Top News:
Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:
Spotify removed 500K+ streams of Malcolm Todd's Earrings after a 70% surge in 24 hours sent it to #1 on Spotify USA and coincided with suspicious Kalshi wagers — Platform removes more than 500,000 streams of Malcolm Todd track ‘Earrings’ on concern traders propelled it to number 1
Associated Press:
After a short-term hold, SCOTUS denies former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge's bid to stay an $800-a-day fine if she refuses to reveal a source — The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to intervene after a judge ordered a former Fox News reporter to be fined $800 a day if she refuses …
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, @freedom.press, TheDesk.net, Deadline, MS NOW, Bloomberg Law and r/Journalism
Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts' earlier bundling strategy for connectivity and content, and his plan now to unbundle in order to keep growing — Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts spent his career building an integrated cable giant. To grow, he now plans to split it apart
Discussion:
Deadline, Barron's Online and Puck
Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
Cascade PBS launches Local Public as a standalone public benefit subsidiary to offer streaming app tech to PBS stations across TVs, mobile devices, and web — Cascade PBS, the non-profit television station serving western Washington state, has spun out its technology division into a separate company …
Discussion:
TV Tech, Current and TVNewsCheck
Bloomberg:
Sources: ElevenLabs held early talks with investors on a secondary share sale for staff that would value the startup at ~$22B; it was valued at $11B in February — ElevenLabs has held early talks with investors to let employees sell shares in a secondary offering that would value …
Discussion:
Reuters and Tech Funding News, more at Techmeme »
Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez criticizes the agency's move to dismiss a petition by former FCC members and media advocates challenging the news distortion policy — Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has offered a late public criticism …
Discussion:
Matthew Keys on LinkedIn, TV Tech and Radio & Television …
Angela Fu / Poynter:
Lee Enterprises, which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and more, told its newspapers to run a three-story package on new chairman David Hoffmann on front pages — Some at the company say the unusual request raises questions about editorial independence — As the nation celebrates …
Sam Neumann / Awful Announcing:
Missouri's AG office has opened a probe into claims that ESPN NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller paid slowly or not at all to some winners in fantasy leagues he ran — Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media. — The Missouri Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation …
Janko Roettgers / The Verge:
A look back at BitTorrent, launched by Bram Cohen 25 years ago, and how media piracy fueled its growth while its architecture shielded it from legal liability — Cath Virginia / The Verge … Twenty-five years ago today, a young, little-known programmer by the name of Bram Cohen fired off …
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The UK CMA is weighing new rules to allow UK app developers to direct customers to payment options outside of Apple and Google's platforms, bypassing their fees — Publishers may be able to “sell directly from their apps and keep subscriber data” under new rules set out by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Discussion:
MediaVoices and IBA
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A photographer sues The Daily Mail in New York over “systematic” lifting of thousands of images from social media without permission from copyright holders — The Daily Mail is being sued over alleged “systematic” lifting of “thousands” of images from social media without permission or payment.
Discussion:
@josiahmortimer.bsky.social and Bloomberg Law
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Kling AI, the Kuaishou AI video generator spin-off, raised $2B at a $15B pre-money valuation and says the round could extend to as much as $3B — China's Kling AI has raised an initial $2 billion in venture capital funding as the spinoff from Kuaishou Technology seeks to expand its video AI operations.
Discussion:
Reuters, Caixin Global, The Decoder, The Information, Dow Jones Newswires, South China Morning Post, CNBC, The Next Web, RuntimeWire and TechNode
