Top News:
Perry Stein / Washington Post:
A federal judge in Virginia has denied the DOJ's request to search Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's devices as part of a national security leak probe — A federal judge in Virginia denied the Justice Department's request to search a Washington Post reporter's devices in a national security leak probe.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Hill, Reuters, The Guardian, Politico, CBS News, KVIA-TV, Associated Press, @Nonilex@masto.ai, @aaronschaffer.com, Raw Story, @kylegriffin1.bsky.social, @johnphudson.bsky.social, @dianaresists.bsky.social, @ellenenders.bsky.social, @JamesWNeal@mstdn.social, All Rise News, @maddow.bsky.social, The Gateway Pundit and @runasand.bsky.social
Lauren Hirsch / New York Times:
WBD says Paramount's new $31-a-share offer could lead to a better deal than Netflix's, potentially triggering a four-day period for Netflix to revise its bid — Warner Bros. Discovery said Paramount's new offer of $31 a share could lead to a “superior proposal” to the deal it signed with Netflix.
Discussion:
Variety, Deadline, CNN, @lindseygrahamsc, The Daily Upside, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., Forbes, New York Post, Screen, The Movie Blog, @laurenshirsch, The A.V. Club, Bloomberg, Screen Rant, Awful Announcing, NBC News, World of Reel, New York Sun, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Axios, Gamereactor UK, Financial Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Benzinga, The Hill, MediaPost and The American Bazaar
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The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD confirms that it received a revised bid from Paramount to acquire the company, but says it still recommends that shareholders vote for Netflix's deal
WBD confirms that it received a revised bid from Paramount to acquire the company, but says it still recommends that shareholders vote for Netflix's deal
Discussion:
Deadline, Advanced Television, Le Monde, Paramount Skydance Corporation, Al Jazeera, Forbes, BBC, @sherman4949, Communicate Online, @brianstelter, Dow Jones Newswires, @brianstelter, CNBC, The Streamable, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, International Business Times, Proactive, CBS News, Capital Brief, New York Times, Bloomberg, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., Business Insider, Reuters, The Wrap, Blockonomi, Media Play News, Silicon Valley Business …, Sharecast, Benzinga, Business Today, Reuters, Telegraph, Cord Cutters News, Screen, Stocktwits, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Business Journal, r/MediaMergers and r/MediaMergers
Tom Singleton / BBC:
The UK ICO fines Reddit £14.47M for unlawfully using children's personal information; Reddit began verifying user ages in July 2025 to comply with the UK OSA — Reddit has been fined £14.47m by the UK's data watchdog for unlawfully using children's personal information.
Discussion:
Engadget, The Guardian, UK ICO, @iconews, Android Headlines, @timsweeneyepic, Biometric Update, @aswren, Reclaim The Net, Ars Technica, Sky News, Cyber Security News, CyberInsider, Benzinga, The Record, BleepingComputer, RTÉ, The Register, WPXI-TV, 9to5Mac, PC Gamer, The Independent, The Sun, BusinessCloud, Politico, UKTN, Telecompaper, r/unitedkingdom, r/ukpolitics and r/technology, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
The FTC and FCC are engaging in a hostile takeover of the marketplace of ideas by treating editorial decisions as fraud and conditioning mergers on news content — The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission were designed to be independent stewards of the public interest …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Mogul, founded by ex-SoundCloud execs to help artists track royalties, raised $5M and says it has helped track $1.5B in lost royalties since 2025 — Music rights and royalties are a complex world. There are multiple types of royalties, and artists need to make sure that their data …
Michael Calderone / The Wrap:
Progressive organizations and media networks, including MeidasTouch and Courier, plan two streaming events to counter Trump's State of the Union speech — Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official who emerged as the “Anonymous” author behind a bombshell 2018 op-ed about being …
Discussion:
NOTUS, Raw Story, Tampa Bay Times, @mlcalderone, NewsMax.com, @mlcalderone, @mlcalderone, Wall Street Journal, @mlcalderone, @mlcalderone, @mlcalderone, CBS News, Meidas+, Time, New York Post and The Daily Signal
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: Jasmine Crockett ejected an Atlantic reporter from an event and called police on a CNN reporter; the Atlantic's editor called the ejection unacceptable — The Scoop — Rep. Jasmine Crockett is taking a harder line on the political journalists covering her Texas Senate campaign …
Liam Scott / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at the Uyghur Post, one of the world's only Uyghur-language news sites, which launched in November 2025 and has ~30K monthly readers — A Uyghur-language news site is aiming to connect a scattered diaspora and preserve a culture at risk of disappearing. — A lot keeps Tahir Imin up at night.
Discussion:
@columjournreview.bsky.social and Voice of America
Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
Koah, which embeds sponsored ads directly into AI chatbots and aims to build an AdSense for AI, raised a $20.5M Series A led by Theory Ventures — The two-sided marketplace connects AI apps with advertisers, betting that native ads-not subscriptions- will fund generative AI's future
Discussion:
Trishla Ostwal on LinkedIn, Koah, SiliconANGLE, Koah, Ventureburn, Pulse 2.0, @koahlabs, FinSMEs, Unite.AI and Tomasz Tunguz
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Memos: Disney's chief communications officer, Kristina Schake, is leaving on March 18 after four years, as Bob Iger ends his run as CEO — The former Biden administration and Michelle Obama aide joined the studio in June 2022 — Kristina Schake will end her four-year run …
Discussion:
Deadline, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter
Gary Baum / The Hollywood Reporter:
An outside law firm is probing a claim that Paramount President Jeff Shell leaked details of 2025's Paramount-UFC deal almost a month before its announcement — The studio has brought on an outside law firm to investigate the allegations, which have also been alerted to the SEC.
Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
Sources: Nexstar's WGN-TV in Chicago has laid off eight veteran reporters and anchors; the outlet has been eliminating a variety of positions for several months — The ax is falling at WGN-Ch. 9, cutting a wide swath out of “Chicago's Very Own” TV newsroom.
