Top News:
New York Times:
James Murdoch's Lupa Systems acquires around 50% of Vox Media, including its podcast network, New York magazine, and Vox.com, sources say for $300M+ — James Murdoch is acquiring roughly half of Vox Media, a dramatic expansion in American media for the younger son of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, Inside Radio, Vox Media, Reuters, Australian Financial Review, Fast Company, Business Insider, UPI, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, Washington …, CNN, The Business of Fashion, @benmullin, @ncrabbithole.com, New York Post, Showbiz411, @sherman4949, Newser, @sarafischer, @tcarmody.bsky.social, Axios, Aftermath, Forbes, The Wrap, @jtes, Washington Post, @jeremymbarr, @pkafka, @seanokane.bsky.social, Adweek, Front Office Sports, The Daily Wire, Sydney Morning Herald, @benmullin, @newsguyusa@flipboard.social, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Information, The Guardian, NewsMax.com, Inc.com, The A.V. Club, Press Gazette, Mediaite, Politico, Gothamist, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, r/Journalism and r/Journalism
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Properties not included in the Lupa-Vox deal, including The Verge and Eater, will operate under a new independent company led by Vox president Ryan Pauley — Murdoch's company has agreed to acquire New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network and Vox.com. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Discussion:
Vox Media, Al Jazeera, @lpjr.bsky.social, Business Insider, TVNewsCheck and CNN
Fox News:
Jeff Bezos defends WaPo layoffs, saying the outlet needs to be a profitable enterprise as “a measure of its relevance”, and noted it won a Pulitzer in 2026 — Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Wednesday responded to criticism of the brutal round of layoffs …
Discussion:
CNBC, CNBC, Mediaite, New York Times, NewsMax.com, Washington Examiner, TechCrunch, Breitbart, @reedgalen, @blowryontv, The Wrap, @jackjenkins.me, @pitdesi, @atrupar, @richarddeitsch, @grantstern, @primarycinema, Staff Stories, @nick_field90, @greg_travis, @extremearturo, @marquardta, @gillianbrockell.com, @maxwelltani, @stevemistler, @jeremymbarr, @douthatnyt, @joshuaholland.bsky.social, @kainazamaria, @gillianbrockell.com, @lawprofblawg, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, @nick_field90, @douglasmack.bsky.social, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, @briannaatucker, twitchy.com, @genebensinger.bsky.social, @childpleez007, Diane Ravitch's blog and TheGrio
RELATED:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Jeff Bezos says Amazon MGM Studios' decision to acquire and release Melania “was a good business decision”, denying that it was “a way of buying influence” — Jeff Bezos insists that Amazon MGM Studios' decision to acquire and release “Melania,” a documentary about the First Lady …
Discussion:
CNBC, RADAR, Fast Company, Blaze Media, The A.V. Club, Deadline, New York Magazine, @storyslug.bsky.social, @justinbaragona.bsky.social, @JohnSullivan@mastodonapp.uk, U.S. Home, @luckyadams.bsky.social, @fangsbites.bsky.social, The Guardian, New Republic, Consequence, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hill, Mediaite, HuffPost and Reality Tea
Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: Paramount hopes to close its acquisition of WBD by July 15, a far more ambitious timeline than Paramount has publicly telegraphed — Paramount is hoping to close its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery much sooner than the company has publicly stated, Status has learned.
RELATED:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
S&P Global says it plans to cut Paramount Skydance's credit rating from BB+ to BB after the WBD merger, indicating company debt securities are speculative grade — S&P Global Ratings already has placed Paramount Skydance's credit rating in junk-status territory — indicating …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Bloomberg and @ericfinalfantasy.bsky.social
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Ad tech company Viant partners with Ad Fontes Media to help advertisers target connected-TV news inventory based on scoring of political bias and reliability — The integration scores news programs on reliability and bias, giving buyers a more granular way to activate against inventory
Discussion:
TV Tech, Business Wire and TVNewsCheck
Bloomberg:
Owl & Co. report: the podcast industry generated $9.2B in sales globally in 2025, up 23% YoY; 73% of the growth in the US came from video-related revenue — According to a new report, 73% of the podcast industry's growth last year in the US came from video-related revenue
Discussion:
Media and Entertainment … and Business Post
Anu Adegbola / Search Engine Land:
Google says it is testing new ad formats in search results and AI Mode, including Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers, and AI-powered Shopping ads — Table of Contents — Google is rolling out Gemini-powered conversational ad formats across AI Mode and Search as it looks to make ads more contextual,
Nate Silver / Silver Bulletin:
A look at Disney's 10-year mismanagement of FiveThirtyEight as Nate Silver says Disney is refusing to negotiate with him about restoring the site's archive — Nothing on the internet lasts forever. But Disney's 10-year mismanagement of FiveThirtyEight is its own story.
Discussion:
@natesilver538, Simon Owens on LinkedIn, Ben Welsh on LinkedIn, Awful Announcing, Mediaite and FlowingData
Barbara Peng / Business Insider:
Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng says she is leaving the company on June 30; Christian Baesler will become interim lead of the outlet — Today I am announcing that I will be leaving Business Insider. — This was not an easy decision for me. I love Business Insider.
Discussion:
Reuters, @dylanbyers, The Wrap and @corbinbolies
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Stability AI releases a new family of audio models called Stable Audio 3.0 that is trained on licensed data; the top model can generate six-minute songs — Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, is releasing a new family of audio models, called Stability Audio 3.0.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, eWeek, Stability AI, Billboard and Crypto Briefing, more at Techmeme »
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