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7:05 AM ET, January 8, 2026

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Mark Walker / New York Times:
Block Communications says The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will cease publication on May 3; the closure will not affect its sister newspaper, The Toledo Blade  —  The family-owned company that operates the newspaper cited mounting losses and labor constraints.  A final edition is expected on Sunday, May 3.
RELATED:
Josh Sisco / Bloomberg:
Filing: the US DOJ opened an in-depth review of Paramount's hostile tender offer for WBD on December 23; Netflix has said it's also talking with the DOJ and EC  —  The heated battle to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. has expanded from the boardroom to the US Justice Department …
RELATED:
Katie Arcieri / Bloomberg Law:
The US House Judiciary Subcommittee scrutinizes the WBD-Netflix deal, and Rep. Jamie Raskin expresses concern over Trump's influence on Paramount and Netflix  —  House lawmakers Wednesday questioned the proposed tie-up between Warner Bros. and Netflix Inc., with some weighing the competitive tradeoffs …
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
WBD's board unanimously rejects Paramount's amended $108.4B acquisition offer, saying the bid still has “significant” risks compared to Netflix's $83B offer  —  The board says the revised $108.4 billion bid continues to offer “significant costs, risks and uncertainties” compared to its $83 billion deal with Netflix
Tony Maglio / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD's board chair indicates WBD remains open to a Paramount acquisition, saying David Ellison “stepped up to the table” but “ultimately didn't raise the price”
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney announces it is adding vertical videos to Disney+ later this year, following the launch of ESPN's “Verts” in the ESPN app last August  —  Other new offerings include a new “brand impact” metric and a new video generation tool that helps advertisers create high-quality …
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
NY Mayor Zohran Mamdani invited dozens of “new media” figures to City Hall for a tour and private news conference while excluding legacy media outlets like NY1  —  It was a standard-issue tour of New York's City Hall, although the docent seemed smoother, and hipper, than most.
Discussion: New York Post
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood predicts “we'll see the first 100% AI-generated hit movie” within three years and discusses Roku's new $3/month Howdy streamer  —  Roku founder, chairman and CEO Anthony Wood has some big predictions about the pending impact of generative AI on Hollywood …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Ivan L. Nagy / Columbia Journalism Review:
Experts examine the potential effects of the end of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: one sees opportunity and another sees a catastrophic event  —  The parent organization of NPR and PBS, already defunded, is shutting down—and claims that's for the best.  But there are dangers ahead.
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Fox is launching Fox Creator Studios to work with social content creators on multiple platforms and has made development deals with several food personalities  —  Digital-first division starts with a focus on food through deals with Gordon Ramsay and social media stars Rosanna Pansino …
Carolina Abbott Galvão / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with John Cusack, a longtime press freedom advocate, on how FOIA-based reporting shouldn't be behind paywalls and how walls hurt those most affected by news  —  The movie star says that by selling their public-records-based reporting, news outlets are compromising one of journalism's essential civic roles.
 
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 More News: 
Katherine Doherty / Bloomberg:
Polymarket agrees to supply Dow Jones outlets like the WSJ and Barron's with prediction market trading data for online and in print, its first media partnership
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Spotify lowers monetization eligibility for video podcasters to three episodes, 2,000 consumption hours, and 1,000 engaged audience members over a 30-day period
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Asian streaming giant Viu launches Viu Shorts, a new vertical video section for microdramas on its app, featuring episodes that are one to three minutes long
 Earlier Picks: 
Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Semafor raised $30M at a $330M valuation after generating $2M in EBITDA in 2025, its first profitable year, and plans to expand its annual CEO gathering in DC
Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: Tony Dokoupil's CBS Evening News debut left some staffers embarrassed and alarmed over the chaotic on-air rollout and MAGA-friendly editorial choices
 

 
From Techmeme:

Helena Horton / The Guardian:
X limits Grok's image generation and editing to paying subscribers after widespread outcry over its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery

Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
Docs: xAI had a net loss of $1.46B in Q3, up from $1B in Q1; sources: xAI told investors it plans to build AI that will eventually power Optimus humanoid robots

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI is rolling out a HIPAA-compliant version of ChatGPT for clinicians to assist with medical reasoning and administrative tasks, at Cedars-Sinai and others
 
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