Mediagazer: HBO Max discounts the price of its annual subscription plans by 28% for new and returning subscribers with expired or canceled subscriptions, through July 15 (Todd Spangler/Variety)

2:10 PM ET, June 18, 2026

Top News:

Vox Media sells The Verge, SB Nation, Thrillist, The Dodo, and more to Penske; Vox's Ryan Pauley will join Penske as president of PMX, the new media brands unit — The deal formally winds down an era at Vox Media, which had sold its namesake site and podcast assets as well as New York magazine to James Murdoch.

Discussion: Variety, IndieWire, The Wrap, Sportico, Billboard, Awful Announcing, Rolling Stone, Gold Derby, Deadline, Robb Report, @lopatto.bsky.social and @harrymccracken.com

Stephen Bush / Financial Times:

The BBC will damage or scrap some crown jewels in current affairs by canceling The World Tonight, Crossing Continents, and Money Box Live, and making other cuts — Government should consider direct licence fee increases or give corporation greater freedom to monetise its content — Good morning.

Discussion: Deadline, @johnkampfner, @adamsherwin10, @johnmurphy1964, @calmeilles, @ritula, @newsmutt, @jakekanter.bsky.social, @stephenkb.bsky.social, @gylesb1, @robinlustig, @stephenmossgdn, @scottygb, @londonette, Gamereactor UK and The Guardian

Ellise Shafer / Variety:
Memo: the BBC says it will cut 550 jobs including in its news and content divisions by the start of FY 2027-2028 in the first phase of a plan to save $670M

Discussion: BBC, @reporterboy, Mirror, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn, @michaelsavage, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, @iainhepburn.me, ScreenRant, The Wrap, Reuters, Telegraph, Reuters, Sky News and Broadband TV News

Jake Kanter / Deadline:
Email: BBC says commissioning spend will be reduced by £80M by March 2028 and TV development budget will be slashed by 15% annually

Discussion: Cord Cutters News, Radio Times and Mirror

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

USA Today is using AI-assisted, pre-written soccer World Cup “shell files” for breaking news to capture traffic before Google's AI Overviews generate summaries — In the fight for visibility in an AI-powered search era, USA Today Co. is betting that speed can still beat the machines.

Discussion: @edbott.com

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

Forbes launches The Daily Brief, an AI-powered audio briefing that turns its top three stories of the day into a five-minute podcast, which is checked by humans — Forbes has launched an AI-powered audio experience on its homepage that turns its top three stories of the day into a five-minute podcast.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

Stephen Capus, president and CEO of RFE/RL since 2024, announces his resignation, effective September 15, and will be succeeded by Lisa Curtis — RFE/RL Launches Leadership Transition — Stephen Capus to depart in September; Lisa Curtis steps into role — Share: — Share this page on Facebook

Mallary Tenore Tarpley / Poynter:

Several journalists on Substack say they feel safer working for themselves rather than for legacy outlets, but some say earning a living wage can be difficult — The creator economy is opening new doors for journalists. But can independence replace everything a newsroom provides?

Discussion: Write at the Edge, Mallary Tenore Tarpley on LinkedIn and @awaisaftab

Todd Spangler / Variety:

HBO Max discounts the price of its annual subscription plans by 28% for new and returning subscribers with expired or canceled subscriptions, through July 15 — HBO Max has long offered a discount if you pay upfront for a year of service. Now the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned service …

Discussion: WPXI-TV, Streaming Better, The Hollywood Reporter, Consequence, The Streamable, Media Play News and Wired

Kevin Roose / @kevinroose:

NYT tech reporter Kevin Roose, host of Hard Fork with Casey Newton, is leaving the paper to launch a new show with Newton — https://x.com/...

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @erik-pbg.bsky.social, @hunterwalk.com, @erik-pbg.bsky.social, @marisakabas.bsky.social, @marisakabas.bsky.social and @andysternberg.bsky.social

Brandy Zadrozny / MS NOW:

The Onion plans to relaunch Infowars on July 2 and will route more than $100,000 to Sandy Hook families, as legal fights over the website continue — The Onion's staff is tired of waiting for the courts to settle its pending takeover of Alex Jones' brand, so the new Infowars will launch next month.

