Mediagazer: A look at Re:Public, a new nonprofit outlet focusing on US public lands and aiming for 10 to 12 stories per year, founded by ex-Outside Magazine EIC Chris Keyes (Neel Dhanesha/Nieman Lab)

Top News:

Sources: WBD has rejected Paramount's ~$20 per share takeover bid for being too low; WBD shares closed at $17.10 on October 10, giving WBD a $42.3B market cap — Warner Bros Discovery Inc. has rebuffed Paramount Skydance Corp.'s initial takeover approach for being too low, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: @cnschedules.bsky.social, The Wrap, Sports Business Journal, Cord Cutters News, Los Angeles Times, Screen Rant, Awful Announcing, Forbes Middle East, Variety, Reuters, BMI, CNBC, New York Post, Dow Jones Newswires, Mumbrella and Screen

Wall Street Journal:

Paramount acquiring WBD would require it to take on WBD's massive ~$35B debt load; Paramount has a market cap of around $19B, while WBD's is above $40B — David Ellison's company could take plan to create a sprawling media conglomerate directly to shareholders — A battle for the future of Warner Bros. Discovery is brewing.

Discussion: The Wrap and Variety

New York Times:

How right-wing influencers, like Benny Johnson and Nick Sortor, are supplying the Trump administration's narrative around National Guard deployment in Portland — President Trump and his administration are amplifying the voices of pro-White House podcasters and streamers eager to ratify …

Neel Dhanesha / Nieman Lab:

A look at Re:Public, a new nonprofit outlet focusing on US public lands and aiming for 10 to 12 stories per year, founded by ex-Outside Magazine EIC Chris Keyes — The new publication, from former Outside Magazine EIC Chris Keyes, will focus on longform stories about the 660 million acres of public lands and waters in the U.S.

Discussion: Chris Keyes on LinkedIn

The New York Times Company:

The NYT says its journalists won't sign the Pentagon's revised press pass policy, arguing it threatens to punish them for 1A-protected newsgathering — Journalists from The New York Times will not sign the Pentagon's revised press pass policy, which threatens to punish them for ordinary news gathering protected by the First Amendment.

Discussion: @scottnover, @scottnover, @scottnover, @scottnover, TheDesk.net, @bselena.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck and Committee to Protect …

Erik Wemple / New York Times:
A look at Defense Secretary Hegseth's efforts to limit Pentagon press access; sources: he tried to bar an NBC News reporter who had dug up info about his past

Discussion: Raw Story and TVNewsCheck

Derek Thompson:

How modern media consumption is converging toward a continuous flow of episodic video, across streaming providers, podcasts, and social media apps — A theory of culture and attention — A spooky convergence is happening in media. Everything that is not already television is turning into television.

Discussion: @szadkowski.bsky.social, @dkthomp.bsky.social, @maxread.info, Billboard, Unfogged and Reason, more at Techmeme »

Elsa Keslassy / Variety:

Netflix's Ted Sarandos and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro plan to launch a stop-motion studio for training and research, located at the Gobelins school in Paris — “Frankenstein” director Guillermo del Toro and Netflix boss Ted Sarandos have unveiled plans for a trailblazing stop-motion studio …

Discussion: About Netflix, @hypercubexl.bsky.social, @kaseygifford.bsky.social, Boston Herald, Cartoon Brew, The Indian Express, Animation World Network, @stevensantos.bsky.social, @mhwilliams.bsky.social, Screen Rant, Bloody Disgusting! and Agence France-Presse

Digiday:

A look at Ozone, a publisher alliance for ad sales, launched in the UK in 2018, as it makes a US push, where it's signed WSJ, CNN, the BBC (US), and the NY Post — The publisher alliance Ozone is on a growth tear in the U.S. It has signed a wave of U.S. publishers including the Wall Street Journal …

Discussion: AdExchanger, Craig Tuck on LinkedIn and Danny Spears on LinkedIn

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

How TBPN's daily livestream became the preferred news show of tech insiders, as it taps into the “who's up, who's down” part of Silicon Valley culture — Inside a film studio lot in Hollywood on a Tuesday morning in August, Jordi Hays, a 29-year-old entrepreneur, ran into the frame of a live shot, waving a giant red flag.

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

The LA Times Media Group announces plans to raise up to $500M selling private shares and is preparing an NYSE IPO in fall 2026 under the ticker symbol LAT — The company, which says it plans an initial public offering next fall, announced on Thursday that it would seek to raise up to $500 million selling private shares to investors.

Discussion: Semafor, MediaPost, The Wrap, Bloomberg, TVNewsCheck, Los Angeles Times and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

Mark Savage / BBC:

Sources: Paramount will stop airing five UK MTV channels at the end of 2025 but keep its flagship channel; some other non-US MTV channels are also set to close — MTV, the world's first 24-hour music broadcaster, is to stop showing rolling pop videos in the UK after almost 40 years when it closes five channels at the end of the year.

Discussion: Sao Bui-Van on LinkedIn, TheDesk.net, Broadband TV News, Cristian Jofre on LinkedIn, @tallgirl6234.bsky.social, Travel And Tour World, Ben Bilsland on LinkedIn, Simone Angel on LinkedIn, Scotsman, @paulusthewoodgnome …, @81632bitretro.com, @scottygb.bsky.social, Rolling Stone UK, The Sun, Daily Mail and Mirror

Alejandro Rojas / The Hollywood Reporter:

Parrot Analytics: movies made up ~50% of streaming revenue across Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and WBD in 2024, up from ~27% in 2022, based on engagement data — A Parrot Analytics analysis of thousands of titles across Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Max finds …