4:30 AM ET, December 15, 2025
December 15, 2025
3:55 AM
Paul Sonne / New York Times:
A profile of Ivan Urgant, a popular Russian late-night TV host who became a pariah after his suspension in February 2022 for opposing the invasion of Ukraine
December 14, 2025
11:30 PM
Chris Morris / Variety:
Acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer were found dead in their home; LAPD is investigating the deaths as a homicide
10:05 PM
Kanis Leung / Associated Press:
Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is found guilty of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring to publish seditious articles
9:45 PM
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A look at financial advice YouTuber Caleb Hammer, who has over 2M subscribers and 60K to 70K subscribers paying $9.99/month for exclusive content
December 13, 2025
11:00 PM
Will McCurdy / PCMag:
Amazon rolls out Ask This Book to the Kindle iOS app, letting readers ask questions about plot or characters; authors can't opt out
December 12, 2025
11:00 PM
Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
R. Bruce Dold, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune, where he became editor-in-chief and publisher, is dead at 70
10:30 PM
Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release
9:50 PM
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Google has removed dozens of AI videos from YouTube that depicted Disney characters, after Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter flagging the links
4:10 PM
Lauren Hirsch / New York Times:
Sources: WBD chose Netflix partly fearing limited recourse if Paramount's bid failed, since Larry Ellison has not provided a personal guarantee
3:20 PM
Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:
Boston Globe editor Nancy Barnes steps down from her role but will remain on staff as editor-at-large; she joined the paper as the first female editor in 2023
2:55 PM
Financial Times:
OpenAI hopes the Disney deal boosts Sora, which has high costs and limited traction; Sensor Tower: users average 13 minutes per day on Sora vs. 90 on TikTok
1:50 PM
Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93
1:05 PM
Ann Gehan / The Information:
Source: livestream shopping app Whatnot nears ~$1B in revenue for 2025; Whatnot says it has passed $6B in gross sales this year, more than doubling 2024's sales
12:41 PM
Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
Sources: X reported $752M in Q3 revenue, up 17% YoY, a net loss of $577.4M, and EBITDA of ~$454M, up 16%; revenue for the first nine months of 2025 was $2B+
12:25 PM
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Sources: DMGT has locked down funding for its £500M acquisition of the Telegraph, in a funding package expected to comprise equity and debt
11:05 AM
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
YouTube launches an option for US-based creators to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD
9:55 AM
Gergely Orosz / @gergelyorosz:
[Thread] Substack quietly added a feature that forced subscribers to download the app to read full newsletters but say they've rolled it back after complaints
9:15 AM
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Amazon Prime Video pulls its AI recaps, which it began testing in November, for Fallout, Bosch, and other shows after users noticed errors in the Fallout recaps
8:55 AM
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost
8:00 AM
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources: the tenure of Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, Fortune's outgoing CEO, was marked by turmoil over a clash with Victor Pang, a lawyer for the company's owner
5:50 AM
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The Guardian names Netflix's former director of product Allan Donald as its first VP of product; Donald oversaw the content discovery operation at Netflix
December 11, 2025
10:55 PM
Reuters:
Reddit files a lawsuit against Australia to overturn its social media ban for under-16s, saying it “infringes the implied freedom of political communication”
9:45 PM
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
The Washington Post's new Your Personal Podcast, which offers AI-generated customizable podcasts, was developed under a multiyear agreement with ElevenLabs
5:45 PM
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: WaPo's top standards editor decried “frustrating” errors in its new AI-generated personalized podcasts, announced this week for users of its mobile app
5:30 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
In a message to members, the WGA says Disney's licensing deal with OpenAI “appears to sanction” OpenAI's “theft of our work”, and it plans to meet with Disney
4:15 PM
Axios:
Sources: during the bidding process, Paramount promised WBD that its foreign partners and Jared Kushner's fund wouldn't have any voting or governance rights
3:55 PM
Bloomberg:
A US appeals court upholds a contempt ruling in Epic v. Apple but says Apple can charge commissions on external links, with the rate to be set by a lower court
2:40 PM
Jacob Shamsian / Business Insider:
A Manhattan jury finds director Carl Rinsch guilty on all seven counts of defrauding Netflix of $11M when making sci-fi show White Horse
2:10 PM
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
NY governor signs bills requiring ads to disclose AI-generated performers and mandating consent of heirs to use a deceased person's likeness commercially
1:00 PM
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Bob Iger says the OpenAI deal “does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all” because it doesn't include name, likeness, or character voices
12:20 PM
Dan Friedman / Mother Jones:
Jack Posobiec, a new Pentagon press corps member, seems to be working in coordination with the Pentagon to threaten a journalist writing about a DoD official
12:00 PM
Axios:
