Top News:
Dan Shanoff / The Athletic:
Nielsen: the 2026 World Cup final drew 38.9M viewers on Fox and 22M+ on Telemundo; taken together, the US audience size rivaled that of NFL playoff games — After a summer of World Cup TV records in the U.S. being reset over and over, the biggest game delivered one final new standard for soccer viewership:
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Fox Sports, Sports Media Watch, CNBC, The Wrap, Al Jazeera, Sportico, @foxsportspr, Awful Announcing, @lucas_shaw, Axios, Deadline, NBC Bay Area, Adweek, Variety, Sports Business Journal and Forbes
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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
ESPN's cuts are part of larger Disney layoffs; sources say some corporate functions, film studios, and Disney Entertainment TV are expected to be impacted — Pixar and Nat Geo are said to be hit particularly hard in the latest round of cuts, with some high-profile talent also being let go at ESPN.
Discussion:
Variety, Barrett Media, SFist, @knoebel.bsky.social, @inkican@mastodon.social, The Wrap, @matbrunetvo.com, @beschizza.com, @benfritz, @councilofgeeks.bsky.social, @jbflint, Townhall, 80 Level, Los Angeles Times, Kotaku, @donryu.bsky.social, World of Reel, Aftermath, TheDesk.net, Chris Heatherly on LinkedIn, Eric Calderon on LinkedIn, Afonso Salcedo on LinkedIn, @fizzvstheworld.bsky.social, @jmrivera.bsky.social, @martynpedler.com, Polygon.com, Nicole Renna on LinkedIn, Breitbart, The Hill, San Francisco Chronicle, Allyson Goldsby on LinkedIn, IGN, The A.V. Club, New York Post, Animation Magazine, Baller Alert, Deadline and r/MediaMergers
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Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
Memo: ESPN's Jimmy Pitaro announces layoffs, mostly due to the NFL Network acquisition; sources: on-air personalities Karl Ravech and Ryan Clark are affected — Karl Ravech, one of ESPN's most prominent on-air voices for more than three decades, and NFL insider Tom Pelissero were laid off …
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The Wrap, USA Today, Poynter, Townhall, @andrewmarchand, NBCSports.com, Business Insider, Barrett Media, @andrewmarchand, @richarddeitsch, @jackvitashow, @arashmarkazi, @mysportsupdate, @draftdeeper, @brettsiegelnba, @andrewmarchand, Inside Radio, @benaxelrod, @schadjoe, @stoolpresidente, @mediaite, @fos, Front Office Sports, @sportsrapport, The American Bazaar, Awful Announcing, Cord Cutters News, TVLine, New York Post, Quartz, Front Office Sports, The Daily Wire, @manlikeginola, Sports Illustrated, Us Weekly, The US Sun, Associated Press, Sportico, Los Angeles Times, TMZ.com, RedState, Sports Business Journal, TheGrio, Washington Times, Fox News, Sports Media Watch, Mediaite, Deadline, Hollywood Life, Sandra Rose, FOX8 WGHP, Variety, @andrewmarchand.bsky.social, Reuters and The Athletic
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Reddit, Politico, and others mull cutting Google's access to their content for AI as traffic drops; Reddit signed a $60M/year deal with Google in 2024 — Reddit, Politico and others are weighing how—or even if—they can work with the tech company as AI tools supplant traditional searches
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@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, Gizmodo, Eurogamer.net, Unite.AI, Techstrong.ai, Kotaku, Video Game Town, eMarketer and faisal.com
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Reach reports H1 revenue down 9% YoY to £232.9M, pre-tax profit down 5% to £40.3M, and says it will move “away from volume” to focus on original content — Piers North reveals change of approach after disappointing H1 2026 results. — Reach is “moving away from volume” …
Discussion:
RTÉ, HoldtheFrontPage and Proactiveinvestors UK
Oliver Darcy / Status:
Source: Clarissa Ward signed just a one-year CNN extension, not a long-term contract, amid friction with executives and concerns over Bari Weiss taking control — This past spring, Clarissa Ward was locked in contract negotiations with CNN. The star journalist, who currently serves …
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
A look at the relationship between the Mormon Church and influencers; the church owns several advertising companies with influencer-marketing arms — Through its for-profit subsidiary, the church owns several advertising companies with influencer-marketing arms
Discussion:
@cecianasta, @cecianasta and @cecianasta
Max Tani / Semafor:
News Corp sues privacy-focused search engine Brave, alleging it uses masked web crawlers to bypass publishers' restrictions and deliver “verbatim” AI summaries — The Scoop — News Corp, the Murdoch family-owned parent company of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post …
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Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters, Bloomberg Law, The Wrap and Cord Cutters News
Anushka Chourasia / Reuters:
UK publisher Bloomsbury says it is among the beneficiaries of the $1.5B Anthropic settlement; 14,087 of its titles are covered, with ~$3K in compensation each — Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing (BLPU.L) confirmed on Wednesday it was among the beneficiaries of a landmark $1.5 billion settlement …
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PC Gamer, 80 Level, Associated Press, The Standard, Coinpedia Fintech News, Gamereactor UK, iClarified, The Verge, Quartz, Computerworld, Tech Times, Engadget and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
Joe Reedy / Associated Press:
NHL Productions plans to produce and distribute game telecasts for four teams when the season begins, since Main Street Sports shut down; more clubs might join — The Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes are one of four teams that will have their game telecasts produced and distributed by the NHL for the upcoming season.
Quad Cities Business Journal:
Filing: Mary Junck, ex-chairman of Lee Enterprises' board of directors, is retiring on July 31, a few months after David Hoffmann invested $50M in Lee — Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises will soon lose one of its longtime top leaders. — Mary Junck, 78, the former chairman of the Lee Board …
Discussion:
Lee Enterprises, Editor and Publisher and The Corvallis Advocate
Chris Best / The Substack Post:
Substack partners with AI-detection tool Pangram, allowing users to scan text longer than 100 words for an estimate of how much was written with AI assistance — It's getting harder to tell what's real on the internet. — This is less true on Substack, and we aim to keep it that way.
Discussion:
@thuddwhirr, @jmrphy, @tracewoodgrains, @perrymetzger, @jasminewsun, @orphcorp, @pewilliams_, @justalexoki, @emollick, @petergyang, @sanasaeed, Digital Trends, Mashable, @chrisbest, @max_spero_, @chaotictransfem, @thezvi, @krishnanrohit, @tomhfh, @digitalliturgy, @fejau_inc, @captgouda24, @jappleby, @zebriez, @orphcorp, @hamishmckenzie, @joshpuckett, @pangram, @substack, Gazetteer SF, Business Insider, Soumen S. on LinkedIn, The Verge, Engadget, Freddie deBoer and Social Media Today, more at Techmeme »
MJ Franklin / New York Times:
How publishers are cashing in on surging public interest in The Odyssey through splashy reissues; Circana BookScan says sales of The Odyssey rose by 76% YoY — It's the climax of the “Odyssey.” Odysseus, back in Ithaca at long last, finds his home swarming with suitors vying for the hand of his wife, Penelope, and for his throne.
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