Check out Mini-Mediagazer for simple mobiles or Mediagazer Mobile for modern smartphones.
5:55 PM ET, August 22, 2025

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bluesky blocks access to its service in Mississippi, saying it doesn't have the resources to comply with the state's broad new law requiring age verification  —  Social networking startup Bluesky has made the decision to block access to its service in the state of Mississippi, rather than comply with a new age assurance law.
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Four outlets have taken down AI-generated articles by a “journalist”; Wired says the article it took down didn't get a proper fact-check or sufficient editing  —  More editors reveal they had been pitched by ‘Margaux Blanchard’.  —  Wired has revealed that a request …
Haroon Siddique / The Guardian:
Actor Noel Clarke loses his UK libel case against the Guardian over an investigation in which he was accused of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women  —  High court rejects actor's claim that accusations against him by more than 20 women were false and part of a conspiracy
Julian Wyllie / Current:
South Dakota Public Broadcasting plans to lay off 25% of its staff, affecting public affairs programming; CPB funding made up 20% of its FY24 revenue  —  Screenshot/YouTube … " id="street-iframe-svdc8d6wzow0000000000 " style="max-width: 100%;">  —  “These reductions include the elimination …
Sarah Raza / Associated Press:
After News Media Corporation announced the closure of 31 outlets in five states on August 6, a publishing group bought 8 papers in WY and another bought 4 in SD  —  A dozen recently shuttered newspapers across Wyoming and South Dakota are set to publish again, after buyers stepped up within days …
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: ESPN is in talks to license MLB.TV and wants midweek national games, giving up Sunday Night regular season games and the Home Run Derby  —  Disney's new ESPN flagship streaming app launches Thursday.  Here's what we know  —  Microsoft and NFL announce multiyear partnership to use AI to enhance game day analysis
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: NBCU is in advanced talks with MLB to carry games on NBC and Peacock for close to $200M/year; Netflix nears a deal for the Home Run Derby at $35M+/year
Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
Sources: ESPN and MLB have a deal framework giving ESPN exclusive rights to sell out-of-market regular-season games digitally and in-market games for five clubs
Brent Lang / Variety:
Sources: Paramount layoffs could affect 2,000 to 3,000 employees and are expected by early November; Paramount had 18,600 employees globally as of December 2024  —  After closing its merger with Skydance this month, Paramount is poised to enact deep staffing cuts across its various divisions …
New York Times:
Veteran anchor Chris Wallace has become a senior adviser for news and media investments at RedBird Capital Partners, a major Skydance investor  —  The longtime news anchor recently began working for a financial firm connected to CBS's new parent company and has spoken with the network's owner, David Ellison, several times.
Esther Zuckerman / New York Times:
Studios are rereleasing old films in theaters, helping them pad out thin slates; Universal has 12 rereleases on its 2025 slate, vs. four in 2024 and two in 2023  —  The multiplex is awash in titles that are 15, 20, even 60 years old.  Nostalgia is a factor but economics play a big part, too.
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Filing: OnlyFans gross revenue hit $7.2B in FY ending Nov. 2024, up from $6.6B YoY, and paid $5.8B to creators, up from $5.3B; creator accounts grew 13% to 4.6M  —  Porn streamer paid $5.8bn to content creators last year as Leonid Radvinsky holds talks over offloading majority stake
Anu Adegbola / Search Engine Land:
Google begins rolling out Asset Studio in beta, letting advertisers generate and edit images, videos, and voiceovers directly in the Google Ads interface  —  Google's long-teased Asset Studio, first announced at Google Marketing Live in May, has now surfaced in accounts.  —  How it works.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 5:55 PM ET, August 22, 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: 
Bloomberg:
Sources: The Weeknd is in talks to raise around $1B of financing backed by some of his music rights; he tried to sell a stake two years ago, asking around $1.3B
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Reach plans to “radically reorganize” newsrooms through the creation of a live news network with journalists across its outlets reporting to one leader
Discussion: Telegraph and HoldtheFrontPage
Lydia Polgreen / New York Times:
A reflection on Israel's killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif in an airstrike on a press tent, and Israel's weak claim that he was a Hamas militant
 Earlier Picks: 
Tony Stubblebine / The Medium Blog:
Medium's CEO explains how the platform's AI policy has evolved as it adopts some AI tools while prioritizing human curation and seeking community feedback
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Analysis: 16 of the UK's top 50 biggest news websites now use a “consent or pay” model to let users opt out of cookies; almost 100% choose to accept cookies
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
The Onion has 53K+ print subscribers and expects $6M in 2025 revenue, signaling a market for print media, also shown by print relaunches of Saveur and others
 

 
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