Mediagazer: How Vox built a huge YouTube presence, becoming an incubator that invented its own visual language, as ex-staffers like Johnny Harris grow their own channels (Simon Owens/The Long Story with Simon Owens)

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Peter White / Deadline:

Sources: WBD initiates a round of layoffs in its cable TV divisions, affecting well under 100 employees and largely impacting the Discovery side of the company — Deadline understands the company is set to lay off employees on the cable television side of its business.

Discussion: Variety, Adweek, The Wrap, TVNewsCheck, Los Angeles Times, AV Club, The Hollywood Reporter, Cord Cutters News, Washington Times, Irish News, Newsweek and Times of India

Barbara Tasch / BBC:

The BBC rejects a White House claim that it took down a Gaza story, after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of taking “the word of Hamas” — The BBC has rejected incorrect White House criticism of its Gaza coverage, describing a claim that it had taken down a story as “completely wrong”.

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Russell Simmons sues HBO and the directors of On the Record for $20M, alleging they defamed him in their documentary on sexual assault allegations against him — Russell Simmons is suing HBO and the filmmakers behind the “On the Record” documentary for $20 million, alleging they defamed …

Discussion: The Guardian, Billboard, The Wrap, Deadline, TVNewsCheck, AV Club, New York Daily News, TMZ.com, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Post, Rolling Stone, Vibe, Baller Alert and Stereogum

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

Newsweek acquires adtech firm Adprime, a demand-side platform focused on healthcare marketers, to strengthen its health vertical and grow B2B revenue — The tie-up is part of a broader bid from the publisher to diversify its advertising — The 93-year-old publisher Newsweek has acquired …

Discussion: MediaPost, Danielle Varvaro on LinkedIn, Roy K Lee on LinkedIn and Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn

Tom Levitt / The Guardian:

UK-based BBC Persian journalists say their families in Iran are being terrorised and punished by the Iranian regime, with a sharp escalation in 2025 — BBC says ‘sharp and deeply troubling escalation’ this year of Iran targeting families of UK-based BBC Persian journalists

Discussion: @jftaveira1993, @lgsentinel, @Wen@mastodon.scot and @ianmoody.bsky.social

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:

AMC Entertainment has reached an agreement with National CineMedia to run ads right before the start of a film, starting July 1 — Starting July 1, AMC theaters will feature a “platinum spot” that's shown on screens right before the start of a film. The theater chain, which has struggled financially …

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, Kotaku, SlashFilm, The Ankler and Media Play News

Sean Burch / The Wrap:

WGA East threatens a strike by Vox employees without a new contract that includes The Dodo Union staffers along with better pay, AI protections, and more — The strike threat, made by WGA East, says it wants a joint contract that includes The Dodo Union colleagues

Discussion: @mediaevan and @mediaevan.bsky.social

Attila Mong / Committee to Protect Journalists:

Since November 2024, Serbia had a sharp rise in attacks on journalists amid political unrest, including 23 physical assaults and 128 total attacks and threats — What journalists called a “witch hunt” atmosphere against government critics in Serbia one year ago has since escalated into a rise …

Discussion: Al Jazeera, BBC and TheJournal.ie

Simon Owens / The Long Story with Simon Owens:

How Vox built a huge YouTube presence, becoming an incubator that invented its own visual language, as ex-staffers like Johnny Harris grow their own channels — The company became a skunk works incubator that invented its own language of visual storytelling.

Discussion: Tubefilter, Joe Posner on LinkedIn, @jtemple.bsky.social, Fernando Hurtado on LinkedIn, @simonowens.bsky.social and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter

Steven Zeitchik / The Hollywood Reporter:

AMC signs a deal with Runway to use its AI tech to generate marketing images and pre-visualize unproduced shows, the first cable player to work with Runway — The ‘Mad Men’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ producer is the latest Hollywood company to sign a pact with the generative AI firm.

Discussion: Awful Announcing, AV Club, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, Peter Csathy on LinkedIn, @proggrrl.bsky.social, The Wrap and @carnage4life.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

An analysis of 61 settlements signed by Channel 4 staff who left amid employment disputes between 2017 and 2021 shows it paid out ~£5M and all but two had NDAs — Deadline has analyzed 61 settlement deals signed by former staff members who exited Channel 4 amid an employment dispute between 2017 and 2021.

Discussion: @jake_kanter and @johnmcm1

Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:

Reddit sues Anthropic, alleging it accessed Reddit 100K+ times after saying it had stopped; Reddit has reached formal licensing deals with OpenAI and Google — The online discussion forum says Anthropic continued to access its site over 100,000 times after saying it stopped