Mediagazer: WHCA President Eugene Daniels said the White House move to take over the press pool “tears at the independence of a free press”; longtime reporters share alarm (Hadas Gold/CNN)

12:40 PM ET, February 26, 2025

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Jeff Bezos says the WaPo's opinion pages going forward will largely focus on personal liberties and free markets, and opinion editor David Shipley is leaving — I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning: I'm writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We'll cover other topics too

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Hadas Gold / CNN:

WHCA President Eugene Daniels said the White House move to take over the press pool “tears at the independence of a free press”; longtime reporters share alarm — The White House is stripping the White House Correspondents' Association of its role in managing the White House Press Pool …

Discussion: HuffPost, Fox News, The Guardian, NPR, The Hill, @jacquiheinrich, Bloomberg, Columbia Journalism Review, The Federalist, Mediaite, @presssec, @aclufl, @timothy_bellman, @milligansusan, @farhip, @toddgillman, @farhip, @billgertz, Poynter, @patrickdehahn, @bpopetv, @pamelafessler, @taylorpopielarz, @glennthrush, @jenicearmstrong, @ahaywa, @tbonier, @clumsyandshy, @sueannhowell, @walshfreedom.bsky.social, @patricialopez_4, The Daily Signal, @arifleischer, @tvreporter, @farhip, @jacquiheinrich, @jamesrbuk, IJR, Townhall, Al Jazeera, Newsbusters, RedState, Breitbart, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Daily Mail, PBS NewsHour, The Independent, American Greatness, Deseret News, The Washington Free Beacon, Raw Story, CBS News, ZeroHedge News, New Republic, Semafor, New York Times, Washington Times, Adweek, New York Post, Blaze Media, Politico, Washington Examiner, The Desk, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Wire

Reuters News Agency:

Editors of Reuters, AP, and Bloomberg News, all permanent members of the White House pool, say limiting wire access to the president harms people and markets — By: Reuters News Agency — Reuters, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News today issued the following statement:

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @reuterspr, WTTG-TV and Los Angeles Times

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

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Max Tani / Semafor:

YouTube's VP for News Partnerships Tim Katz says the platform has continued to boom as a news platform, particularly for news commentators like MeidasTouch — The News — YouTube is touting a mind-boggling statistic to demonstrate its increasing dominance in podcasting.

Discussion: YouTube Official Blog, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, @maxwelltani, Cord Cutters News, Tubefilter and The Hollywood Reporter

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube says it now has 1B+ monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide; users watched 400M+ hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices in 2024 — Podcasts started as an audio-only phenomenon. … According to the Google-owned video giant, YouTube now has more than 1 billion monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide.

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Wrap, @lucas_shaw, Mirror, The Verge, Deadline, @woollypigs@sudomakecake.com, @nicktheandersen.com and @rawveggies.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

WBD says Max will offer sports for free to US standard and premium subscribers; B/R Sports and CNN Max will no longer be available on Max's basic with ads tier — Warner Bros. Discovery has halted plans to launch a $10 paywall for its B/R Sports tier, while also pulling sports and news content from the Max ad tier from March 30.

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The Guardian:

Sources: UK lawmakers plan to offer key concessions to plans to make it easier for AI companies to use copyrighted work, after intense lobbying by top artists — Exclusive: partial climbdown over use of work protected by copyright considered after intense lobbying by top artists

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Alex Ritman / Variety:

ITV Studios signs a deal with Vice Studios to become its exclusive global distribution partner, adding ~2,000 hours of Vice content to its 90,000-hour catalogue — ITV Studios has signed a deal with Vice Studios to become its exclusive global distribution partner.

Discussion: WORLD SCREEN, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, C21Media and Deadline

Kerry Flynn / Axios:

DoubleVerify acquires media measurement startup Rockerbox in an all-cash deal valued at $85M; LUMA says deal volume in ad tech grew 73% in 2024 — - The startup was “relatively bootstrapped,” Rockerbox CEO Ron Jacobson says. … - Rockerbox has about 50 employees who will join DoubleVerify's 1,000-person team.

Discussion: @kerrymflynn and Adweek

CJ Haddad / CNBC:

AppLovin's stock falls 10%+ after two short sellers released reports questioning the integrity of the company's AI-powered AXON ad software — Shares of AppLovin tumbled 13% Wednesday as two short-seller reports cast doubt on the integrity of the company's AI-powered AXON advertising software …

Discussion: Benzinga, Bloomberg, Fuzzy Panda Research and Investor's Business Daily

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon says its new generative AI assistant Alexa+ will be able to navigate through movies on Prime Video, including “jump to a scene” — As part of the new Alexa+ experience Amazon introduced on Wednesday, the smart assistant will gain the ability to navigate through movies on Prime Video on your behalf.

Discussion: Neowin and Digital Trends, more at Techmeme »

Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers:

Politico's White House correspondent and WHCA President Eugene Daniels leaves Politico, sources say to join MSNBC and co-host a weekend roundtable show — Scoop @PuckNews: Politico White House correspondent and WHCA President @EugeneDaniels2 is leaving Politico to join MSNBC, where he will co-host a weekend roundtable show.

Discussion: @bsdtectr.bsky.social, @maxwelltani, Raw Story, Twitchy, Breitbart, The Washington Free Beacon, The Wrap and The Daily Caller

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:

WBD closes three game studios and cancels a highly anticipated Wonder Woman title in a bid to boost the profitability of its interactive entertainment business — - Company halts work on highly anticipated Wonder Woman title — Closures follow several disappointing releases last year

Sarah Downs / Variety:
WBD says its Max streaming service will launch in Australia on March 31; subscribers to Foxtel will get access to the Basic with Ads tier at no extra cost

Discussion: Advanced Television, The Desk, Streaming Better, Broadband TV News, C21Media, Australian Financial Review, The Hollywood Reporter, Vital Thrills, Capital Brief, Press Start, Media Play News and WORLD SCREEN

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