and David Ellison's Skydance Media.
Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, dissents against the Paramount-Skydance merger and says the FCC made “unprecedented” moves to help broker the deal
Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Chris McCarthy, co-CEO of Paramount Global and president of Showtime/MTV, plans to depart the company once its acquisition by Skydance is completed
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta will no longer accept political, election, or social issue ads in the EU from October, like Google, with both citing incoming regulation  —  Meta on Friday said starting in October it will no longer accept political, election or social issue ads in the European Union …
New York Times:
Docs and interviews: Media Matters is struggling to survive, having racked up ~$15M in legal fees to defend itself from lawsuits by Elon Musk, the FTC, and AGs  —  Scrambling to pay legal fees, Media Matters has dialed back its criticism, trimmed its staff and contemplated closing entirely.
Michael Schaffer / Politico:
Sources: all but one person on WaPo's obit desk has taken the paper's buyout offer; the lone holdout is too junior to qualify for the buyout deal  —  It looks like it's time to submit a death notice for the Washington Post's obituaries section.  —  The paper's longtime obit chief …
Morgan Sung / KQED:
Sen. Alex Padilla grants the Internet Archive federal depository status, making it a part of a network of over 1,100 libraries that archive government documents  —  The San Francisco-based Internet Archive now has federal depository status, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries …
Lucia Moses / Business Insider:
Sources: Netflix is searching for a video podcasting head; the role could be under Netflix's TV and film licensing arm rather than the original content side  —  - Netflix is quietly searching for an exec to lead its video podcast efforts.  — The streamer is chasing YouTube, which has cemented itself as a video podcast titan.
Discussion: Bloomberg
Austin Fuller / Current:
At a CPB meeting, CEO Patricia Harrison said CPB is doing “everything possible” to secure funding for FY26 while also preparing for a possible shutdown  —  Dru Sefton / Current … " id="street-iframe-s5uixjf6z1c0000000000 " style="max-width: 100%;">
RELATED:
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Donations to US public media surge amid funding cuts, up by ~$70M YoY so far in 2025, but still fall well short of the annual $550M that Congress has cut
Peter White / Deadline:
Source: E! News, the long-running celebrity news show, will end on September 25; its digital brand will continue with a focus on social platforms  —  Versant, the nascent company that oversees E! as well as a number of former NBCUniversal cable networks, is axing the show, which first launched in 1991, in September.
Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times:
Q&A with Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju on taking over from Emad Mostaque, his movie background, data and copyright, working with creative industries, and more  —  The boss of the company behind Stable Diffusion insists film industry fears about the impact of the popular image-generating AI model are misplaced
Discussion: implicator.ai
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 8:05 PM ET, July 25, 2025.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 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: 
Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Project Veritas has withdrawn its 2020 lawsuit against The New York Times; the lawsuit accused the newspaper of defamation over an article published in 2020
 Earlier Picks: 
Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
Sony acquires a ~2.5% stake in Tekken and Pac-Man owner Bandai Namco for $464M, to expand “the fan community for IP such as anime and manga around the world”
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta is considering deep budget cuts to its metaverse efforts in 2026, potentially as high as 30% and most likely including layoffs as early as January

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says general counsel Kate Adams and policy chief Lisa Jackson will retire, and Jennifer Newstead, Meta's former chief legal officer, will replace Adams

Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political views more effectively than TV campaign ads, especially by presenting many claims, regardless of accuracy
 
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