• Max Knoblauch / Sherwood News: Morgan Stanley: ad tiers account for 30% of Netflix subscribers and 50% of Disney+ subscribers; ad tiers accounted for all US net subscriber additions in 2025

• Daniel Thomas / Financial Times: Interview with WPP CEO Cindy Rose, who says AI puts pressure on the ad agency's pricing and WPP has 10K data scientists and software engineers and 12K creatives

• Paul Glynn / BBC: HarperCollins UK drops children's author and comedian David Walliams following allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young women

• Robert D. McFadden / New York Times: Lou Cannon, a veteran Washington Post reporter who wrote several influential biographies of Ronald Reagan, has died at 92   —  He was a foremost authority on the president …

• Ken Vogel / @kenvogel: Politico ends its print edition after 19 years, as its early reliance on print ad revenue fades and its audience relies more on digital platforms

• Financial Times: Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says ByteDance's US entities will retain direct control over core US revenue drivers, including ecommerce, ads, and marketing

• Bloomberg: Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025

• Nicholas Henriquez / New Yorker: The New Yorker has digitized its full archive covering 100 years, including covers and adding upgraded search capabilities; subscribers get unlimited access

• Karl Bode / Techdirt: The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China

• Blake Brittain / Reuters: Google sues data scraping company SerpApi for allegedly using hundreds of millions of fake search requests to access copyrighted material from Google products

• Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M

• Jennifer Maas / Variety: The Kansas City Chiefs launch Foolish Club Studios, a first for an NFL team, to produce scripted and unscripted content that “might only be sports-adjacent”

• Kirsten Chuba / The Hollywood Reporter: TikTok's first awards show, held on December 18, handed out 14 awards, including Creator of the Year for Keith Lee; at the event, none of the screens worked

• 40 minutes ago Robert D. McFadden / New York Times: Lou Cannon, a veteran Washington Post reporter who wrote several influential biographies of Ronald Reagan, has died at 92   —  He was a foremost authority on the president …

• 10 hours ago Daniel Thomas / Financial Times: Interview with WPP CEO Cindy Rose, who says AI puts pressure on the ad agency's pricing and WPP has 10K data scientists and software engineers and 12K creatives

• 18 hours ago Max Knoblauch / Sherwood News: Morgan Stanley: ad tiers account for 30% of Netflix subscribers and 50% of Disney+ subscribers; ad tiers accounted for all US net subscriber additions in 2025

• 26 hours ago Nicholas Henriquez / New Yorker: The New Yorker has digitized its full archive covering 100 years, including covers and adding upgraded search capabilities; subscribers get unlimited access

• 35 hours ago Ken Vogel / @kenvogel: Politico ends its print edition after 19 years, as its early reliance on print ad revenue fades and its audience relies more on digital platforms

• 37 hours ago Blake Brittain / Reuters: Google sues data scraping company SerpApi for allegedly using hundreds of millions of fake search requests to access copyrighted material from Google products

• 37 hours ago Paul Glynn / BBC: HarperCollins UK drops children's author and comedian David Walliams following allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young women

• 38 hours ago Karl Bode / Techdirt: The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China

• 40 hours ago Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M

• 41 hours ago Jennifer Maas / Variety: The Kansas City Chiefs launch Foolish Club Studios, a first for an NFL team, to produce scripted and unscripted content that “might only be sports-adjacent”

• 42 hours ago Bloomberg: Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025

• 43 hours ago Natalie Korach / @nataliekorach: Sources: VF's article by Chris Whipple featuring quotes from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles led to VF's biggest subscription signup day since 2016   —  Scoop: Vanity Fair's bombshell Chris Whipple story including extensive interviews with Susie Wiles led to the biggest subscription signup day for the mag since 2016, according to people familiar, marking the first major win for editorial director Mark Guiducci

• 43 hours ago Financial Times: Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says ByteDance's US entities will retain direct control over core US revenue drivers, including ecommerce, ads, and marketing

• 44 hours ago Kirsten Chuba / The Hollywood Reporter: TikTok's first awards show, held on December 18, handed out 14 awards, including Creator of the Year for Keith Lee; at the event, none of the screens worked

• 45 hours ago Ryan Glasspiegel / Front Office Sports: Sources: Netflix will pay Barstool a yearly fee “in the eight figures” for its video podcasts; Fanatics has pitched WWE podcasts to Netflix which airs WWE Raw

• 45 hours ago George Winslow / TV Tech: The National Association of Broadcasters launches a campaign to support live sports on free broadcast channels as more big games move to streaming services

• 46 hours ago Wall Street Journal: Sources: Axel Springer has considered buying about a dozen media businesses in the US, including TED Conferences, TechCrunch, the 1440 newsletter, and more

• 2 days ago Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: YouTube's head of products for podcasts Steve McLendon says viewers streamed 700M+ hours of podcasts on TV in October, up from 400M hours in October 2024