Top News:
Scott Nover / Washington Post:
Sources: DOD barred press photographers from briefings on the Iran conflict after they published photos of Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed “unflattering” — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's staff took issue with images taken in a rare briefing last week and decided to shut …
Discussion:
New York Times, Australian Financial Review, Washington Examiner, Civil Discourse …, The Wrap, @joelsiegel.bsky.social, Newser, @jacobbogage.bsky.social, @adamrose.bsky.social, Rolling Stone, @ywfyf.com, RedState, @kylegriffin1.bsky.social, @jcollins.bsky.social, @gottalaff.bsky.social, @pincheesq.bsky.social, @eilperin, @drewharwell.com, @scottnover, @davekeating.substack.com, Military and Veteran …, @timkarr.bsky.social, @smtrumbull.bsky.social, NOTUS, @pgourevitch.bsky.social, @peterbakernyt.bsky.social, Los Angeles Times, twitchy.com, @hirono.senate.gov, @dbernstein.bsky.social, @scottnover, TMZ.com, Kate Berry on LinkedIn, @danielsgoldman.dg4ny.co, @anthonylfisher.bsky.social, @jalefkowit@vmst.io, @fraying.bsky.social, Digby's Hullabaloo, Mediaite, PetaPixel, @devilstower.bsky.social, @freedomofpress@social …, The Independent, IJR, New York Daily News, Daily Mail, DNYUZ, Defector, New Republic, Althouse, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and r/Journalism
Francisco Rodrigues / CoinDesk:
Binance files a New York defamation suit against Dow Jones over the WSJ's February 23 article on the crypto exchange's handling of Iranian-linked transactions — The situation adds pressure to Binance, which is already operating under a compliance monitor following its $4.3 billion anti-money laundering …
Discussion:
Crypto Briefing, Ars Technica, The Block, Yahoo Finance, Blockchain.News, The Guardian, Bitcoin Magazine, Benzinga, ZyCrypto, PR Newswire, Protos, NewsBTC, Blockonomi, DL News, Coinpedia Fintech News, Cryptonews, Binance Blog, The Crypto Times, CoinGape, Watcher Guru, crypto.news, CryptoPotato, Cointelegraph, Talking Biz News and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
Google's AI Futures Fund invests $1M into Animaj, an AI animation studio focused on making high-quality videos for children on YouTube — Google is investing in an artificial intelligence content studio focused on making videos for children on YouTube, part of an effort to seed the platform …
Discussion:
YouTube Official Blog and Gizmodo
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Netflix will pay as much as $600M for InterPositive, Ben Affleck's AI moviemaking company, including bonuses for meeting certain performance targets — Netflix Inc. will pay as much as $600 million for InterPositive, the AI moviemaking company founded by Ben Affleck …
Discussion:
Reuters, The Wrap, TechCrunch, @astreonnova, NPR and Variety, more at Techmeme »
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
A look at Newpress, a production company and community platform for “creator journalists”, which helps them build shows on platforms including YouTube — A creator couple launched a wildly successful YouTube channel with longform video. Now they want to help other journalists do the same.
Discussion:
Simon Owens's Media Newsletter and Simon Owens on LinkedIn
Perry Stein / Washington Post:
The US DOJ appeals an order blocking the search of a WaPo reporter's devices, claiming journalists the government fears may have sensitive data aren't shielded — The Justice Department appealed a judge's order that blocked officials from searching a Washington Post reporter's electronic devices in a leak investigation.
Martha Bellisle / Associated Press:
A federal judge declines to issue a restraining order that would force Washington state's legislature to give press passes to three conservative media figures — Washington state lawmakers were within their rights when they declined to issue press passes to three conservative media figures …
Nadia Khomami / The Guardian:
The UK's Society of Authors launches a “Human Authored” logo to help identify works written by humans in a market increasingly flooded by AI-generated books — Tracy Chevalier announces registration scheme at the London Book Fair as AI works flood market
Laura Cress / BBC:
The UK ICO and Ofcom asked social media platforms to implement “highly effective age checks” to bar under-13 accounts, similar to tools required for adult sites — Major technology companies have been asked to bring in more robust age checks for under-13s in the UK …
Discussion:
Reuters and Daily Star, more at Techmeme »
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
US-based politics newsletter Tangle Media reports $4.15M in annual revenue in 2025, with 85% coming from 71,000 paid subscriptions and $500,000 from ads — A US-based politics newsletter makes most of its $4m+ in revenue from subscriptions despite offering most of its content for free.
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Time says revenue from events is on pace to make up over 50% of total revenue, up from 28% in 2023; it hosted 11 events in 2022 and plans to host 40+ this year — The business is on pace to generate more than 50% of its total revenue in 2026 — The legacy news brand Time has nearly completed …
Discussion:
Mark Stenberg on LinkedIn
Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter:
Spotify says artists from 75 countries made $500K+ in royalties in 2025, up from 66 in 2024; ~50% of an average artist's streams came from outside their country — “The takeaway here is that music has become increasingly borderless,” Spotify's Joe Hadley says of the company's latest loud and clear report released Wednesday
Discussion:
Music Business Worldwide, Variety, CMU, TechRadar, Hypebot, Music Ally, Los Angeles Times and Billboard
