Top News:
New York Times:
Lesley Stahl says David Ellison called her and promised to respect editorial independence at 60 Minutes, a sign he is taking steps to calm turmoil at the show — David Ellison told Lesley Stahl, one of three remaining correspondents for the news program, that he would respect the show's editorial decisions after a tumultuous stretch.
Discussion:
The Hill, USA Today, Mediaite, Raw Story, Newser, @paulthedogman.bsky.social, @admiralmpj.bsky.social, @jeremymbarr, RADAR, The Wrap, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, Deadline, New York Post, Variety, @annmlipton.bsky.social, @hammbear2024.bsky.social, @owillis.bsky.social, @dannygroner.bsky.social, Newsbusters, The Hollywood Reporter, Suggest and Fox News
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Axios:
Sources: Paramount seeks a business-side counterpart to Bari Weiss, implying she would oversee editorial across CBS News and CNN if Paramount's WBD deal closes — Paramount has held preliminary conversations with several candidates for a business-side counterpart to CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss …
Discussion:
Variety, Breitbart, RADAR, Townhall, Business Insider, HotAir, Status, Talking Points Memo, twitchy.com, @atrupar.com, Newser, Washington Times, @dylanbyers, @solomonrmissouri.com, @solomonrmissouri.com, Ace of Spades HQ, New York Post, @robertscotthorton.bsky.social, Raw Story, @newsjennifer.bsky.social, Reuters, @dannygroner.bsky.social, The A.V. Club, @carlquintanilla.bsky.social, CNN and The Wrap
Peter Chapman / Bloomberg:
The UK CMA launches a probe into Paramount's $110B acquisition of WBD, and sets an initial ruling deadline on August 7; the EU has already set a July 7 deadline — Britain's merger watchdog has opened a probe into Paramount Skydance Corp.'s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.
Discussion:
Deadline, International Business Times, The Movie Blog, The Guardian, The Wrap, Media Play News, Telegraph, Reuters and GOV.UK
RELATED:
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The EU is reviewing Paramount's WBD takeover under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, probing involvement of Middle Eastern funds; a decision is due by July 14 — Paramount Skydance Corp.'s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is being reviewed under the European Union's foreign subsidy regime …
Discussion:
Variety, Reuters and Yahoo Finance
Scott Nover / Washington Post:
Email: the WH press corps won't be allowed on White House grounds Sunday due to the UFC fight; only press poolers will be allowed unless UFC gives credentials — The White House is ceding control of who gets into the fight event on the South Lawn, in a break with tradition. — Summary
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
A study of 600M+ article visits to a major US metro newspaper site from Jan. 2020 to Dec. 2023 finds hard news stories are most likely to drive subscriptions — An analysis of billions of visits to a metro newspaper's website finds that entertainment and sports stories might generate lots of pageviews …
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
NY passes legislation requiring news orgs to provide disclosures on content substantially or wholly produced by AI; the bill awaits the governor's signature — Backed by the Writers Guild of America, the NY FAIR News Act now heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk for signature
Discussion:
@wgaeast.bsky.social, @1gregtodd.bsky.social, The A.V. Club, Pluribus News and NewsGuild of New York
Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
Fox Sports hires TikTok influencers Austin Franklin and Kevin Akoto at $50K each to watch all 104 FIFA World Cup matches from inside a Times Square cube — Fox One, the streaming platform owned by Fox, has hired two social media influencers with considerable followings on TikTok to serve as its paid …
Discussion:
foxcorporation and @thedesk.net
Kristin Robinson / Billboard:
WMG acquires AI attribution startup Sureel, as it seeks to track when its songs and recordings are used in the training of AI models or in AI-generated works — The deal is designed to help WMG track exactly where its songs are used in AI training and outputs.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Music Group Corp., Music Ally and Music Business Worldwide
Matthias Bastian / The Decoder:
A German court rules that Google is directly liable for what AI Overviews say after AI Overviews falsely tied two publishers to shady business practices — Key Points … Ask about this article... The Regional Court of Munich hit Google with a temporary injunction barring the company …
Discussion:
The Next Web, The Information, Search Engine Land, OSnews, PC Gamer and Sherwood News, more at Techmeme »
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
Reuters and Time started blocking all AI bots by default and created whitelists of approved bots, following the default disallow strategy of People and others — Reuters and Time are taking a new approach to bot blocking. Both publishers have recently started blocking all AI bots by default …
Discussion:
The Overspill, Search Engine Journal and Phil Andraos on LinkedIn
Reuters:
TMTG and nuclear fusion startup TAE say they have decided not to spin off Truth Social and certain other TMTG assets into a new publicly listed company — Trump Media and Technology (DJT.O) and TAE Technologies said on Wednesday that they had decided against spinning off Truth Social …
