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10:50 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:
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Imax partners with Runway AI to screen 10 films selected as finalists in the company's AI Film Festival at 10 Imax locations across the US  —  Imax is teaming with tech firm Runway to present commercial screenings of selections from the company's AI Film Festival.
Discussion: Livemint
Press Gazette:
The UK government appoints News UK COO and ex-Sun editor David Dinsmore to the new role of permanent secretary for communications  —  Dinsmore appointed “permanent secretary for communications”.  —  News UK chief operating officer David Dinsmore is taking up a senior communications role at the heart of Government.
Discussion: Telegraph and The Guardian
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.
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
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
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 …
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].
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 …
 
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 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: 
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
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
 
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