Evan DeSimone

Project Veritas Withdraws Lawsuit Against The New York Times

Imagine how bad your case has to be if you’re a conservative group dropping a defamation suit in 2025… www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/b...

Johns Hopkins Press will license its books to train AI models Authors at the Johns Hopkins University Press will be able to opt out of the AI licensing agreement until the end of August; if they do not, their work will be used to train AI models.

The implication here is that it’s time to license your content to AI because they are going to steal it anyway and no in government seems inclined to stop them… www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/hi...

Under Siege From Trump and Musk, a Top Liberal Group Falls Into Crisis

"The bleak outlook now facing the group underscores the serious harms that can be inflicted when the Trump administration and its allies train the vast resources of government or billionaire bank accounts on perceived enemies." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/u...

The AI Boom Is Expanding Google’s Dominance It’s been good for Google, but at great cost to the company’s partners and the web.

Google is the final boss of the old "the platforms will desert you" maxim. nymag.com/intelligence...

£250k salaries and two kilos of caviar: Inside London’s new media arms race For decades Rupert Murdoch has dominated Fleet Street. Now he has a battle on his hands — and it’s getting expensive

“after five decades of dominance by Rupert Murdoch, Marshall is positioning himself to wrestle the crown from the 94-year-old magnate” www.the-londoner.co.uk/250k-salarie...

They should bring back Gawker for one day to cover this.

Exclusive | NBCU Is Exploring Launching a Sports Cable Network The potential cable channel would broadcast sports, including NBA basketball, also being shown on NBCU’s Peacock streaming service.

Still some money in cable after all...if you have NBA rights. www.wsj.com/business/med...

You can do a big structural shakeup, even if I think its goal is ill-advised, but it can't go on forever like this. nymag.com/intelligence...

To beat the AI squeeze, Newsweek is building revenue beyond traffic AI hasn’t dented Newsweek traffic. But it’s aiming to cut its reliance on digital ads from 63% to 55% of revenue next year.

Everyone's got a post-Google plan...good luck. digiday.com/media/to-bea...

A New Era for WIRED—That Starts With You As of today, there are even more ways to enjoy WIRED’s journalism, including premium newsletters and livestream Q&As. Join us.

Wired, seizing its current moment with a bunch of new products. Five weekly newsletters, bi-monthly livestreams, and narrated audio versions of articles. www.wired.com/story/a-new-...

Exclusive | Jeff Bezos weighing possible acquisition of CNBC cable network: sources The possible purchase of the centrist business channel comes as Bezos has drawn scorn over his efforts to rid the Washington Post of its perceived left-wing bias.

CNBC is one of 2 or 3 brands at Versant that could probably stand alone with a reasonable amount of investment. I wonder if they'd really be prepared to part with it. nypost.com/2025/07/23/m...

Informa CEO Bets on AI to Accelerate Growth The U.K. events and academic-publishing group sees AI as a way to save time, make its marketing services more appealing to customers and generate more licensing revenue from content sitting in its arc...

Look, maybe AI is the way forward for someone, but I can't imagine everyone running the exact same playbook is going to have a happy ending. www.wsj.com/business/med...

Los Angeles Times to Become Publicly Traded Company The Los Angeles Times will become a publicly traded company, its billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong announced on 'The Daily Show.'

Saying you're going public will "democratize" the unexpectedly problematic outlet you bought is, I admit, a novel bit of spin. variety.com/2025/biz/new...

YouTube wipes out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others Google removed YouTube channels and other accounts linked to RT, the Russian state-controlled media outlet accused of paying prominent conservative influencers.

"The active removal of accounts is part of the Google Threat Analysis Group’s work to counter global disinformation campaigns and “coordinated influence” operations." www.cnbc.com/2025/07/21/y...

Google Seeks Licensing Talks With News Groups, Following AI Rivals The company has ramped up its overtures to news organizations in recent months

It's kind of surprising that Google is coming late to this given their long history of working directly with news outlets (sometimes even productively). www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Why Murdoch Doesn’t Give a Toss About Trump What rich irony that the defense against the latest assault by Trump on press freedom is now in the hands of old crocodile Rupert Murdoch, the very media owner whose Fox News gave us Trump in the firs...

"Is this what we have come to—depending on Rupert Murdoch to stand up for press freedom?" tinabrown.substack.com/p/why-murdoc...

I

Oracle in Talks for $100 Million Skydance-Paramount Cloud Deal Oracle Corp. is in discussions with Skydance Media LLC for a major software deal once the media company’s acquisition of Paramount Global is complete.

Quelle surprise. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

PR agency sells AI tool which sends out automated expert comment to journalists A PR agency is selling an AI tool which automatically answers pitches from journalists on services such as ResponseSource, HARO and Qwoted.

Exciting new spam generator just dropped. pressgazette.co.uk/news/pr-agen...

Gaming is a real graveyard of empires for anyone not endemic to the space. All the major studios have and tech giants have had similar struggles. I think your sport instincts are entirely correct.

Netflix Is Running Out of Worlds to Conquer With a market value now exceeding $500 billion, the streaming giant faces pressure to keep growing.

This kind of market pressure is why successful companies drift away from their core strengths and into increasingly esoteric side quests and acquisitions. www.wsj.com/business/med...

6AM City Acquires AI-Powered Newsletter Startup Good Daily The tie-up turbocharges expansion, giving 6AM City nearly 2 million daily readers in over 400 markets

"As part of the deal, Good Daily, founder Matthew Henderson—the sole employee behind the startup—joins 6AM City as vice president of engineering." - we're in the acquihire era again.

www.adweek.com/media/6am-ci...

Microsoft Abruptly Ceases Digital Movie and TV Sales Without warning, Microsoft has discontinued sales and rentals of digital movies and TV shows for Xbox and Windows.

I guess they really have given up on the Zune. variety.com/2025/digital...

‘Founders Films’ aims to remake Hollywood with patriotism, Palantir and Ayn Rand The company’s proposed projects celebrate American military action, push for confrontation with China, and elevate heroes of the right from Ayn Rand to Elon Musk.

I know we're still entertaining the idea of a national "vibe shift" but I really don't think you need a right-wing film studio. If we've learned anything from Superman it's that everyone just projects their own values onto entertainment that they like. www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

Trump sues Wall Street Journal for libel over Epstein letter Trump said he told the WSJ and owner Rupert Murdoch "that the supposed letter" was "a FAKE."

A lot of people seem to think Murdoch won’t go the way of Iger and Redstone and settle this with a bag of cash. For all his supposed toughness, Rupert is the king of massive settlements. Especially if there’s a chance he could end up on the stand. www.axios.com/2025/07/18/w...

A gem: "But did you think for one minute that having a child ask who the wine person was, is normal and not totally insulting?"

A Love Letter to Priya Krishna Dear Priya ( The Epilogue )

This is fun. Open letter from the bar manager at Le Veau d’or to a New York Times reviewer. substack.com/home/post/p-...

The Murdoch position really is unrivaled. 90% of their empire slavishly serves Trump, but their one premium audience product still gets away with this. Genuinely impressive line straddling.

“Just like I sued everyone else” kind of gives the game away. www.wsj.com/politics/tru...

CBS Canceling ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ After Next Season

Another sacrifice for the emperor. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/b...