Top News:
Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Paramount Skydance is preparing a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, backed by the Ellison family; WBD jumps nearly 30% — The majority of the planned bid for Warner will be made up of cash — Paramount Skydance is preparing a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery …
Discussion:
Status, NPR, The Wrap, Deadline, IndieWire, Broadband TV News, Spyglass, TVBEurope, Awful Announcing, Sports Business Journal, The Guardian, American Prospect, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, MarketWatch, Business of TV, Bloomberg, Benzinga, Windows Central, Variety, Puck, Proactive, Streaming Better, Axios, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Sun, TV Tattle, @doctorvenkman.com, @mgsiegler, @sherman4949, @moreperfectus, @dylanbyers, @hadas_gold, @nick_field90, @jtoonkel, @willmckinley.bsky.social, Mumbrella, Mediaweek, Fox Business, The Information, Barron's Online, The Movie Blog, New York Times, The Washington Free Beacon, @jaylender.bsky.social, Open Markets Institute, CNN, TrekMovie.com, Business Insider, Observer, Motley Fool, Telegraph, NBC Bay Area, Gizmodo, Graphic Policy, Front Office Sports, Ace of Spades HQ, Media Play News, NCS | NewscastStudio, Cord Cutters News, @akelacooper.bsky.social, @50501movement.bsky.social, Barrett Media, @jayrosen.bsky.social, @joshsternberg.com, Forbes, Mediaite, Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Quartz, @jeffjarvis.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, ZeroHedge News, Consequence, @joshuabenton.com, The Streamable, TheDesk.net, The Information, @kimmasters.bsky.social, @chadquandt.com, Bloomberg, Comic Book, @azalben.bsky.social, @brianstelter.bsky.social, @passantino.bsky.social, @peark.es, NDTV Profit, CNBC, Screen Rant and Sherwood News, more at Techmeme »
Lachlan Cartwright / Breaker:
Puck, co-founded by Jon Kelly in 2021, has agreed to acquire Graydon Carter's Air Mail; both outlets have mutual investors, including TPG — Another POLITICO Star Eyeing The Exits … In tonight's edition, Graydon Carter and Jon Kelly go way back to when Kelly was Carter's assistant at Vanity Fair.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, @nick_field90, @bristei, @sarafischer, New York Times, The Wrap, Axios, Feed Me and Showbiz411
Carmen Russell-Sluchansky / WHYY:
Penn State University plans to “wind down” public media station WPSU by June 2026 after a university board declined to transfer ownership to Philadelphia's WHYY — In voting down a proposal to transfer the station to WHYY, trustees expressed concern over a $17 million subsidy and wanted a commitment to hire staff.
Discussion:
WPSU, The Pennsylvania State …, Centre Daily Times and @benmullin.bsky.social
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
The Guardian reports revenue in the year to March up 7% YoY to £276M, losses down £24M from £37M the year prior, and 1.3M “recurring supporters” online, up 13% — The Guardian has reported a bumper year for digital reader revenue, up by 22% from £88m …
Discussion:
The Guardian, InPublishing and MediaPost
Chloe Mac Donnell / The Guardian:
Edward Enninful's quarterly print magazine, 72, launches with no print ads, but “powered by incredible companies”; at least seven Vogue staffers have joined 72 — Former British Vogue editor has mined his starry contacts book for first issue of 72, with Julia Roberts on the cover
Discussion:
Bloomberg, KDFX-TV and Fast Company
Scott Nover / Washington Post:
A federal judge issues an order barring federal agents with DHS from using crowd-control weapons against journalists; the order applies to seven CA counties — The judge cited an “avalanche of evidence” that ICE and Border Patrol agents and L.A. police violated the rights of reporters covering protests of immigration raids.
Discussion:
The Marshall Project, Politico, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Northwestern and KDFX-TV
Bloomberg:
Sources: the FTC is investigating whether Amazon and Google misled advertisers by not properly disclosing the terms and pricing for ads on their websites — The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google misled advertisers that place ads …
Kelly Cloonan / Wall Street Journal:
BuzzFeed relaunches its flagship YouTube channel amid a broad overhaul of the company's business; pilots for new shows will launch throughout the fall — The channel will bring back some fan-favorite series and also have a new slate of programming, the company says
Discussion:
Business Wire
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Rapper Wyclef Jean, now chief creative officer for OpenWav, extols the startup's tools that let musicians sell tickets, connect directly with fans, and more — Grammy Award-winning musician, composer, and producer Wyclef Jean says the music industry is broken, which is why he's now involved with a startup …
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
MPA: streaming will make up $5B of $15.8B projected to be invested in video content in the Asia Pacific region in 2025, passing traditional pay-TV, a first — Streaming platforms will overtake traditional pay-TV as the largest source of content investment in Asia-Pacific in 2025 …
Discussion:
Livemint, Deadline and Advanced Television
Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch says sign-ups for streaming service Fox One exceed expectations, and a boost is expected in October when it's paired with ESPN Unlimited — Fox Corporation's new streaming service Fox One is performing well in its first two weeks on the market, with sign-ups exceeding …
Discussion:
The Streamable, @xpangler, Oregonian and Front Office Sports
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Analysis: journalism's DEI efforts in the US have declined, fueled in part by the Trump administration's quashing of diversity initiatives — Diversity-related newsroom jobs haven't totally disappeared — but they also haven't stuck. — In 2020, as George Floyd's killing …
