Top News:
Financial Times:
OpenAI hopes the Disney deal boosts Sora, which has high costs and limited traction; Sensor Tower: users average 13 minutes per day on Sora vs. 90 on TikTok — Sora has struggled to build an engaged audience despite already hosting bootleg content from the Hollywood studio
Discussion:
MediaNama, Communicate Online, France 24, Sky News, Watcher Guru, Consequence, Australian Financial Review, Reuters, MediaPost and Axios, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney will make a $1B investment in OpenAI and become a major OpenAI customer
Discussion:
Deadline, 404 Media, The Walt Disney Company, Inc.com, New York Times, The American Bazaar, BGR, Lifewire, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, Analytics India Magazine, Windows Central, Android Central, Mock Paper Scissors, Polygon.com, Tech Funding News, Barchart.com, The Wrap, Ben Morse on LinkedIn, Music Ally, Proactive, @masek@infosec.exchange, Allyson Ortega Toy on LinkedIn, @sama, @justingarrison.com, PYMNTS.com, @ivanthek.bsky.social, @jkcreative8.bsky.social, @permanentviolet.bsky.social, @khguides.com, @jason_kint, @_simonsmith, @midky80748, @aagave, @loudmouthjulia, @andrewcurran_, @stokel, @loudmouthjulia, Patricia Galea on LinkedIn, PC Gamer, Techstrong.ai, The Verge, Android Headlines, Mumbrella, Matthew Sag, Yotam Dor on LinkedIn, @eloquence@social.coop, Michael Tsai, Bloomberg, Luke Neumann on LinkedIn, Jeff Jenkins on LinkedIn, Plain Dealer, BBC, Adweek, San Francisco Chronicle, Ars Technica, TechRadar, Severin Zugmayer on LinkedIn, Axios, Fast Company, Andrew Hotz on LinkedIn, Newser, Screen, Fortune, MediaPost, TechEBlog, Thurrott, iPhone in Canada, Dow Jones Newswires, UPI, Mashable, WinBuzzer, Baller Alert, Plagiarism Today, Spyglass, WPXI-TV, eWeek, iClarified, Android Authority, Benzinga, @gerrycanavan.bsky.social, Pulse 2.0, TechCrunch, TVNewsCheck, ZeroHedge News, CNET, Oh No They Didn't!, Associated Press, The Economic Times, CNN, Dexerto, The Guardian, Yahoo Finance, The Information, The Verge, @breakify.bsky.social, 9to5Mac, @lentesta.bsky.social, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, @hunterwalk.com, Reuters, Joe.My.God., Fox Business, Business Insider, CBS News, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety
Todd Spangler / Variety:
In a message to members, the WGA says Disney's licensing deal with OpenAI “appears to sanction” OpenAI's “theft of our work”, and it plans to meet with Disney
Discussion:
Capacity, Barchart.com, Business Insider, Tech in Asia, Tubefilter, StreamTV Insider, @thespaceshipper.com, The Wrap, Engadget, SiliconANGLE, Sydney Morning Herald, TVREV, The Movie Blog, Fast Company, Ventureburn, Bloomberg, Implicator.ai, Kotaku, NPR, Semafor, Advanced Television, Yahoo Finance and Realscreen
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
The Washington Post's new Your Personal Podcast, which offers AI-generated customizable podcasts, was developed under a multiyear agreement with ElevenLabs — The Washington Post has used AI to build a pick-your-own-format news podcast, letting listeners choose the topics, hosts and length to create custom versions.
RELATED:
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost — The loss of federal funding forced a difficult decision, the executive director of Arkansas TV said: Cut PBS, or go off the air entirely.
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources: the tenure of Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, Fortune's outgoing CEO, was marked by turmoil over a clash with Victor Pang, a lawyer for the company's owner — Last week, the financial news publisher Fortune abruptly parted ways with chief executive Anastasia Nyrkovskaya.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Amazon Prime Video pulls its AI recaps, which it began testing in November, for Fallout, Bosch, and other shows after users noticed errors in the Fallout recaps — Fallout's season one recap wrongly stated that The Ghoul's flashback takes place in the 1950s, rather than the year 2077.
