Mediagazer: Opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin leaves WaPo to launch The Contrarian on Substack, to combat the “authoritarian threat” with the tagline “Not owned by anybody” (Brian Stelter/CNN)

3:25 PM ET, January 13, 2025

Top News:

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin leaves WaPo to launch The Contrarian on Substack, to combat the “authoritarian threat” with the tagline “Not owned by anybody” — New York CNN — — Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list …

Ben Smith / Semafor:

Tech reporter Ashlee Vance has left Bloomberg to start a media company called Core Memory, with documentaries, a YouTube show, podcast, and newsletter planned — The Scoop — The prolific Bloomberg tech journalist Ashlee Vance has left to start a new media company around his curious …

Discussion: Core Memory, CNN, @alanjeffries, @jamescham, @davidramli, @nearcyan, @ashleevance, @johncoogan, @bznotes, @ashleevance, @markmilian, @gaurabc, @ashleevance, @urbanistvc, @dadiomov, @fleetwood___ and Talking Biz News

Dominic Preston / The Verge:

Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko plans to transfer Mastodon's ownership to a new non-profit, saying it “should not be owned or controlled by a single individual” — Mastodon says the decentralized network ‘should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.’

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

UK's Daily Mirror gives journalists individual online page-view targets; some print reporters covering more serious news fear the targets will affect quality — Mirror journalists have been given individual targets for online page views in a move that has raised concerns for some about the potential impact …

Discussion: @ianbetteridge.com, @glenngabe@mas.to, Mark Desmond Thompson on LinkedIn, @jim.londoncentric.media and David Alexander on LinkedIn

Bloomberg:

Amid LA's fires, studios halted work on over a dozen projects, including shows like Wheel of Fortune; IATSE union: 8K+ of its members live in evacuation zones — First came the pandemic. Then came the strikes. Now, the fires. — Every Angeleno has experienced an earthquake, but the threat of fire has often felt more distant.

Discussion: Screen Rant, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn and @carlquintanilla.bsky.social

Michael Schneider / Variety:
How LA reporters have been personally affected by the wildfires after several days of non-stop, commercial-free news coverage: “fatigue is setting in”

Discussion: @dannygroner.bsky.social, @variety and Los Angeles Times

Richard Nieva / Forbes:

Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky — Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure …

Financial Times:

Some advertisers raise brand safety concerns over Meta's content moderation changes, fearing a surge in harmful content and misinformation on its platforms — Mark Zuckerberg's unexpected ‘free speech’ overhaul of Meta's content moderation has sparked concerns among advertisers that it will lead …

Discussion: Gizmodo, @petertl.bsky.social and @claradoodle.bsky.social

David Allen Green / Financial Times:
How aligning with Trump's new administration lets Meta and X pivot from futile cooperation with the EU and other jurisdictions to confrontation and coercion

Discussion: TechRadar, ZeroHedge News, Lauri Rechardt on LinkedIn, @diegocastaneda, @gideonrachman, @shaneliamconway, @reichenstein@mastodon.social, Stuart Lambert on LinkedIn, @danielagabor.bsky.social, @jwsidders.bsky.social, Hürriyet Daily News, @davidallengreen …, @henrymance.bsky.social, @ianfraser.bsky.social and New York Times

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg faces less friction in making broad policy changes after Meta's layoffs in 2022 and 2023, which hit much of its civic integrity teams

Discussion: notes from all fours, Quartz, Benzinga, @sbyrnes.bsky.social, @justiceleague00.bsky.social and Daring Fireball

Renée DiResta:
Meta's changes to its content policies will appease vocal political critics only for the short term, and they signal a retreat from responsibility to users

Discussion: Reason, @ben.werdmuller@threads.net, Business Insider, @renee.diresta@threads.net, @noupside.bsky.social, @dwillner.bsky.social, @dwillner.bsky.social and @dwillner.bsky.social

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is leaving following a botched app revamp that upset customers and stymied growth; Sonos names board member Tom Conrad as interim CEO — - 'We've let far too many‬‭ people down,' company tells staffers — Former Snap and Pandora executive Tom Conrad named interim CEO

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Rachel Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties to Mondays in 2022, will return to five nights a week as part of MSNBC's plans for Trump's first 100 days — Maddow, who scaled back anchoring duties after the spring of 2022, holding forth only on Mondays, will return to five nights a week …

