Check out Mini-Mediagazer for simple mobiles or Mediagazer Mobile for modern smartphones.
9:05 AM ET, July 28, 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:
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism promotes editor Franz Wild as its next CEO and EIC, succeeding Rozina Breen, who is leaving to join the Pulitzer Center  —  The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has appointed Franz Wild as its next chief executive and editor-in-chief.
Discussion: TBIJ and Journalism.co.uk
Axios:
Rupert Murdoch's media empire is playing both sides of the Trump-Epstein scandal, with the WSJ breaking bombshell news that Fox News is largely ignoring  —  Rupert Murdoch's media empire is playing both sides of the Trump-Epstein scandal, breaking bombshell news with one hand and largely ignoring it with the other.
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The UK's The Times closes its Money Mentor, launched in 2019 as a free section designed to “demystify finance”, but relaunches its personal finance offering  —  The Times has closed its Money Mentor section but says it is relaunching its personal finance offering instead.
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
The BBC appoints ex-Meta executive Anjali Kapoor to the newly created role of director for BBC News AI, Innovation, and Growth, to “accelerate AI adoption”  —  Anjali Kapoor was previously Meta's Director for Media Partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region but takes …
Discussion: BBC, Broadband TV News and TVBEurope
CNBC:
The fate of Jimmy Kimmel's ABC show, whose contract ends in 2026, will reveal if Colbert's cancelation was a one-off or a fundamental shift in late-night TV  —  There are two schools of thought around CBS' decision to end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
YouTube mega streamer IShowSpeed's recent visits to Lithuania and China show how countries are focusing on creators' fan bases as a new strategy for soft power  —  The streamer IShowSpeed drank pink soup in the Baltics and marveled at cars in China.  Are his tours propaganda, or just good advertising?
Discussion: NZ Herald
Arielle Swedback / On Substack:
A survey of 2,000 Substack publishers finds 45.4% use AI, mainly for research; among them, 51.1% are over age 45, 55% are men, and 85% of tech outlets use it  —  AI is here—at schools, in memes, and, yes, even on Substack.  But beyond sniffing out its usage—who's being too liberal with the em dashes or the “It's not [this].
Nick Vivarelli / Variety:
Netflix agrees a deal with Middle East broadcaster MBC Group to bundle Netflix and MBC's Shahid in addition to its linear TV channels in one subscription  —  Top Middle East broadcaster MBC Group has forged a groundbreaking partnership with Netflix under which the U.S. streaming giant …
Ellie Wolfe / The Baltimore Banner:
The Johns Hopkins University Press will license its authors' books to train AI models, citing concerns that “the window may be closing” for making AI deals  —  The Johns Hopkins University will license its books to train proprietary large language models, an advanced form …
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.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 9:05 AM ET, July 28, 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: 
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Source: India orders ISPs and app stores to block 25 streaming services, like Ullu and ALTT with millions of downloads, for allegedly promoting obscene content
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
Discussion: Bloomberg
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
 Earlier Picks: 
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
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
 

 
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