Top News:
Clayton Davis / Variety:
Ryan Coogler's Sinners breaks the Academy Awards' nomination record with 16 nominations, surpassing the previous record of 14, held by three films — Ryan Coogler has officially rewritten Oscar history. — Coogler's “Sinners” shattered the Academy Awards' all-time nomination record Thursday …
Discussion:
Variety, Awful Announcing, The Wrap, Screen Rant, Deadline, Axios, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, FemaleFirst, Gold Derby, Comic Book, Mercury News, Marin Independent Journal, PinkNews, Bossip, New York Times, Elle, The Hollywood Reporter, Global News, Mashable, Kotaku, The Indian Express, Dexerto, Screen, CBC News, Rolling Stone, Essence, The Oaklandside, Decider, TV Insider, Dread Central, NPR, Page Six and Associated Press
RELATED:
Deadline:
A breakdown of 2026 Oscars nominations by movie and by studio: Warner Bros. leads with 30 nominations, Neon gets 18, Netflix earns 16, and Apple has six — Sinners is up for Best Picture, Actor Michael B. Jordan, Supporting Actress Wunmi Mosaku, Supporting Actor Delroy Lindo …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Adweek, People, Reuters, IndieWire, The Wrap, Variety, Gold Derby, Offscreen Central, TMZ.com, Wall Street Journal, Pakistan Today, NBC News, Gizmodo, Reality Tea, Times Now, TODAY.com, Consequence, InStyle, Collider, @warnerbros, ABC, What's on Netflix, Decider, NME, Associated Press, Tom's Guide, MacTech.com, The US Sun, CBS News and Forbes
Liz Hoffman / Semafor:
Sources: the US and China approve a deal to sell TikTok's US business to a group of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silverlake, set to close this week — The US and China have signed off on a deal to sell TikTok's US business to a consortium of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silver Lake …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Investing.com, Benzinga, Anadolu Ajansı …, Hypebot, Crypto Briefing and DatacenterDynamics, more at Techmeme »
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Filing: Paramount extends the deadline for WBD shareholders to vote on its $30-per-share offer to February 20 — Paramount has extended the deadline for Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to throw their support behind the company's hostile takeover bid. — The initial deadline of Wednesday has now been pushed to February 20.
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Adobe rolls out Firefly Foundry, which creates AI-generated “commercially safe” images, video, and more grounded in a brand or franchise's creative universe — Adobe is rolling out a new AI offering aiming to create common ground among major talent agencies, top filmmakers …
Discussion:
Investor's Business Daily, The Verge and The Information
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify expands its AI-powered Prompted Playlists beta to Premium subscribers in the US and Canada, following initial testing in New Zealand — Spotify is rolling out Prompted Playlists, a new AI playlist creation tool, to Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
Discussion:
Reuters, XDA Developers, Thurrott, CNBC, Hypebot, Android Central, Pocket-lint, ZDNET, Android Authority, Engadget, How-To Geek, MakeUseOf, Spotify, Digital Trends, The AI Economy, Mashable and 9to5Mac
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Cate Blanchett, Cyndi Lauper, and 800+ creatives launch “Stealing Isn't Innovation” to protest unauthorized AI training, backed by RIAA, SAG-AFTRA, and others — Cate Blanchett, Cyndi Lauper, George Saunders, and other creatives say that AI companies are …
Discussion:
Variety, Deadline, Fast Company, Billboard, Music Ally, The Hollywood Reporter and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
The UK's Future acquires social-first publisher Sheerluxe and Blush Talent MGMT for an initial £39.9M, rising by an additional £40M based on performance — Magazine giant Future is attempting to grow its share of creator-led digital marketing spend by acquiring social-first publisher Sheerluxe.
Discussion:
A Media Operator, Future and BusinessCloud
Washington Post:
An Israeli strike killed three journalists in Gaza, one of whom freelanced for AFP and CBS; Israel says it targeted operators of a drone affiliated with Hamas — The journalists were killed Wednesday in a strike on their car in central Gaza. Israel's military said it struck “several suspects” who were operating a drone.
Discussion:
The Guardian, New York Post, Reporters Without Borders, Le Monde, France 24, Aleteia, CBS News, Mediaite, @dude.computer, Zeteo, BBC, Washington Examiner, Middle East Monitor, Reuters, @erinmcunningham.bsky.social, Courthouse News Service, New York Times, The Times of Israel, Al Jazeera and Committee to Protect …
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with YouTuber J.J. McCullough, who started his channel in 2015 and has 1M subscribers, on research, earning enough for a middle-class lifestyle, and more — “I respect mainstream media a great deal. I think they're doing better work than a lot of new media people do.
Discussion:
Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, @simonowens.bsky.social and @tongli.bsky.social
The Hollywood Reporter:
The FCC says TV talk shows should now comply with equal time political broadcasting rules; the board's lone Democrat calls the change a censorship escalation — The FCC released new guidance Wednesday that stipulates that daytime and late night talk shows will be expected to comply with equal time rules.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, The Wrap, The Hill, LateNighter, Fox News, New York Times, Raw Story, Straight Arrow News, Los Angeles Times, Inside Radio, Washington Post, @farhip, @farhip, CBS News, The Gateway Pundit, Reuters, IJR, New York Post, Paste, Washington Examiner, Variety, TheDesk.net, @laurentguy.bsky.social, @natanael.bsky.social, @maraleia.bsky.social, @greene.haus, @radicalcompliance.bsky.social, Cord Cutters News, @avi.zollman.com, Deadline, Consequence, @frydawolff.bsky.social, Forbes, TV Tech, NewsMax.com, Politico, Bloomberg, Newsbusters and Breitbart
Seyma Bayram / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at The Amargi, a new nonprofit digital outlet based in Germany covering Kurdish news in English and trying to avoid favoring any specific political party — The Amargi, a digital outlet based in Germany, takes the lead on Kurdish news. — Kurdish media has a storied history of coverage from exile.
Discussion:
Reuters, @cjr, @kamalchomani and UnHerd
