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8:35 AM ET, March 20, 2026

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
The Hollywood Reporter:
Nexstar says it has closed its Tegna acquisition after the DOJ and FCC approved it; CEO Perry Sook says Nexstar is grateful to Trump and the FCC's Brendan Carr  —  The megadeal is being challenged by eight states, but DOJ and FCC approval Thursday allowed the deal to close.
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Ted Johnson / Deadline:
The FCC approves the sale of certain local broadcast TV stations from Tegna to Nexstar, granting a waiver from a cap limiting how many stations can be owned  —  Nexstar said on Thursday that they had closed their acquisition of Tegna following approvals from the FCC and the Justice Department.
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Eight US states, including CA, CO, and NY, sue to block Nexstar's proposed $3.54B merger with Tegna on antitrust grounds; DirecTV files a separate suit
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
Hachette cancels the US release of the novel Shy Girl and is discontinuing its UK edition after readers claimed the author relied heavily on AI to write it  —  Its publisher, Hachette, will not release the novel in the United States and will discontinue its U.K. edition, citing its commitment to …
Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
The ProPublica Guild, representing ~150 employees, voted 92% in favor of a strike authorization after negotiating for over two years for its first contract  —  “Our union stands united in supporting ProPublica Guild's efforts to win a fair and just contract,” Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York, adds
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
In an interview, Jonah Peretti discusses using subscriptions to AI products, events, the sale of some of BuzzFeed's assets, or a joint venture to save BuzzFeed  —  Jonah Peretti, the founder of BuzzFeed, created a viral hitmaker for the millennial generation.
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Sony Music exec Dennis Kooker says the company has sent 135K+ takedown notices for deepfakes of its artists, but sees opportunities in AI with proper licensing  —  - Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email  —  The IFPI launched its latest Global Music Report this morning in London …
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Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
IFPI: global recorded music revenues hit $31.7B in 2025, up 6.4% YoY, total streaming revenue surpassed $22B, and users of paid music subscriptions reached 837M
James Faris / Business Insider:
Source: CBS News is planning to lay off dozens of employees as part of an overhaul led by Bari Weiss; 11 employees of CBS Evening News took buyouts in February  —  Follow James Faris … - CBS News is planning to lay off dozens of employees across the company.
Bron Maher / A Media Operator:
The UK's Observer offers a new round of buyouts almost one year after its acquisition by Tortoise Media; ~33% of staff reportedly took the buyout offers in 2025  —  The Observer, the historic Sunday newspaper that was acrimoniously acquired by start-up Tortoise Media from The Guardian last year …
Discussion: Telegraph
Rachel McDevitt / 90.5 WESA:
Pittsburgh City Paper, closed by Block Communications three months ago, is reviving under a new nonprofit, LocalMatters, with Lenfest Institute backing  —  Nearly three months after Pittsburgh City Paper announced it was shutting down, the alt-weekly is rising from the dead, thanks to new ownership.
Adrian Weckler / Irish Independent:
Mediahuis Ireland suspends former CEO Peter Vandermeersch from his role as a fellow after he admitted that some quotes in his writings were AI “hallucinations”  —  The Irish Independent has removed recent opinion articles written by the journalist while seeking clarity
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
A man accused of using thousands of bot accounts to stream AI songs, making millions in royalties, pleads guilty in US district court to wire fraud conspiracy  —  The man at the center of what's been described as the first-ever criminal prosecution for AI-assisted streaming fraud in the United States has pleaded guilty.
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 More News: 
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Meta plans to reduce its reliance on third-party vendors for content moderation, in favor of AI tools that it says are better at spotting scams and other tasks
Committee to Protect Journalists:
Hezbollah-tied Al-Manar TV says Mohammad Sherri, head of its political programs, was killed when an Israeli strike hit a Beirut residential building Wednesday
 Earlier Picks: 
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi partners with TikTok to launch the Creatorverse Incubator, giving creators support like promotions and potential funding to make Tubi originals
 

 
From Techmeme:

Katie Paul / Reuters:
At a town hall, Mark Zuckerberg said Meta's AI agent development has not accelerated as expected and its reorganization was not as “clean” as it could have been

Business Insider:
Sources: Alexandr Wang said Meta's model currently in training, codenamed Watermelon, matches GPT-5.5 and uses an “order of magnitude more compute than Avocado”

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft invests $2.5B and forms the Microsoft Frontier Company to embed 6,000 forward-deployed engineers with customers to help deploy AI systems
 
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