Top News:
CNN:
Don Lemon pleads not guilty to two federal charges stemming from his reporting at an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church — Don Lemon pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges following his arrest last month in connection with a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Discussion:
Straight Arrow News, Deadline, Mediaite, Washington Post, The Hill, The Guardian, New York Daily News, New York Post, KSTP-TV, The Gateway Pundit, twitchy.com, NBC News, Washington Times, Courthouse News Service, The National Pulse, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, Axios, Advocate, Barrett Media, Washington Examiner, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, @froomkin.bsky.social, @washingtonpost.com, The Daily Signal, @jackjenkins.me, TV Insider, Reuters, The Daily Wire, MS NOW, NewsNation, The Post Millennial, Just Jared, Blaze Media and Joe.My.God.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, claiming it infringed on Disney's works to train its Seedance 2.0 video generation model without pay — The Walt Disney Company on Friday sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging the Chinese tech giant has been infringing …
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Gene Maddaus / Variety:
The MPA urges ByteDance to curb its AI video model Seedance 2.0, after an AI-generated video of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting on a rooftop went viral
Discussion:
The Guardian, TVBEurope, The Wrap, Screen Rant, Deseret News, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Business Insider, Breitbart, Blaze Media, @jonathanjarry.bsky.social, Dexerto, World of Reel, Crooks and Liars, Screen, Deadline, PiunikaWeb, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, The Verge, GamesRadar and The Indian Express, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Memo: Paramount names former Trump administration attorney Rene Augustine as its senior vice president of global public policy, amid a takeover battle for WBD — Rene Augustine worked with Makan Delrahim, Paramount's top lawyer, at the Justice Department and most recently served in advisory roles to the Kennedy Center
Discussion:
Reuters, The Wrap, @bselena.bsky.social, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter
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Brian Stelter / CNN:
Sources: Paramount CEO David Ellison met with Trump last week for two conversations; Trump has said he will stay out of Netflix-Paramount competition for WBD
Discussion:
@deggans, @davidclinchnews, @tarpeianrock.bsky.social, Variety, NewsMax.com, Wall Street Journal, Axios and Techdirt
Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
Source: New York Daily News is cutting six of 10 national desk staffers, one metro reporter, seven print production people, and two photo department staffers — The owner of the New York Daily News fired 16 people this week - a “Valentine's Day massacre” that leaves the paper with a skeleton staff …
Discussion:
NewsGuild of New York, The Wrap and @johnannese.bsky.social
Scott Nover / Washington Post:
The Richmond Free Press, a 34-year-old Black-owned weekly, shuts down due to falling ad revenue as the Black press suffers from the dispersion of its readership — The Richmond Free Press cited declining advertising in announcing the end of its three-decade run in Virginia's capital city.
Discussion:
Richmond Free Press, LGBTQ Nation and @scottnover.bsky.social
George Winslow / TV Tech:
Cineverse says it is acquiring IndiCue, a profitable CTV ad tech company, for $22M plus up to $18M in earnout as Cineverse focuses on streaming infrastructure — As a result of the deal, Cineverse expects to get a majority of its revenue from technology and streaming infrastructure solutions by 2027
Discussion:
Cineverse, TheDesk.net, Deadline, NCS | NewscastStudio, Advanced Television and Media Play News
New York Times:
A Q&A with NYT reporters on handling the Epstein files, including creating tools to make them searchable, prepping for the release, and dealing with redactions — Two dozen journalists. A pile of pages that would reach the top of the Empire State Building. And an effort to find the next revelation in a sprawling case.
Discussion:
@martyswant, @dylfreed, @dylfreed, @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social and @jswatz.bsky.social
Advanced Television:
Report: AI-generated music uploads account for <1% of total streams; AI adoption is strongest in functional and low-stakes settings such as background music — The music industry has long been defined by an extreme winner-takes-all dynamic. A small number of tracks, artists …
Discussion:
OC&C Strategy Consultants
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
An interview with Chloe Rushmere, head of content for magazine and newspaper subscription app Readly, on future plans as Readly integrates with France's Cafeyn — “All you can read” magazine and newspaper app Readly's merger with a French equivalent is set to enhance its mobile app and support the business to increase investment.
Discussion:
@pressgazette.co.uk
Edith Hancock / Wall Street Journal:
The EU approves UMG's $775M acquisition of Downtown Music, a deal UMG expects to complete in the coming weeks after announcing it in December 2024 — The companies offered to sell Downtown's Curve royalty in an effort to win Brussels's blessing — The European Union approved Universal …
Discussion:
Dow Jones Newswires, Digital Music News, CMU, Billboard, Music Business Worldwide, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter and Bloomberg
Todd Spangler / Variety:
SAG-AFTRA signs an agreement with Netflix covering The Pete Davidson Show as a podcast, after talks about whether it should be treated as a TV show or a podcast — Netflix has described its recently released “The Pete Davidson Show” as a “video podcast” — and now SAG-AFTRA has signed …
Discussion:
Podnews, Barrett Media, The Wrap, Deadline, The Atlantic, @theatlantic.com, Vulture and Motley Fool
Antonio Zappulla / Thomson Reuters Foundation:
The Thomson Reuters Foundation says its news brand, Context, will be “phased down”, some staffers will lose jobs, and the site will remain up as an archive — Over the past year, the world has fundamentally changed. — We are experiencing the most profound geopolitical shift in 50 years …
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