Top News:
Gene Weingarten / The Gene Pool:
An H1B visa filing list indicates Will Lewis' base salary as WaPo CEO was $3M per year in 2025, or enough to pay ~27 of the 300+ reporters who were laid off — So. — The image above was given to us by Deb Milbrath, a freelance cartoonist in Atlanta. I love it. — Here's something I don't love:
Discussion:
@bgrueskin.bsky.social, @hshaban, @adamkeiper.com and @coreypein.bsky.social
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Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
In a call, Tim Davie says the BBC plans to cut ~10% of its costs in the next three years, leading to job and programming cuts; 2025's operating costs hit £2B+ — Director-general Tim Davie tells staff broadcaster aims to trim annual budget by hundreds of millions of pounds
Discussion:
Deadline
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Michael Savage / The Guardian:
Trump's lawsuit against the BBC is set for trial in Feb. 2027; discovery must proceed though the judge has not ruled whether the Florida court has jurisdiction — Florida judge rejects BBC move to put off disclosing internal documents relating to spliced version of 2021 speech
Discussion:
The Wrap, Reuters, Associated Press, The Independent and Bloomberg
Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
A CBS News producer quits, saying stories may now be evaluated “on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations”, causing self-censorship — “The very excellence we seek to sustain is hindered by fear and uncertainty,” the news producer writes
Discussion:
@benmullin, New York Post, Salon, @kampeas, TV Insider, @gerardtbaker, @jonahdispatch, @samlitzinger.bsky.social, Mediaite and Barrett Media
Michael Acton / Financial Times:
US FTC chair urges Tim Cook to review Apple News' terms and curation after a study claimed the app promoted “leftist outlets” and suppressed conservative ones — US regulator issues warning to iPhone maker about its News platform following controversy over Super Bowl half-time show
Discussion:
The Wrap, TechCrunch, Android Authority, New York Sun, @brendancarrfcc, Telegraph, @kjhealy.co, @mims.bsky.social, Android Headlines, CNBC, @carnage4life@mas.to, Federal Trade Commission, MacRumors, @bendreyfuss, @tomcottonar, @michaeldbrown, @joellthayer, @matthewstoller, @mrddmia, @davidbozell, @adamscochran, @schneider_dc, @robertfreundlaw, @amanitafugax, @themrc, @schneider_dc, ZeroHedge News, @mirandadevine, @cernovich, @andyjungtech, @greta, @adamthierer, iClarified, @zacharyleelee, @franklinh3000, @cernovich, The Mac Observer, @afergusonftc, MacDailyNews, TheDesk.net, 9to5Mac, @mickeleh.bsky.social, MacTech.com, Reuters, Fox News, Deadline, The Verge, The Post Millennial, New York Post, Just The News and Fox Business, more at Techmeme »
Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:
NYT's Zach Seward details the “Manosphere Report”, an in-house LLM-powered tool that summarizes new episodes from about 80 podcasts with largely male audiences — The daily podcast round-up is just one way the Times is adopting in-house AI transcription and summarization tools.
Michael Savage / The Guardian:
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy refers DMGT's proposed acquisition of the Telegraph to Ofcom and CMA over concerns about consolidation of rightwing papers — CMA and Ofcom to examine DMGT takeover amid fears merger could curb ‘diverging editorial stances’ in press
Discussion:
Telegraph, RTÉ, Bloomberg and The Independent
Todd Spangler / Variety:
E.W. Scripps is expected to make layoffs in the near future as it seeks to grow adjusted earnings by up to $150M over three years; in 2024, it had 5K staff — This week at its headquarters in Cincinnati, Scripps said, it gathered a team of 200 managers “charged with carrying out the transformation.”
Discussion:
Inside Radio, Cord Cutters News, Cincinnati Business Journal, NCS | NewscastStudio and TVNewsCheck
Eduardo Baptista / Reuters:
ByteDance's new AI video generation model Seedance 2.0 goes viral in China; the model was designed for film, advertising, and e-commerce productions — ByteDance's new video-generating artificial intelligence model has already impressed the likes of Elon Musk and gone viral in China …
Discussion:
The Verge, MIT Technology Review, Fortune, Fast Company, Apple Gazette, ECNS and The American Bazaar, more at Techmeme »
Vidhya Srinivasan / Google Ads & Commerce Blog:
Google is testing a new ad format in AI Mode that displays retailers selling the products a user is searching for in a Sponsored box — Historically, consumers have faced a necessary trade-off: buy quickly and risk getting it wrong, or spend hours researching to get it right.
Discussion:
Forbes, Zacks Investment Research, WinBuzzer, MarTech, @whoa-magic.lol, Svetlana Klyuchkova on LinkedIn, Sarah Wang on LinkedIn, Aditi Nanda on LinkedIn, Nithya Venkataraman on LinkedIn, Michael Lenahan on LinkedIn, Search Engine Roundtable, Neowin, @glenngabe.bsky.social, MediaBrief, @aleyda.bsky.social, BMI, The Asia Business Daily, MediaPost, Social Media Today, Skift, Blockchain.News, Retail Brew, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal and The Register
Michaela Towfighi / New York Times:
Artforum EIC Tina Rivers Ryan plans to step down at the end of February; Executive Editor Rachel Wetzler and editor Daniel Wenger will be co-editors — The magazine announced that two other editors there will jointly replace Tina Rivers Ryan, who has been in the role since 2024.
Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
Disney agrees to pay $2.75M to settle California AG Rob Bonta's 2024 lawsuit alleging it violated the CCPA by failing to honor consumers' data opt-out requests — “Consumers shouldn't have to go to infinity and beyond to assert their privacy rights,” Rob Bonta says
Discussion:
The Record, WPXI-TV, SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, Deadline, State of California and Bloomberg Law
