Top News:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Source: WBD plans to require potential bidders to sign NDAs before it shares sensitive financial data; sources: Amazon and Apple have shown interest — Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. expects to begin asking would-be bidders for the film and TV giant to sign nondisclosure agreements as early this week …
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Variety, CNBC, Daily Mail, Watcher Guru, Al Jazeera, NDTV Profit, Australian Financial Review, UPI and New York Times
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New York Times:
In a letter, David Ellison told the WBD board that Paramount was WBD's only viable suitor, as offers from bigger companies would invite regulatory scrutiny — A letter from Paramount's chief executive, David Ellison, to Warner Bros.' board of directors reveals weeks of talks between the two companies.
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Charles Gasparino / New York Post:
Sources: WBD has rejected a $24-per-share takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, and people inside WBD expect a fourth bid from David Ellison imminently
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The Ankler, MediaPost, The Wrap, TVNewsCheck, France 24, Sherwood News, Fast Company, Yahoo Finance, Business Insider and CNBC
Washington Post:
The Pentagon unveils a “new media” press corps, largely from right-wing outlets like Gateway Pundit, with 60+ people signing its new restrictive press policy — A new crop of conservative media and influencers — including the Gateway Pundit, the Post Millennial …
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Olivia Le Poidevin / Reuters:
EBU/BBC study: 45% of responses from top AI assistants misrepresented news content with at least one significant issue and 31% showed serious sourcing problems — - Research finds AI assistants make errors reporting news — Public trust could be eroded, EBU official says
Discussion:
BBC, Nigel Smart on LinkedIn, @ApostateEnglishman …, Computerworld, @marynelson8@mstdn.social, @jameshowell@fediscience.org, @loleg@hachyderm.io, @metacurity.com, @KevinMarks@xoxo.zone, @tdp_org@mastodon.social, @briankrebs@infosec.exchange, Search Engine Journal, Implicator.ai, Forbes, WinBuzzer, Al Jazeera, NPR and Deutsche Welle, more at Techmeme »
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Reddit files a lawsuit against Perplexity, SerpApi, and two other data scraping companies, accusing them of unlawfully scraping Google for Reddit data — In a lawsuit, Reddit pulled back the curtain on an ecosystem of start-ups that scrape Google's search results and resell the information to data-hungry A.I. companies.
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Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The Guardian executive Liz Wynn says the publisher is “becoming less dependent on page views day to day” and focusing on marketing messaging to generate revenue — The Guardian is generating some of its best revenue during days of lower traffic to its site.
Órla Ryan / The Irish Times:
Meta removes an AI video designed to look like RTÉ news bulletin that falsely showed Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly withdrawing from the race — Deepfake video designed to look like RTÉ news bulletin was viewed almost 30,000 times
Discussion:
PBS NewsHour, @carahuntermla, @clearpreso, @matthewgmull, TheJournal.ie, @aidanosullivan.bsky.social, @matthewtaylorni, Politico, @phoenixredtail, @joenoonan.bsky.social, @techbuzzinfo, @tadghmcn, @whytebarry, Irish Independent, @cormacpro, @lukeacorkery, @brianod_news, @briki, @adrianweckler, @karlwduncan, @faduda.bsky.social, @dllambo, @adrianweckler, @knowtheory.net, @sinead_ryan, waterford-news.ie, @antrophe, Caitlín Niamh Otway on LinkedIn, @faduda@mastodon.ie, Irish Examiner, @tiocfaidharla66, @downeytrev, RTÉ, @emmet.quiddity.ie, @cianodonnell.bsky.social, BreakingNews and WBUR, more at Techmeme »
Josh Russell / Courthouse News Service:
Michael Wolff sues Melania Trump in a NY court to try to stop her from suing him over his claims about Melania and Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein — The “Fire and Fury” author says he looks forward to subpoenaing President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump as part of discovery in his civil defamation suit.
Ann Gehan / The Information:
TikTok pushes merchants to use a new ad-buying tool that promotes videos linking to TikTok Shop rather than merchants' own sites, frustrating some merchants — As TikTok readies itself for the expected sale of its U.S. business to a new venture controlled by American investors …
Charles Pulliam-Moore / The Verge:
Perkins Miller, CEO of Fandom, which acquired TV Guide, GameSpot, Metacritic, and other outlets in 2022, has left the company and is now PlayOn Sports' new CEO — Perkins Miller oversaw Fandom's layoff-filled acquisitions of TV Guide, Metacritic, GameSpot, and Giant Bomb.
Discussion:
PR Newswire
Diana Pearl / The Business of Fashion:
ShopMy, which lets brands run influencer marketing efforts, raised $70M led by Avenir at a $1.5B valuation, up from ~$410M when it raised $77.5M in March 2024 — The fast-growing creator monetisation business raised $70 million in a funding round that included heavyweight Silicon Valley investors …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Taboola and Paramount Skydance launch a CTV product called Performance Multiplier, aiming to extend the reach of Paramount's small and medium-sized ad partners — Taboola, the publicly traded ad tech giant, is partnering with Paramount Skydance to create a new product, called …
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Steve Ellis on LinkedIn and Adam Singolda on LinkedIn
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