Mediagazer: The ESA shuts down the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, after new competitors, partner withdrawals, changing audience habits, and more; E3 began in 1995 (Gene Park/Washington Post)

Russian state media: in a new case, Russia accuses RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, in Russian custody since October, of spreading fake news about its army — Russian investigators have reportedly filed another case against veteran RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who is already being held …

Discussion: Agence France-Presse, Reuters, The Moscow Times and Meduza.io

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

Sports Illustrated publisher The Arena Group announces the termination of CEO Ross Levinsohn and names 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava as its interim CEO — - Anderson Cooper And Andy Cohen To Return For CNN's New Year's Eve Special; Sara Sidner and Cari Champion Tapped As Co-Hosts

Gene Park / Washington Post:

The ESA shuts down the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, after new competitors, partner withdrawals, changing audience habits, and more; E3 began in 1995 — The collapse ends years of attempts to revive the event that once dominated the industry — The Electronic Entertainment Expo …

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

Memo: The New York Times has hired Quartz co-founder Zach Seward to work with the newsroom leadership in establishing principles around the use of generative AI — Quartz co-founder Zach Seward tasked with establishing principles for how the Times will and won't use generative AI

Discussion: The New York Times Company, @agoldmund, @alexbruell and @scottnover

David W. Dunlap / New York Times:

As The New York Times prints its 60,000th issue, the newspaper explains how a news assistant discovered in 1999 a numbering sequence error dating back to 1898 — In 1999, a news assistant's number crunching revealed that The Times had gotten ahead of itself.

Discussion: @peterbakernyt, @elwasson, @silvermanjacob, @michaelstarobin, @benhoffmannyt and @nytimespr

Anto Antony / Bloomberg:

Sources: Disney and Reliance are expected to sign a non-binding pact as early as December 18 to merge their media operations in India in a cash-and-stock deal — - Ambani's group to own majority stake in the new media entity — Non-binding deal terms likely to be signed on Monday: sources

Discussion: Times of India, Benzinga, @amit6060, Inc42 Media, India Today, Gadgets 360, The Economic Times and The Business Times

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

To comply with India's FDI rules, four BBC staff quit and form Collective Newsroom, which the BBC will commission to produce six Indian language services — Four BBC India staff members have quit and formed a new entity, Collective Newsroom, in order to comply with India's strict foreign direct investment (FDI) in media rules.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Reuters and Broadband TV News

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:

Spotify partners with Warner Bros. Discovery to host and distribute some podcasts from WBD, including CNN and HBO shows, and become a WBD monetization partner — Podcasts in the partnership include CNN's ‘All There Is with Anderson Cooper’ and HBO's ‘The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon.’

Discussion: Radio Ink

Financial Times:

Sources: RedBird IMI is in advanced talks with Warner Bros. Discovery and Liberty Global to acquire UK TV and film producer All3Media in a deal worth ~£1B — Zucker-Cardinale investment group leads rivals circling the ‘Fleabag’ and ‘Call the Midwife’ producer

Discussion: The Guardian, Variety and Reuters

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Liberty Media's LSXM combines with SiriusXM to form a new public company, called New SiriusXM, which will continue to operate under the SiriusXM brand — “This combination will create value for all stockholders by eliminating the tracking stock structure” and “enhancing liquidity.”

Discussion: Inside Radio, Radio & Television …, Radio Ink and Cord Cutters News

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, banned in the UK in February 2021, appears to have set up an agency to distribute free video news packages pushing China's goals — AMSP claims to have 600 partner newsrooms using its content. — Chinese state broadcaster CGTN is distributing free professional …

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Snapchat+ subscribers can now make and send AI generated images based on a text prompt and add pictures of friends into Dream, its generative AI selfie feature — Snapchat is releasing a few new AI powered features for Snapchat+ subscribers, the company announced on Tuesday.

Discussion: Snap Newsroom