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Matthew Belloni / Puck:
Three sources say Kathleen Kennedy, a legendary movie producer and Lucasfilm president for 13 years, plans to step down by the end of 2025 — After a mixed 13-year run, the legendary movie producer has informed Disney, as well as friends and associates, that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year.
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Ted Johnson / Deadline:
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the White House, not the WHCA, will now decide which outlets will be in the pool covering presidential events — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the White House would now determine which outlets will be members of the press pool …
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New York Times:
Sources: Paramount and Trump agree to appoint a mediator in his $20B lawsuit against CBS, a sign that the sides are trying to resolve the case over 60 Minutes — The move is another indicator that the two sides are exploring ways to resolve the case, over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview, out of court.
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Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
Kate Bush and 1,000+ other musicians “co-write” a “silent” album to protest the UK's proposal to let AI train on their copyrighted work if they don't opt out — Recordings of empty studios represent impact on musicians of UK's plans to let AI train on their work without permission
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Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Major UK newspapers blanket their front covers to protest government proposals to let AI companies train models on copyright-protected work without permission
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Forbes, The Guardian, Engadget, The Week, Press Gazette, The Drum, The Bookseller and Financial Times
Jessica Testa / New York Times:
Jonathan Goldstein's podcast Heavyweight joins Pushkin Industries and plans to release new episodes this year, after being canceled by Spotify in 2023 — Pushkin Industries, the podcast company that will release the show, is betting that documentary-style audio programs can still win an audience.
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Baidu acquires the YY Live streaming platform from Joyy for $2.1B, completing a deal started in 2020; a previous $3.6B deal was rejected by Chinese regulators — The operator of China's leading search engine is paying roughly $2.1 billion for YY Live, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Baidu, Inc., Reuters, @briantycangco and Reuters
Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Oliver Darcy's Status adds CNN Editor Jon Passantino, now has 70,000+ subscribers, and is on track to top $1M in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2025 — Oliver Darcy's media newsletter, launched in August, is poaching a CNN editor and on track to top $1 million in annual recurring revenue
Carolyn Giardina / Variety:
Memo: Technicolor Group, which encompasses VFX brands MPC and The Mill, begins to shut down operations “due to inability to find new investors” — Following a weekend during which it tried to make 11th hour deals to save the company and its brands, Technicolor Group CEO Caroline Parot sent …
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David Gilbert / Wired:
A profile of Dan Bongino, Trump's FBI deputy director pick and an ex-Fox News host who rose from online conspiracy circles to become a top right-wing podcaster — Dan Bongino rose through the ranks of right-wing media thanks to his unflinching loyalty to Donald Trump and willingness …
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Warner Bros. Games shuts down three game studios and pulls the plug on a Wonder Woman game that had been in development for over three years — Warner Bros. Discovery is making cutbacks to try to get its games business back on track. … The open-world game was in the works at Monolith Productions …
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Screen Rant, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, Video Games Chronicle, TheGamer, PC Gamer, Neowin, Windows Central, Engadget, XboxEra, Gameranx, GameSpot, Destructoid, Push Square, Gematsu, Digital Trends, PlayStation LifeStyle, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, GeekWire, @thequiver_, @wario64, @vinciusmedeiro6, @ethangach, @tomwarren, @shinobi602, @gmanlives, @okami13_, @synthpotato, Polygon, The Verge, Kotaku, Comic Book and r/Games, more at Techmeme »
Annika Pham / Variety:
Norway's Schibsted agrees to buy telco Telia's TV and media business, including TV4 in Sweden and MTV in Finland, for ~$615.3M in a deal set to close in Q3 2025 — Oslo-based heavyweight news-led Schibsted Media has agreed to acquire from Nordic and Baltic telco Telia its TV and Media business led …
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Advanced Television, Broadband TV News, Mobile World Live, C21Media, TelecomLead, Cision, SportBusiness, Schibsted, IMDb, Reuters, Deadline and WORLD SCREEN
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
AAM: the combined average daily circulation of the 25 largest newspapers in the US fell 12.7% in the year to the end of September 2024; LAT saw the biggest drop — The combined average daily circulation of the 25 largest audited newspapers in the US dropped 12.7% in the year to the end of September 2024, new data shows.
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