Mediagazer: The New York Post plans to launch a daily Los Angeles-based newspaper called The California Post in early 2026, with News Corp veteran Nick Papps as EIC (Sara Fischer/Axios)

7:30 AM ET, August 5, 2025

Top News:

David Ellison names Paramount Global's senior leadership team, appointing himself as CEO, Jeff Shell as president, and RedBird Capital's Andy Gordon as COO — George Cheeks, Cindy Holland, Josh Greenstein, Dana Goldberg will all get new roles, joining Jeff Shell and Ellison in the C-suite.

Discussion: Reuters, Variety, Deadline, The Wrap, Variety, Deadline, Sports Business Journal, New York Post, Adweek, Los Angeles Times, WORLD SCREEN and MediaPost

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Skydance TV President Matt Thunell will run a merged division with Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, reviving Paramount TV Studios which was shut down in 2024 — Skydance Television president Matt Thunell is set to add oversight of Paramount's TV studios to his duties amid the pending closure …

Discussion: Deadline, C21Media, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and LateNighter

Joe Otterson / Variety:
Internal memo: Paramount Streaming President and CEO Tom Ryan is stepping down; Ryan became CEO in October 2020 after co-founding Pluto TV

Discussion: Mediaweek, TheDesk.net, The Information, Cord Cutters News, Media Play News, The Wrap, TVNewsCheck, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

Sara Fischer / Axios:

The New York Post plans to launch a daily Los Angeles-based newspaper called The California Post in early 2026, with News Corp veteran Nick Papps as EIC — - Los Angeles is home to the second-largest concentration of Post readers, per News Corp. — The vast majority (90%) …

Discussion: New York Post, CNN, New York Times, Variety, TheDesk.net, Politico, @richontech, @jessicalessin, @jimmyfailla, @matthewkeyslive, @tim_bays, @bristei, The Boston Globe, The Gateway Pundit, @noahmallin, @blowryontv, Mumbrella, @adriana_lacy, Associated Press, @timj_b, @spiccarella, @cmarinucci, @jg_cstt, @adamprobolsky, American Thinker, @jonchesto, @_bizbaz, Reuters, @edmundlee, Newser, NBC News, Australian Financial Review, @maxwelltani, @sarafischer, @benfritz, @henryporters, @kellblog, @kentmoyer, The A.V. Club, UPI, The Hollywood Reporter, David Thalberg on LinkedIn, Washington Post, The Post Millennial, The Guardian, Mediaite, @tranniehathaway.bsky.social, Wall Street Journal, Stacy Ezra Wormser on LinkedIn, The Daily Caller, MediaPost, Joe.My.God., @doughenwood.bsky.social, @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social, The Wrap, @tvmojoe.bsky.social, @honeymummy.co, Deadline, Fox News and Althouse

Bloomberg:

Amazon denies it is closing its Wondery podcast studio, but says it will break up its operations; a source says ~110 jobs will be cut due to the reorganization — As podcasting becomes video-oriented, Amazon is shuffling Wondery into Audible and a new “creator services” team while cutting approximately 110 staff members

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:

ElevenLabs launches Eleven Music, letting individuals and businesses use its AI model to generate music cleared for commercial use via English-language prompts — New model allows customers to create music with AI that is cleared for commercial use. But AI-generated music still faces legal battles and stiff opposition from artists.

Josh Axelrod / Nieman Lab:

How some news organizations are using AI models powered by retrieval-augmented generation to surface the most newsworthy elements from very large datasets — “If we sit on the sideline and observe, I think the risk is too high that we are gonna be left behind.”

Discussion: The Register, @tongli.bsky.social, @mikeananny.bsky.social and @niemanlab.org, more at Techmeme »

Jon Blistein / Rolling Stone:

A Parkland shooting victim's parents created an AI version of their son to speak about gun safety, starting with an interview with journalist Jim Acosta — AI-generated Joaquin Oliver, which was created by his parents, discussed gun control measures and movies in a new interview

John Herrman / New York Magazine:

SEO is being supplanted by generative-engine optimization, or GEO, which focuses on AI chatbots and does not benefit from longstanding SEO tricks — Search-engine optimization now feels dated. Generative-engine optimization is all about trying to trick AI chatbots.

Discussion: Implicator.ai, @jwherrman.bsky.social, @jayrosen.bsky.social, Social Media Today, Forbes and Search Engine Journal, more at Techmeme »

Ben Strauss / Washington Post:

A profile of Katie Feeney, an influencer and a rising star in sports media with 8M TikTok followers, as ESPN hires her to appear across its social channels — Chasing content from the Rose Bowl to the red carpet with a 22-year-old influencer and rising media star. — LOS ANGELES — Katie Feeney's hand was shaking.

Discussion: @benjstrauss, The US Sun, New York Post and Awful Announcing

Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:

Shareholder letter: Reddit cites Profound's analysis showing it is the most cited domain across AI models, ahead of Wikipedia, YouTube, Forbes, and others — The online forum is aiming to be a go-to search engine for questions and answers — Reddit has revealed it is the number …

Discussion: WinBuzzer and Reddit Investor Relations, more at Techmeme »

Rebecca Falconer / Axios:

Court filing: Trump and Rupert Murdoch agree to postpone Murdoch's deposition in the Epstein letter libel suit until after a ruling on the WSJ's dismissal case — President Trump and Rupert Murdoch reached a deal Monday to postpone the media mogul's deposition in a libel lawsuit related …

Discussion: Forbes, Joe.My.God., Sydney Morning Herald, Southern District of Florida and @joshgerstein

Scott Nover / Washington Post:

Filing: VOA Director Michael Abramowitz has been fired after refusing what he called an “illegal” reassignment to run a broadcasting station in North Carolina — Kari Lake tried to dispatch Michael Abramowitz to North Carolina. When he refused, she fired him.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, @marionawfal, @w7voa, @scottnover, @kyledcheney and TheDesk.net

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