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
YouTube launches an option for US-based creators to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD — Big Tech continues to tiptoe into crypto. The latest example is a move by YouTube to let creators on the video platform choose to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin.
Discussion:
CryptoSlate, PaymentsJournal, Jonathan Cordeau on LinkedIn, Coin Edition, Coinpedia Fintech News, Coinspeaker, Bitcoin Insider, The Crypto Basic, PYMNTS.com, Bitcoinist.com, BeInCrypto, The Block, The Crypto Times, Blockonomi, Decrypt, COINOTAG, crypto.news, Cointelegraph, Blockchain.News, Cryptonews, Benzinga and Crypto Briefing, more at Techmeme »
Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93 — After making a fortune on Wall Street, he bought The Nation magazine and founded The New York Observer, which one writer called a “maypole of Manhattan gossip and intrigue.”
Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
Sources: X reported $752M in Q3 revenue, up 17% YoY, a net loss of $577.4M, and EBITDA of ~$454M, up 16%; revenue for the first nine months of 2025 was $2B+ — Sales at Elon Musk's X jumped during the third quarter, but the social network is still dealing with significant costs …
Discussion:
The Information
Ann Gehan / The Information:
Source: livestream shopping app Whatnot nears ~$1B in revenue for 2025; Whatnot says it has passed $6B in gross sales this year, more than doubling 2024's sales — Livestream shopping app Whatnot is targeting close to $1 billion in revenue for 2025, according to a person with knowledge of the company's finances.
Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz:
[Thread] Substack quietly added a feature that forced subscribers to download the app to read full newsletters but say they've rolled it back after complaints — I love Substack. Always have. Their team is great. But a silent change could force me off the platform if it stays. They broke email. My paid subscribers cannot read today's paid newsletter on mobile without downloading the Substack app. @SubstackInc: roll this back. Now. [image]
Discussion:
@selviano, @staysaasy, @denk_tweets, @tkwoncpa, @raulriera, @gergelyorosz, @dceddia, @precious_m_e and @leozera, more at Techmeme »
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Sources: DMGT has locked down funding for its £500M acquisition of the Telegraph, in a funding package expected to comprise equity and debt — Daily Mail owner to submit deal for approval as rival suitor Dovid Efune gets new backing from Baltimore Sun's David Smith
Discussion:
Sky News
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The Guardian names Netflix's former director of product Allan Donald as its first VP of product; Donald oversaw the content discovery operation at Netflix — Netflix's former director of product has been appointed for newly created position. — Netflix director of product Allan Donald …
Discussion:
InPublishing and Journalism.co.uk
Editor - The Upshot, NY — 
Asia Metals Correspondent, Singapore — 
Economic Policy Reporter, DC — 
Senior Director - Editorial, NY — 
Accountability Reporter, ME — 
Senior Editor, FL — 
Senior Sydney Correspondent — 
Investigative Reporter, OR — 
Reporter I, Remote — 
Digital Content Editor, CT — 
Sr. Political Reporter, CA — 
Local Editor, MD — 
Senior Writer - Politics, TN — 
Editor - CFO Brew, NY — 
Senior Content Strategist, CA — 
Audience Strategist, CO — 
Senior Editor, Remote US — 
Managing Editor, NY — 
IT Industry Reporter, MA — 
Multimedia Reporter, TX — 
Curation Editor, NY — 
Food Correspondent, OR — 
Deputy Editor-in-Chief, NY — 
Breaking News Editor, Toronto — 
Breaking News Reporter, Remote — 
Assitant Business Ed., TX — 
Digital Editor, OH — 
Ellsworth/Acadia Reporter, ME — 
Live Blogger, London — 
Criminal Justice Reporter, LA — 
Editorial & Opinion Page Editor, NV — 
Senior Editor, NY — 
Principal Writer - Investigative & Trust — 
Culture & Travel Reporter, NY — 
