Top News:
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney makes a $1B investment in OpenAI and will become a major OpenAI client — The Walt Disney Company on Thursday announced it will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and will allow users …
Discussion:
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney sends Google a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Google of “massive scale” copyright infringement and using AI to “exploit and distribute” the content — Disney sends cease-and-desist letter to internet giant — As Disney has gone into business with OpenAI …
Axios:
The OpenAI deal gives Disney a fair amount of oversight and control over how its IP is used, including a joint steering committee to monitor user creations — Walt Disney has reached an agreement with OpenAI that will make the company the first major content licensing partner on Sora, OpenAI's social video platform.
Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
President Trump told reporters “it's imperative” for CNN to be sold: “Any deal it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately” — President Trump indicated he'd like to see CNN be sold off as its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery …
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Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
The value of WBD's cable networks including CNN is a key number for Netflix and Paramount bidders; Ellison says they're worth ~$2.5B, while analysts say ~$10B — - Ellison also says those cable networks — including CNN — aren't very valuable. — It's confusing!
Discussion:
Breitbart, TVNewsCheck, Status, The i Paper, Bloomberg and Fortune
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Two representatives on the US House Financial Services Committee warn WBD CEO David Zaslav of national security concerns about the financiers of Paramount's bid
Discussion:
Axios, TVNewsCheck, Variety, No Film School, NPR, Associated Press, Semafor, Proactive, Financial Post and Semafor
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Mirror Editor-in-Chief Caroline Waterston steps down after less than two years, to be succeeded by Chloe Hubbard, currently UK editor at The Independent — Mirror editor-in-chief Caroline Waterston is stepping down at the end of the year after less than two years in the job.
Discussion:
HoldtheFrontPage
Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli / Financial Times:
Journalists at Italian newspaper La Stampa go on strike to protest against a potential sale of its parent company Gedi to Greek media organization Antenna — Exor in talks to sell owner of newspapers including La Repubblica to Greek bidder — Journalists at Italian newspaper La Stampa …
Yael Krifcher / Committee to Protect Journalists:
A look at the erosion of press freedom and independent reporting in Israel, where journalists report escalating censorship, harassment, and self-censorship — Two years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, press freedom inside the country has reached a breaking point.
Discussion:
Columbia Journalism Review, The Parnas Perspective, Middle East Monitor and ABC
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
UK sports publisher GRV cut ~60 staff since September, reducing its workforce to 94, citing drops in Google traffic; other sports sites report similar declines — A UK-based sports website publisher has cut 60 staff since September as a result of falling Google referral traffic.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Pinterest agrees to acquire tvScientific, a CTV ad platform that automates and optimizes ad buying; tvScientific was founded in 2020 and has raised ~$60M — Pinterest has agreed to acquire tvScientific, a connected television (CTV) advertising platform that automates and optimizes ad buying for marketers, executives told Axios.
David Bauder / Associated Press:
The NYT says it won't be deterred in its work after Trump posted on Truth Social that reporting by The NYT and others about his health was “seditious” — The New York Times, attacked by President Donald Trump for reporting about his physical condition, said on Wednesday …
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David Peisner / New York Times:
Timbaland's Stage Zero launches TaTa Taktumi, an AI pop artist created using Suno's tools; Timbaland says ~85% of the creative work is still done by humans — The producer dreamed up TaTa Taktumi and brought her to life with help from the software Suno. She's arriving at a fraught moment for artificial intelligence in music.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google tests AI-powered overviews on some publications' Google News pages; publishers like Der Spiegel, El País, and WaPo in commercial partnerships get paid — Google is testing AI-powered article overviews on participating publications' Google News pages as part of a new pilot program, the search giant announced on Wednesday.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, Press Gazette, Android Headlines, The Information, 9to5Google and The Verge
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