Top News:
Scott Nover / Washington Post:
Sources: the DOD barred press photographers from briefings on the Iran conflict after they published photos of Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed “unflattering” — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's staff took issue with images taken in a rare briefing last week and decided to shut …
Discussion:
National Press Club, Poynter, Politico, Metro.co.uk, Paul Krugman, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, @paulksmith.bsky.social, Australian Financial Review, New York Times, Civil Discourse …, HuffPost, @scottnover, @eilperin, Newser, @scottnover, Kate Berry on LinkedIn, NOTUS, The Wrap, Digby's Hullabaloo, @danielsgoldman.dg4ny.co, Military and Veteran …, RedState, @hirono.senate.gov, Rolling Stone, @pincheesq.bsky.social, @adamrose.bsky.social, @fraying.bsky.social, @timkarr.bsky.social, @devilstower.bsky.social, PetaPixel, @joelsiegel.bsky.social, New York Daily News, @freedomofpress@social …, @jalefkowit@vmst.io, @ywfyf.com, @anthonylfisher.bsky.social, @jacobbogage.bsky.social, @peterbakernyt.bsky.social, @pgourevitch.bsky.social, @jcollins.bsky.social, IJR, TMZ.com, twitchy.com, Mediaite, @davekeating.substack.com, @smtrumbull.bsky.social, @dbernstein.bsky.social, @drewharwell.com, @kylegriffin1.bsky.social, @gottalaff.bsky.social, The Independent, DNYUZ, Defector, New Republic, Althouse, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and r/Journalism
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Netflix will pay as much as $600M for InterPositive, Ben Affleck's AI moviemaking company, including bonuses for meeting certain performance targets — Netflix Inc. will pay as much as $600 million for InterPositive, the AI moviemaking company founded by Ben Affleck …
Discussion:
Variety, @astreonnova, Reuters, The Wrap, TechCrunch and NPR, more at Techmeme »
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
Google's AI Futures Fund invests $1M into Animaj, an AI animation studio focused on making high-quality videos for children on YouTube — Google is investing in an artificial intelligence content studio focused on making videos for children on YouTube, part of an effort to seed the platform …
Discussion:
Gizmodo and YouTube Official Blog
Francisco Rodrigues / CoinDesk:
Binance files a New York defamation suit against Dow Jones over the WSJ's February 23 article on the crypto exchange's handling of Iranian-linked transactions — The situation adds pressure to Binance, which is already operating under a compliance monitor following its $4.3 billion anti-money laundering …
Discussion:
Reuters, Bitcoin News, ZyCrypto, The Daily Hodl, Blockchain.News, The Block, Ars Technica, Blockonomi, The Guardian, DL News, Yahoo Finance, Protos, NewsBTC, Benzinga, PR Newswire, Bitcoin Magazine, Crypto Briefing, Coinpedia Fintech News, Cryptonews, Binance Blog, The Crypto Times, CoinGape, Watcher Guru, crypto.news, Bloomberg, Cointelegraph, CryptoPotato and Talking Biz News
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
A look at Newpress, a production company and community platform for “creator journalists”, which helps them build shows on platforms including YouTube — A creator couple launched a wildly successful YouTube channel with longform video. Now they want to help other journalists do the same.
Discussion:
Simon Owens on LinkedIn and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter
Astrid Suárez / Associated Press:
Inter American Press Association: press freedom in the Americas suffered a “dramatic deterioration” in 2025; the US has “restrictions” on freedom of speech — Press freedom in the Americas suffered a “dramatic deterioration” in 2025, a regional watchdog said Tuesday …
Discussion:
Al Jazeera
Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter:
RTL reports 2025 revenue down 3.8% YoY to €6.02B, adjusted EBITDA of €661M, paying streaming subscribers up 19% to 8.1M, and streaming revenue up 26% to €509M — RTL says its streaming platform RTL+, which now boasts more than 8 million subscribers, will cross into profitability later this year.
Discussion:
Advanced Television, Variety, Deadline, Broadband TV News and Telecompaper
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
PitchBook: VC dealmaking in the media sector fell 69% YoY to $165M across 47 deals in the first two months of 2026, as investors take an “AI-first” approach — The Funding File: AI-focused super PAC Leading the Future, Justin and Ben Smith's Semafor and former Paramount co-CEO …
David Gilbert / Wired:
Q&A: Louis Theroux, director of Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere, on interviewing those on the extreme edges of the media as they film you, and more — With the release of his Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere, the director talked to WIRED about why so many young men are drawn to toxic influencers.
Discussion:
Mirror, LADbible, Daily Mail, graziadaily.co.uk, The Standard, @daithaigilbert, Vanity Fair, @juha.bsky.social, NME, @wired.com, @davidgilbert.bsky.social, @manishakrishnan.bsky.social, @dafydd62.bsky.social, Digital Spy, Reality Tea, Kansas City Star, The Guardian, Latest from Woman and Home, The Irish Times, Dexerto, Metro.co.uk, Mashable, City A.M. and The Sun
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A look at Social Spider, a nonprofit that publishes four monthly print newspapers in London and expects to be profitable for a second straight year in 2026 — The publisher of four London local newspapers is expecting to be profitable for the second year running in 2026.
Discussion:
David Floyd on LinkedIn and @markoneinfour.bsky.social
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Universal says it is shifting to five weekends of exclusive theatrical runs, up from three, and will move to a minimum of seven weekends in January 2027 — Theaters will get a minimum of five weekends of exclusive play and then, starting next year, seven. A pandemic-era policy was guaranteeing only three.
Stevie Bonifield / The Verge:
Superhuman says it has disabled Grammarly's Expert Review feature, which gave editing suggestions “inspired by” real writers without permission, after backlash — Now it will ‘reimagine’ the Expert Review feature, and allow experts a choice about participating in future AI plans.
Discussion:
Engadget, Futurism, Digital Trends, Silicon Republic, Inc, Shishir Mehrotra on LinkedIn, @cheriepriest.com, @joabaldwin.com, @scalzi.com, @stancarey@mastodon.ie, @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org, @juliaangwin.com, @reneedechert.com, @harrymccracken.com, @timbays.bsky.social, @lifeisamazing.bsky.social, Decrypt, @knittingknots.bsky.social, @richvn.bsky.social, @davekarpf.bsky.social, @abeba.bsky.social, The Decoder, @juliaangwin.com and GovTech
RELATED:
Miles Klee / Wired:
Superhuman faces a proposed class action lawsuit from Julia Angwin, founder of The Markup, alleging Grammarly's Expert Review tool involved “misappropriation”
Superhuman faces a proposed class action lawsuit from Julia Angwin, founder of The Markup, alleging Grammarly's Expert Review tool involved “misappropriation”
Discussion:
International Business Times, PCMag, @youwouldntpost, @karanicolas.bsky.social, SFGATE, @karlbode.com, @richvn.bsky.social, Gizmodo, @carnage4life@mas.to, @venikunche, Mashable, SiliconANGLE, Julia Angwin on LinkedIn, @evacide.bsky.social, @juliaangwin.com, @wired.com, @manishakrishnan.bsky.social, @couts.bsky.social, PRF Law, The Verge, The A.V. Club, FlowingData, Pixel Envy and MediaNama, more at Techmeme »
Laura Cress / BBC:
The UK ICO and Ofcom asked social media platforms to implement “highly effective age checks” to bar under-13 accounts, similar to tools required for adult sites — Major technology companies have been asked to bring in more robust age checks for under-13s in the UK …
Discussion:
Sky News, Tech in Asia, Reuters, Daily Star, BusinessCloud and Manchester Evening News, more at Techmeme »
