Mediagazer: Google will pay $100M in cash to settle a 2011 lawsuit accusing the company of charging for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted (Jonathan Stempel/Reuters)

Guardian US expects $44M in donations in the US and Canada in 2025, up 33% YoY; contributions make up 60% of revenue, which exceeded costs by $16M in 2024 — There was a time in media when having a billionaire owner was an asset. For many outlets, this is still the case …

Discussion: Steve Sachs on LinkedIn, @casmudde.bsky.social, @charlottetklein.bsky.social, @pressgazette.co.uk, @mattmittenthal.bsky.social, @nymag.com and @sulliview.bsky.social

Oliver Darcy / Status:

Sources: the Los Angeles Times has laid off dozens of employees on the business side this week, including VP of Communications Hillary Manning — The newspaper slashed dozens of business-side staffers this week—including its longtime chief spokesperson—in a painful new round of cuts, Status has learned.

Discussion: Breitbart, @pinemikey.bsky.social, The Wrap, @oliverdarcy.bsky.social, @passantino.bsky.social and TVNewsCheck

Patience Haggin / Wall Street Journal:

Adalytics: DoubleVerify, IAS, and Human Security, paid by advertisers to detect bots, regularly miss such traffic; DoubleVerify missed 21% of bot visits — Companies that claim to help brands avoid serving digital ads to bots regularly miss nonhuman traffic

Discussion: MediaPost, Jay Friedman on LinkedIn, Dr. Augustine Fou on LinkedIn, Charlie Tysse on LinkedIn and Jim Gordon on LinkedIn

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

AP photographer Evan Vucci and AP Chief White House Correspondent Zeke Miller testified Thursday about damage done by the White House ban on the wire service — Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci testified at a court hearing in the AP's lawsuit over being kicked out of the White House press pool.

Olivia Solon / Bloomberg:

AppLovin hires a law firm to investigate short sellers' allegations that the mobile ad company's ad performance numbers are fraudulent — It followed a Muddy Waters report released on Thursday that alleged that AppLovin was misappropriating data and violating some of its platform partners' terms of service …

Discussion: CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Business Wire and Benzinga, more at Techmeme »

Discussion: Adweek, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, Barron's Online, CNBC, Muddy Waters Research and Investor's Business Daily

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

A look at AI-generated fake movie trailers on YouTube; WBD, Paramount, and Sony have earned ad revenue from some videos instead of defending their copyright — Cut to Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor watching on and Milly Alcock's Supergirl levitating into view. “They are not from here,” Luthor intones in an ominous voiceover.

Discussion: @tasharobinson.bsky.social and @redactedrodriguez.bsky.social

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Google will pay $100M in cash to settle a 2011 lawsuit accusing the company of charging for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted — Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a long-running lawsuit claiming it overcharged advertisers by failing …

Discussion: The Verge

Reuters:

Court documents: India criticizes Elon Musk's X for wrongly labeling an official website, used to notify tech firms of harmful content, as a “censorship portal” — India has criticised Elon Musk's X for wrongly labelling as a “censorship portal” an official website …

Discussion: @thomashansen.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Matt Stevens / New York Times:

A report on California's creative economy finds entertainment jobs in 2024 were 25% below 2022; LA County's 2024 shooting days fell 42% compared to 2022 — Many entertainment industry workers have been jobless for months, leading state officials to consider increasing subsidies to keep film and television production in California.

Discussion: Hollywood Life, Variety and Deadline

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

Penske Media and Tasty Media plan a Spanish-language edition of The Hollywood Reporter with original content, following editions in Italy, India, and Japan — The partnership sees the iconic entertainment brand expand its reach with Spanish-speaking readers in Latin America and Spain.

Discussion: Diego Ortiz on LinkedIn

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

FICCI-EY: India's media and entertainment sector revenue hit $29.4B in 2024, with digital media accounting for 32%, surpassing TV for the first time — India's media and entertainment sector hit INR2.5 trillion ($29.4 billion) in 2024, according to the annual Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)-EY report.

Discussion: Music Ally, The Economic Times, Press Trust of India, EY, MIT OpenCourseWare, Deadline and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:

JioStar, the joint venture that merged Viacom18 and Star India, says its streaming service JioHotstar has passed 100M subscribers — JioHotstar, the Indian streamer, has passed 100 million subscribers. — The service launched in February following the merger of Reliance Industries' Viacom18 …

Discussion: Variety and WORLD SCREEN