Mediagazer: Sources: Chord Music Partners, a music rights investment vehicle, raised $2B+ so far in a round due to close in October; Searchlight Capital has invested $400M (Murray Stassen/Music Business Worldwide)

8:10 AM ET, August 15, 2025

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Memo: PBS is cutting its current budget by 21% and reducing dues paid by local stations by $35M to deal with Congress' decision to eliminate ~$500M in funding — The nonprofit will receive less revenue from its members, which are under pressure to make up for shortfalls of their own.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, BroadwayWorld, American Prospect, New Jersey Globe, ABC15 Arizona in Phoenix and @benmullin

Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:

Gannett is launching a morning newscast, Connecting America, on its USA Today streaming channel and on YouTube, on August 18; it will air weekdays 7am-9am ET — Gannett Company is launching a new morning newscast on its USA Today-branded free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel, the company announced on Thursday.

Discussion: NCS | NewscastStudio

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:

Sources: Chord Music Partners, a music rights investment vehicle, raised $2B+ so far in a round due to close in October; Searchlight Capital has invested $400M — Universal Music Group-backed investment vehicle Chord Music Partners has raised over USD $2 billion in investable capital to buy music rights.

Discussion: Billboard, Music Ally, Digital Music News, Business Wire, Sky News and The Hollywood Reporter

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Digital Content Next survey: 19 US online publishers, including major newsrooms, saw a median 10% YoY decline in Google referral traffic in the May-June period — Leading US online publishers reported an average fall in referral traffic from Google search of 10% in May and June compared to a year earlier.

Discussion: Digital Content Next, PPA, @pressgazette.co.uk and Android Headlines

Jessica Testa / New York Times:

Taylor Swift's podcast debut on New Heights, co-hosted by Travis Kelce, shows the format is an appealing option for stars instead of late-night TV and magazines — For stars promoting their projects, podcasts have become an appealing alternative to late-night TV and glossy magazines.

Raquel ‘Rocky’ Harris / The Wrap:

The LA Times Guild plans to hold its first-ever strike authorization vote as contract talks near their third year; the union lost about 200 members since 2022 — Since negotiations began in September 2022, the guild has seen layoffs impact approximately 200 Times staffers

Discussion: @katie_robertson, @katie_robertson, @mattdpearce.com and @jqwritesstuff.bsky.social

Bobby Allyn / NPR:

A look at anti-Trump podcast MeidasTouch, one of the few left-leaning video podcasts that at times dethrones Joe Rogan's top position on YouTube rankings — Ben Meiselas is pacing in front of his home in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains in Los Angeles, talking on the phone with one hand, a Starbucks coffee cup in the other.

Discussion: @bobbyallyn.bsky.social, @laurenmeidasa.bsky.social, @meidastouch.com, Althouse and Little Green Footballs

David Roeder / Chicago Sun Times:

Chicago Public Media, which owns the Sun-Times and public radio station WBEZ, names Kimbriell Kelly as EIC effective September 2, succeeding Jennifer Kho — A Pulitzer Prize winner, Kelly has a background in investigative reporting. She will succeed Jennifer Kho, who will work on a project dealing with the future of public media.

Discussion: Jennifer Kho on LinkedIn, MediaPost and Crain's Chicago Business

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Starz, which split from Lionsgate in May, reports Q2 revenue down 8% YoY to $319.7M, a net loss of $42.5M, and US streaming subscribers down 120K QoQ to 12.2M — Starz saw an 8% drop in revenue for its April 1-June 30 earnings, the now-standalone media company reported Thursday.

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

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:

Media advocates criticize a US Department of Energy plan to throw out FOIA requests sent before October 1, 2024, unless the request is formally renewed — The Department of Energy (DOE) said in a public notice scheduled to be published Thursday that it will throw out all Freedom of Information Act …

Discussion: @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org, @civicband@sfba.social, @freedom.press, @atomicanalyst.bsky.social, E&E News, @freedomofpress@social …, @rsanta.bsky.social, @jasonkoebler.bsky.social, @josephcox.bsky.social and @404media.co

Mike Scarcella / Reuters:

A US district court judge dismisses Rumble's lawsuit accusing WPP, WFA, and Diageo of an ad boycott, saying a Texas court is not the proper forum for the case — A U.S. judge on Wednesday dismissed online video-sharing and internet-hosting company Rumble's (RUM.O) lawsuit accusing spirits maker Diageo …

Discussion: MediaPost and Bloomberg Law

Gabriel V Rindborg / The Guardian:

Monitoring firm MUSO says piracy hit a low in 2020 with 130B website visits and grew by 2024 to 216B; in Sweden, 25% of those surveyed reported pirating in 2024 — As subscription costs rise and choice diminishes on legal sites, film and TV fans are turning to VPNs and illicit streamers …

Discussion: @draglikepull.bsky.social, @leighelse@mastodon.nz, @yourkyotowife.bsky.social, @Lazarou@mastodon.social, @ht4ecosocialism.bsky.social, @margaretmorgan.bsky.social, Jerome Mazandarani on LinkedIn and Plagiarism Today

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Bluesky revises its policies and Community Guidelines to comply with new regulations, including the EU DSA, UK Online Safety Act, and US Take It Down Act

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Joanna Gerber / AdExchanger:
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Discussion: @adexchanger, TheDesk.net, Eva Papoutsakis Smith on LinkedIn, Eliminating Child … and MediaPost

Elsa Keslassy / Variety:
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Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
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Discussion: Benzinga and WORLD SCREEN

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
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Discussion: C21Media, TVREV, Tubefilter, TVNewsCheck, Streaming Better, Cord Cutters News, The Streamable, The Wrap and WORLD SCREEN

Scott Nover / Washington Post:
The GAO launches a probe into USAGM for potential overreach; sources say congressional staffers warned Kari Lake that she illegally used appropriated funds

Discussion: Daily Kos, @karilake, @karilake, @davidfolkenflik, @scottnover.bsky.social, @bselena.bsky.social, @kaedotcom.bsky.social, @patricia-ann.bsky.social, Raw Story, @paulthedogman.bsky.social, @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social, @rallennautilus.bsky.social, TheDesk.net, NPR and Daily Mail

Earlier Picks:

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Paramount DTC Chair Cindy Holland says Paramount+ is now open to buying third party content, reminiscent of Holland's strategy when she was at Netflix

Discussion: Tom's Guide, Media Play News, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Wrap and Collider

Jessica Yellin / The Atlantic:
A former CNN correspondent discusses the challenges facing “evidence-based creators”, journalists doing original reporting primarily on social media platforms

Discussion: Michael MacMillan on LinkedIn, @brianstelter.bsky.social, @mikeelgan.bsky.social, @andria.bsky.social and Mashable

Neel Dhanesha / Nieman Lab:
CPB's closure threatens tribal radio and TV stations, endangering critical services like emergency alerts in areas lacking broadband or reliable cell service

Discussion: The Guardian, Inside Radio and @grovesprof.bsky.social

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
How the NFL changed its streaming strategy as the TV landscape shifted; in a first, every NFL game will be available on streaming by the end of August

Discussion: SFGATE and Awful Announcing

Hadas Gold / CNN:
A US judge rules Infowars will go up for sale yet again, paving the way for The Onion to revive its bid for the conspiracy-driven outlet and its assets

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Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
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From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
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Emilia David / VentureBeat:
Nvidia launches Nemotron 3, a family of AI models using a hybrid mixture-of-experts architecture and the Mamba-Transformer design, in 30B, 100B, and ~500B sizes

Arsheeya Bajwa / Reuters:
Nvidia announces it has acquired SchedMD, the developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for HPC and AI

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