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8:55 AM ET, December 12, 2025

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
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  —  The Walt Disney Company on Thursday announced it will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and will allow users …
RELATED:
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  —  SAG-AFTRA said it will ‘closely monitor’ the deal … “Disney's announcement with OpenAI appears …
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” its content
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Bob Iger says the OpenAI deal “does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all” because it doesn't include name, likeness, or character voices
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
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:
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: WaPo's top standards editor decried “frustrating” errors in its new AI-generated personalized podcasts, announced this week for users of its mobile app  —  The Scoop  —  The Washington Post's top standards editor Thursday decried “frustrating” errors …
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.
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
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service launches on “eligible” Comcast and Rogers X1 and Xfinity stream boxes in the US and Canada  —  Luna relaunched earlier this year, and now, it will be available on more devices. … Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service is coming to cable boxes from Comcast and Rogers.
Alex Heath / Sources:
An interview with Nikita Bier, who wants to lure journalists back to X with a rebuilt recommendation algorithm with no keyword suppression or manual downranking  —  X wants its haters back Product chief Nikita Bier on journalists who left: “We have to earn their trust.”
Reuters:
Reddit files a lawsuit against Australia over its social media ban for under-16s, saying the ban “infringes the implied freedom of political communication”  —  Message board website Reddit (RDDT.N) on Friday filed a lawsuit asking the High Court to overturn Australia's social media ban …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
NY governor signs bills requiring ads to disclose AI-generated performers and mandating consent of heirs to use a deceased person's likeness commercially  —  The New York bill requires anyone producing or creating an ad to identify if it includes AI generated synthetic performers.
 
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 More News: 
Jacob Shamsian / Business Insider:
A Manhattan jury finds director Carl Rinsch guilty on all seven counts of defrauding Netflix of $11M when making sci-fi show White Horse
Dan Friedman / Mother Jones:
Jack Posobiec, a new Pentagon press corps member, seems to be working in coordination with the Pentagon to threaten a journalist writing about a DoD official
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
 Earlier Picks: 
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
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
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
Discussion: InPublishing and HoldtheFrontPage
 

 
From Techmeme:

Reuters:
President Trump signs an executive order aimed at preempting a growing number of state AI laws, saying “we want to have one central source of approval”

Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
OpenAI debuts GPT-5.2, its “best model yet”, in Instant, Thinking, and Pro variants, with significant improvements in writing, coding, and reasoning benchmarks

Reuters:
Serval, which offers an AI assistant for IT, HR, legal, and finance, raised a $75M Series B led by Sequoia at a $1B valuation, taking its total funding to $127M
 
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