Top News:
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
Q&A with Emanuel Fabian, who says he faced death threats from Polymarket bettors over his reporting on a missile strike in Israel, making him doubt what he saw — A disturbing new low in the Polymarket era — On March 10, the journalist Emanuel Fabian reported on a missile that had been launched from Iran.
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 — A group of eight states filed suit late on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, California, to block Nexstar's (NXST.O) …
Shubham Bose:
An analysis of a NYT article load finds 422 network requests totaling 49MB, triggering a sprawling programmatic ad auction, an example of “hostile architecture” — If active distraction of readers of your own website was an Olympic Sport, news publications would top the charts every time.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi partners with TikTok to launch the Creatorverse Incubator, giving creators support like promotions and potential funding to make Tubi originals — In a move to appeal to its younger viewers, the Fox-owned streaming service Tubi has launched its “Creatorverse Incubator” in partnership with TikTok.
RELATED:
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro details priorities in a staff memo: maintaining creative excellence, leveraging technology, and operating as “One Disney” to align teams — The entertainment giant's new chief says “great storytelling” and “creative excellence” will remain the company's north star
Discussion:
Gameranx, Cord Cutters News, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Benzinga, Business Insider, CBS News, Deadline, Yahoo Finance and Fox Business
RELATED:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney CEO Bob Iger officially passes the torch to incoming CEO Josh D'Amaro, who says Disney+ will evolve “to become the digital centerpiece of our company”
Disney CEO Bob Iger officially passes the torch to incoming CEO Josh D'Amaro, who says Disney+ will evolve “to become the digital centerpiece of our company”
Discussion:
MediaPost, Benzinga, The Daily Upside, @disney, Disney Cruise Line Press Room, Page Six, Florida Politics, The Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, WPXI-TV, The Walt Disney Company, IndieWire, Fortune, Deadline, The Wrap, Business Insider, CBS News, C21Media, Media Play News, Yahoo Finance, Pulse 2.0, CNBC, International Business Times, Reuters and Bloomberg
Ashley Harrell / SFGATE:
National Park Service staff say the Interior Department's public affairs office has blacklisted SFGATE after its critical coverage of new Park Service policies — The move follows critical coverage of new Park Service policies — Over the past month, SFGATE's national parks bureau …
Discussion:
Grant Marek on LinkedIn, @ashleyharrell3 and @leddder.bsky.social
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with LightShed Partners' Rich Greenfield on Paramount's WBD deal, the need to ramp up content production, media as a trophy asset, streaming tech, and more — Today on Decoder, let's talk about the big Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. — This deal could reshape all of media and entertainment if and when it closes.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap
Sarah Young / Reuters:
The UK government pledges £11M per year for the next three years for the BBC World Service, up 8% YoY; the Foreign Office provides ~30% of World Service funding — Britain said on Thursday it would increase funding for the BBC World Service over the next three years …
Discussion:
BBC and The Guardian
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe launches Firefly Custom Models in public beta, letting users train AI image generators on their own assets; the custom models are private by default — Firefly custom models analyze your assets to preserve character designs and emulate illustration and photography styles.
Discussion:
Thurrott, The Adobe Blog, PetaPixel, 9to5Mac and The AI Economy, more at Techmeme »
Michael Schneider / Variety:
Netflix execs refute Matt Damon's claim that creatives making movies or shows are told to repeat plot points in dialogue as viewers are distracted by phones — Despite Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's recent suggestion, Netflix execs say they're not asking filmmakers to repeat their film or TV plots in show dialogue.
Discussion:
The A.V. Club, That Park Place, CinemaBlend, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Dexerto, The Independent, Deadline, World of Reel and Dark Horizons
Minho Kim / New York Times:
Email: USAGM names Christopher Wallace, a former Newsmax news director and former Fox News producer, as deputy director of Voice of America — The appointment raised concerns that the Trump administration would try to erode the news group's independence after picking a deputy …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, @kaedotcom.bsky.social, The Wrap and Inside Radio
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Cloudflare says it has appealed Italy's €14.2M fine for refusing to block access to pirate websites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service, calling the amount “staggering” — Cloudflare said it has appealed a fine issued by Italy over the company's refusal to block access to websites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service.
Discussion:
Plagiarism Today and TorrentFreak, more at Techmeme »
Lara O'Reilly / Business Insider:
LinkedIn signs The Trade Desk as its first DSP partner for connected TV ads, allowing ad buyers to layer in LinkedIn data to target audiences of professionals — Follow Lara O'Reilly … - LinkedIn wants to help B2B advertisers reach key businesspeople as they watch TV.
