Top News:
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
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:
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Josh Gerstein / Politico:
A US judge rules that Trump must turn over detailed financial information of 400+ companies owned by a family trust in his defamation suit against the BBC — MIAMI, Florida- A federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump must turn over detailed financial information …
Variety:
WGA seeks an injunction to bar Paramount and WBD from “closing or consummating” their merger or “taking any steps to integrate or consolidate their operations” — Union's legal move comes after 12 state attorneys general won a temporary restraining order pausing megadeal
Discussion:
The Wrap, Bloomberg, Deadline, Media Play News, ByteHaven, The Movie Blog, Civil Discourse … and Awful Announcing
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 …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters, Cord Cutters News and Bloomberg Law
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 — Reach is “moving away from volume” in its editorial output to focus on original content as financial results …
Discussion:
A Media Operator, HoldtheFrontPage, The Standard and Proactiveinvestors UK
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable:
A US judge dismisses Google's lawsuit against web scraping service SerpApi, saying plain and aggregated search results are not protected under copyright law — Last December, Google sued SerpApi over scraping its search results, and now a court has granted SerpApi's motion to dismiss the case.
Mark Landler / New York Times:
France becomes the first European country to pass a law banning social media access for users under 15, which could go into effect as soon as September 1 — Its new law, the first of its kind enacted by a European country, will ban access to some accounts for anyone under 15.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, UPI, Benzinga, Livemint, @joshuabenton.com, @davidakaye.bsky.social, The Indian Express, Gamereactor UK, TechSpot, SiliconANGLE, Gizmodo, TechRepublic, Dexerto, Al Jazeera, Telecompaper, CBS News, RTÉ, France 24, Associated Press, Reuters and The Economic Times, more at Techmeme »
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 …
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
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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
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
Discussion:
New York Post, Variety, USA Today, The American Bazaar, Barrett Media, Deadline, SFist, @knoebel.bsky.social, @benfritz, @jbflint, @inkican@mastodon.social, @matbrunetvo.com, @beschizza.com, @councilofgeeks.bsky.social, Townhall, 80 Level, The Wrap, Kotaku, Los Angeles Times, @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, Animation Magazine, Baller Alert and r/MediaMergers
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
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.
