Top News:
Variety:
Disney names Josh D'Amaro, head of its theme parks and consumer products division, as CEO, replacing Bob Iger, effective March 18; D'Amaro joined Disney in 1998 — Dana Walden named president and chief creative officer of the company — The Walt Disney Co., after a more than two-year saga …
Discussion:
Advanced Television, The Guardian, TV Tech, Plain Dealer, MediaPost, TheDesk.net, Observer, Business Insider, Puck, Reuters, Forbes, Adweek, Screen Rant, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, @loudmouthjulia, @pkafka, Engadget, Entrepreneur, People, The Standard, Los Angeles Times, Front Office Sports, @scottgustin, Gizmodo, One America News Network, @sherman4949, The Information, Washington Post, Benzinga, Yahoo Finance, Barron's Online, Quartz, CNBC, WAGA-TV, Associated Press, Fortune, The Verge, Fox Business, Cord Cutters News, Seth Brady on LinkedIn, @loudmouthjulia, @brianstelter, @aquinas82nd, TVBEurope, Suggest, @scottgustin, Media Play News, Bloomberg, CBS News, New York Post, Sports Business Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, more at Techmeme »
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Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney names Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, as its president and chief creative officer, a newly created role, effective March 18 — Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D'Amaro has been elevated to CEO of the Walt Disney Co., capping a closely watched multi-year process of identifying Bob Iger's successor.
Discussion:
Variety, StreamTV Insider, The Wrap, New York Times, IndieWire, CNN, Financial Times, Comic Book, GV Wire, UPI, Daily Disney News, BMI, Axios, New York Post, Yahoo Finance, The Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, Los Angeles Times, WPXI-TV, ZeroHedge News, Screen, Barrett Media, Orlando Sentinel and Bloomberg
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney says new CEO Josh D'Amaro's initial annual package is set at ~$38.4M, with a $2.5M base, and President Dana Walden's is set at ~$24M, with a $3.75M base
Disney says new CEO Josh D'Amaro's initial annual package is set at ~$38.4M, with a $2.5M base, and President Dana Walden's is set at ~$24M, with a $3.75M base
Discussion:
Deadline, The Wrap, Fortune, Fast Company, New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter, Just Jared, Pulse 2.0, The Indian Express, Washington Examiner and Yahoo Finance
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun says the company is among the few in the sector to crack the use of generative AI, and pledges another €1B for AI and data operations — Chief executive says French ad group is among sector's few companies to have figured out how to scale the technology
Discussion:
The Times, Anne Stagg on LinkedIn, Adweek and The Drum
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Adrià Calatayud / Wall Street Journal:
Publicis reports 2025 net profit of €1.65B, down from €1.66B in 2024, and total revenue up 8.5% YoY to €17.4B, but PUB falls 8%+ driven by AI fears — Shares in European afternoon trading were on track for their biggest one-day percentage drop since April 2020
Discussion:
MediaPost, campaignlive.com, BMI, PR Week UK and MediaBrief
Hannah Abraham / Forbes:
Reliance's Jio Studios acquires a 50.1% equity stake in Sikhya Entertainment for ~$16.7M, uniting India's largest studio with the Oscar-winning production house — Sikhya Entertainment co-founders Guneet Monga Kapoor and Achin Jain with Jio Studios President Jyoti Deshpande
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
New York Public Radio names Christy Tanner as its CEO; Tanner is a former AP reporter and spent eight years at CBS, expanding its streaming platform — Ms. Tanner was previously an executive at CBS News and serves on the board of Audacy, a major U.S. broadcaster and podcast producer.
Discussion:
Radio & Television …, Variety, TheDesk.net, Gothamist and Current
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
DMGT reports revenue down 1% YoY to £1.1B, adjusted operating profit up 11% to £97M, and digital ad revenue down 15% to £148.3M due to Google's AI Overviews — Digital advertising revenue at the publisher of the Daily Mail fell by 15% last year.
Isaac Rouse / Polygon.com:
Crunchyroll raises its US prices by $2/month; the cheapest, $10/month tier gets its first price bump since 2019 and now offers offline downloads on one device — If you didn't secure a Crunchyroll subscription when it was on sale during Black Friday, we have some bad news, anime fans: The price has officially gone up.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Digital Trends, The Wrap, Engadget, IGN, Kotaku, Screen Rant, Comic Book, Crunchyroll News, PCMag, CNET, The Verge and r/anime, more at Techmeme »
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Court docs: the US DOJ failed to tell a judge about a 1980 law protecting journalists when it sought to seize WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson's devices last month — The Justice Department did not address a 1980 law that generally bars warrants for reporting material when it sought to seize …
Discussion:
@charliesavage.bsky.social, @ericjgeller.com and The Reporters Committee …
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
Sources: David Ellison turned down an invitation to testify before the Senate about Netflix's WBD acquisition because he didn't believe it would be helpful — Paramount Skydance Corp. Chief Executive Officer David Ellison turned down an invitation to testify before the Senate at an antitrust hearing …
Discussion:
Motley Fool and Media Play News
Financial Times:
LexisNexis-owner Relx, Thomson Reuters, and other media and financial stocks fell 10%+ after Anthropic launched Claude Cowork tools that automate legal work — Shares in LexisNexis owner Relx fall 15% after new tools for Claude Cowork unveiled — Billions of pounds were wiped off the value …
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Fubo reports Q1 revenue up 40% YoY to $1.55B, up 6% to $1.68B pro forma after closing Disney's Hulu merger, and 6.2M North American subscribers, down from 6.3M — The sports-first streamer and ESPN also unveiled a reseller and marketing deal to expand the reach and distribution of Fubo services.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Advanced Television, Media Play News, Benzinga, Cord Cutters News, Streaming Better, ir.fubo.tv and Telecompaper