Discussion: The Verge and Wired

The Colorado Sun:

The owner of The Denver Post agreed to pay the city of Denver $13.5M under a settlement to cover overdue rent for the news outlet's former building — The newspaper's lease was supposed to go through 2029, but it will now end June 30 — The owner of The Denver Post must pay the city …

Discussion: @coloradosun, Denver Business Journal, Denver Post and r/Journalism

Adam Stern / Sports Business Journal:

Apple TV plans to remove its paywall for the F1 Austrian Grand Prix, offering practice, qualifying, and the June 28 Grand Prix for free to users with Apple IDs — Apple and F1 are continuing to find ways to expose races to more viewers, and the newest experiment will be opening Apple TV to everyone for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Discussion: AppleInsider, Autoweek and MacRumors

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

DMGT renames its consumer news division to Daily Mail, promotes Vere Harmsworth to executive chairman of Daily Mail, and transfers Metro to Harmsworth Media — DMGT has announced an organisational shake-up which sees its consumer news division, DMG Media, renamed Daily Mail.

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More News:

Lara O'Reilly / Business Insider:
Bose launches an in-house studio and a record label to surface new artists and use their music in Bose ads; Bose also plans live events, YouTube series, more

Discussion: Chris Gumm on LinkedIn, Jim Mollica on LinkedIn, Digital Music News and @simonowens.bsky.social

Business Insider:
A top Disney and ESPN exec told staff that a beta version of an AI tool to create TV ads will debut in July, to serve smaller businesses without video assets

Discussion: Ad Age and Social Media Today

Sarah Bahr / New York Times:
Q&A with Fernando Alfonso III, NYT's first Texas-based editor, on leading a new team of five Texas reporters and editors as they cover the state's complexity

Discussion: Sarah Bahr on LinkedIn, Talking Biz News and @pressgazette.co.uk

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mastodon adds email newsletters, letting writers send their posts to subscribers' inboxes, even to readers without a Mastodon account, as part of Mastodon 4.6

Discussion: Linuxiac, @cwebber@social.coop, The Verge and Mastodon Blog

Muvija M / Reuters:
The UK CMA orders Google to provide greater transparency on how its search rankings work and to let users transfer their search data to authorized third parties

Discussion: MediaNama, Silicon Republic, GOV.UK, Politico, Al Jazeera, Press Gazette and Search Engine Roundtable

Earlier Picks:

Thomas Escritt / Bloomberg:
Viktor Orban's media empire collapses two months after his election defeat; about 400 journalists at Mediaworks outlets have been given notices of termination

Discussion: @eunews.social and The Kyiv Independent

Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Silk White, whose movies and TV shows, which have grossed ~$2M in the year to February, are distributed by Filmhub to online platforms like Tubi

Discussion: The Verge

Matt G. Southern / Search Engine Journal:
Kapwing: in tests, ~60% of the first 500 TikTok For You videos shown to a new account were AI slop, ~3x the slop shown to a new user in the YouTube Shorts feed

Discussion: Hypebot, WeRSM, Music Ally, Digital Trends and Tubefilter

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Analysts: UK social media ban is likely to cause £1.3B in digital ad cuts in 2027, with streaming services poised to benefit as advertisers seek to reach teens

Discussion: Metro.co.uk, @dalevince.com, @wood5y@mastodonapp.uk, spiked and @mxthemfatale.bsky.social

From Techmeme:

Kai Nicol-Schwarz / CNBC:
Intel's stock jumps 10%+ after Trump said “Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America”; INTC is up 500%+ in the past year

Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Midjourney unveils its first hardware product, the Midjourney Scanner, an ultrasound-based full-body scanner; it is unclear how AI fits into the medical effort

Marcus Mendes / 9to5Mac:
Apple opens iOS to alternative app marketplaces in Brazil and changes App Store commission structure following a settlement with competition watchdog CADE

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