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, The Hill, Deadline, The Wrap, USA Today, Mediaite, Adweek, RedState, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, TV Insider, Raw Story, @micheil.bsky.social, @brianstelter and @garymlevin

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain will replace Neil Cavuto on Fox News, aiming to bring his “signature podcast style” to the 4pm slot — The ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ co-host will take over the 4 p.m. time slot with ‘The Will Cain Show’ on Jan. 21.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, The Desk, Adweek, Awful Announcing, Mediaite, The Wrap, TVNewsCheck, The Hill, TVLine, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, RedState, TV Insider, The Independent, The Daily Caller, @jeremymbarr and Deadline

Matthew Martin / Bloomberg:

Sources: SURJ Sports, the sports investment arm of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, is in advanced talks to invest $1B+ in sports streaming platform Dazn — The deal between SURJ Sports Investment, a unit of the $925 billion Public Investment Fund, and Dazn could be announced as soon as this month …

Discussion: The Streamable and @kennysmith.bsky.social

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

Ormax Media: the Indian box office shrank 3% YoY to $1.37B in 2024, the second-highest-grossing year in the history of Indian cinema despite the dip — The Indian box office grossed $1.37 billion in 2024, marking a 3% decline from the record-breaking $1.41 billion achieved in 2023, per numbers from Ormax Media.

Discussion: Deadline

Kerry Flynn / Axios:

T-Mobile agrees to acquire Vistar Media, which focuses on programmatic digital out of home advertising, for $600M in cash; the deal is expected to close in Q1 — T-Mobile has agreed to acquire Vistar Media, an ad tech firm specializing in digital out-of-home, for $600 million, the companies announced on Monday

Discussion: Adweek, Reuters, @martyswant, Light Reading, MediaPost, @kerrymflynn, T-Mobile US, Inc., Ben Billingsley on LinkedIn and Digiday, more at Techmeme »

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 3:25 PM ET, January 13, 2025.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
SCOTUS declines to hear Meta's bid to avoid a class action by advertisers that accused the company of overcharging them by inflating their potential ad reach

Discussion: Supreme Court of the United States, MediaPost, Daily Caller News Foundation, Axios, Salt Lake Tribune and @kint.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Politico:
Jack Blanchard, who is currently Politico's UK editor, will move to Washington DC to become managing editor and author of its flagship Playbook newsletter

Discussion: @ryanlizza, Politico and Hugo Bebbington on LinkedIn

James Hale / Tubefilter:
Streams Charts: Twitch watch time fell to 1.58B hours in December, its lowest monthly total since July 2020, as the number of channels live at any one time rose

Discussion: Passionfruit

Riley MacLeod / Aftermath:
The Washington Post's renaming of its PR team to Star Talent Unit, focusing on “personalities and creators”, promotes false ideas about how journalism gets done

Discussion: @dannygroner.bsky.social and @matthewkeys.net

Earlier Picks:

Toby Helm / The Guardian:
Sources: the UK considers tightening rules on MPs' contracts with media outlets, as some MPs doubled their parliamentary salaries as presenters on TV channels

Discussion: @lucympowell, GB News, @stutay.bsky.social, The Mirror and @harryeccles.bsky.social

Kipp Jones / Mediaite:
Fortune retracts a story claiming Elon Musk plans to remove timestamps from X posts and charge an $8 signup fee, apologizing for being “intentionally misled”

Discussion: @spacesudoer, @lindayax, @timcast, @amasad, @mediaite, @fortune_exposed, @elonmusk, @fortune_exposed and @tomaxwell

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Matt Mullenweg deactivates the accounts of several WordPress.org members, some of whom have been leading a push to create a new fork of the open-source project

John Micklethwait / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait predicts AI's impact on journalism: jobs will change, not vanish, reporting and breaking news will remain valuable, and more

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @sotweets, @katie_roof, Nicholas Thompson on LinkedIn, New Yorker and @leokelion

From Techmeme:

Meta:
Meta launches Llama 4 Maverick with 400B parameters and Scout with 109B parameters and a 10M context window, and previews Behemoth with 2T total parameters

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
In backing Trump, effective accelerationists like Musk and Andreessen got a “Decel-in-Chief”, who instigated a brain drain and tariffs that hurt tech companies

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils a demo of Quake II generated using its Muse AI model, with limited playability in a browser, as part of the company's Copilot for Gaming push

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page