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Sources: FTC is discussing a consent decree on the Omnicom-Interpublic merger, prohibiting the combined company from boycotting platforms over political content — The Federal Trade Commission is considering restrictions on Omnicom and Interpublic to prevent the combined company from refusing …
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@ryanbeckwith.bsky.social, @danprimack, @matthewstoller and @mattdpearce.com, more at Techmeme »

Former ABC News correspondent and anchor Terry Moran launches a Substack channel following his ouster from the news network — “For almost 28 years, I was a reporter and anchor for ABC News, and as you may have heard, I'm not there anymore,” he said in a video entitled ‘Independence Day’.
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Tubi announces plans to distribute 20+ films funded on Kickstarter, starting in the fall, and to invest in Kickstarter's FilmStream Collective Fund — Tubi is partnering with Kickstarter to distribute more than 20 crowdfunded films. … Today, Tubi (which is owned by Fox) …
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Variety, Deadline, @simondowens@threads.com, Streaming Better and Cord Cutters News

Harvey Weinstein's rape charge retrial ends in a mistrial after the jury foreperson refused to return to the jury room due to threats from other jurors — “I feel afraid inside there. I can't be inside there,” the jury foreperson said Thursday. … The 12-person jury in Weinstein's trial …
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Sources: four senior BBC journalists have lodged ageism complaints as they face layoffs under plans to merge the BBC's Home and Foreign newsdesks — Several sources told Deadline that four senior journalists have lodged separate, but coordinated, age discrimination complaints after being shown the door.
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@pressgazette.co.uk

Brazil's Supreme Court rules that social media companies are accountable for some types of user content seen as illegal, a decision that could result in fines — Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that social media companies must be held accountable for some types of content published …
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Washington Post, @mathver.bsky.social, Tech in Asia, Bloomberg and Hacker News

Profiles of three employees at VOA's fact-checking unit, who fled Russia and are now among the many journalists losing their jobs under President Trump's orders — Three employees at Voice of America's fact-checking unit fled Putin's wrath and are now among the many journalists losing their jobs under Trump's orders.
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TVNewsCheck, @niemanlab.org, @scottnover, @scottnover and @scottnover

TollBit: from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, traffic from AI retrieval bots to 266 websites, half run by national and local news organizations, grew 49%, as AI usage jumps — As consumers switch from Google search to ChatGPT, a new kind of bot is scraping data for AI.
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Toshit Panigrahi on LinkedIn, Olivia Joslin on LinkedIn and TollBit, more at Techmeme »

A look at Apple's vision for Apple TV+ and its film business, as Tim Cook says the company's $200M+ bet on the F1 movie is about more than selling iPhones — Apple CEO and Formula 1 superstar Lewis Hamilton join forces on ‘F1 the Movie’ to take the tech giant's film business to new heights

A US judge rules that Amazon must face a proposed class action lawsuit by independent authors accusing it of monopolizing the audiobook retail market — Amazon.com (AMZN.O) must face a lawsuit by independent authors accusing the e-commerce giant of monopolizing the retail market for audiobooks …

Small-town newspapers are shutting down due to the lack of a succession plan, not financial issues, in nearly a dozen US states, a growing problem — And it's not just about the money. — For more than a century, the McClusky Gazette has reported the news in a small town in the middle of North Dakota.
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@eastdakota, @sdp.bsky.social, @eastdakota, TVNewsCheck and @newsguy.bsky.social

Lyft ramps up its ad business with three new ad formats; CEO David Risher said that Lyft is on track to reach a $100M annualized ad revenue run rate by 2025 end — Lyft is ramping up its ad business with new formats, the ride-hailing company exclusively tells Axios.

Sources and docs: Amazon has increased Prime Video's ad load to 4-6 minutes per hour, up from 2-3.5 minutes per hour when it introduced ads in January 2024 — More ads could mean lower CPMs, but performance could slip. — When Amazon introduced ads on Prime Video in January 2024 …
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