The OpenAI deal gives Disney a fair amount of oversight and control over how its IP is used, including a joint steering committee to monitor user creations
11:40 AM
Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli / Financial Times:
Journalists at Italian newspaper La Stampa go on strike to protest against a potential sale of its parent company Gedi to Greek media organization Antenna
10:00 AM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney sends Google a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Google of “massive scale” copyright infringement and using AI to “exploit and distribute” its content
9:40 AM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Pinterest agrees to acquire tvScientific, a CTV ad platform that automates and optimizes ad buying; tvScientific was founded in 2020 and has raised ~$60M
9:33 AM
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney will make a $1B investment in OpenAI and become a major OpenAI customer
9:05 AM
OpenAI:
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach landmark agreement to bring beloved characters from across Disney's brands to Sora
8:40 AM
Yael Krifcher / Committee to Protect Journalists:
A look at the erosion of press freedom and independent reporting in Israel, where journalists report escalating censorship, harassment, and self-censorship
6:45 AM
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
UK sports publisher GRV cut ~60 staff since September, reducing its workforce to 94, citing drops in Google traffic; other sports sites report similar declines
6:05 AM
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Mirror Editor-in-Chief Caroline Waterston steps down after less than two years, to be succeeded by Chloe Hubbard, currently UK editor at The Independent
December 10, 2025
7:20 PM
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google tests AI-powered overviews on some publications' Google News pages; publishers like Der Spiegel, El País, and WaPo in commercial partnerships get paid
6:25 PM
Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
President Trump told reporters “it's imperative” for CNN to be sold: “Any deal it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately”
6:00 PM
Emily Graffeo / Bloomberg:
A look at Netflix's funding plan for WBD: $59B of debt financing via Wall Street banks, to be eventually replaced with bonds, term loans, and revolving credit
5:40 PM
David Bauder / Associated Press:
The NYT says it won't be deterred in its work after Trump posted on Truth Social that reporting by The NYT and others about his health was “seditious”
4:55 PM
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Two representatives on the US House Financial Services Committee warn WBD CEO David Zaslav of national security concerns about the financiers of Paramount's bid
4:30 PM
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google rolls out Preferred Sources globally, letting users customize “top stories” in Search, and launches highlighted links from users' news subscriptions
4:05 PM
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify says it will test Prompted Playlist, which lets users describe what they want to hear and receive a unique set of songs based on their listening history
3:30 PM
Joe Wilkins / Futurism:
McDonald's Netherlands pulls an AI-generated Christmas ad, made by ad agency TBWA\NEBOKO with film production company The Sweetshop, after social media backlash
2:55 PM
Kara Voght / Washington Post:
A profile of Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice WH reporter and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend, who is giving up his WH gig after the Trump-MTG split
2:20 PM
Lauren Johnson / Adweek:
Shopify launches Product Network, an ad tool that lets merchants recommend and advertise products on other merchants' storefronts
1:55 PM
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Reddit starts a limited alpha test of verified profiles, an opt-in feature that places a gray checkmark next to the usernames of notable people or businesses
1:00 PM
Max Tani / Semafor:
Democrats warn that their party, when it returns to power, may attempt to block or unravel any Paramount acquisition of WBD due to national security concerns
12:25 PM
Jem Aswad / Variety:
TikTok launches a podcast series called TikTok in the Mix, featuring four 30-minute episodes streamed live on TikTok; the first episode stars Demi Lovato
11:45 AM
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon plans to let authors offer their DRM-free ebooks in the EPUB and PDF formats through Kindle Direct Publishing, starting January 20, 2026
11:15 AM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube TV plans to launch over 10 genre-specific, cheaper YouTube TV Plans in early 2026, including a Sports Plan featuring ESPN Unlimited and Fox Sports 1
10:15 AM
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Instagram appears to be generating often misleading SEO-style headlines and long descriptions for users' Instagram posts, appearing in Google Search results
9:25 AM
Emma Roth / The Verge:
The RSL Collective, backed by Ziff Davis, Yahoo, and others, launches RSL 1.0, which lets publishers set licensing and compensation rules for AI web crawlers
8:50 AM
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
CBS names Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor of CBS Evening News as part of a major overhaul under Bari Weiss; Dokoupil is currently an anchor on CBS' morning show
8:45 AM
Reece Rogers / Wired:
Instagram launches Your Algorithm, which shows users an AI analysis of their activity to let them customize the topics shaping their Reels recommendations
7:45 AM
Rohan Goswami / Semafor:
Sources: some WBD investors warm to David Ellison and his top team, after they were reassured that Paramount's Middle Eastern financing is secure
7:05 AM
Bloomberg:
Australia's under-16 social media ban excludes Discord, GitHub, LEGO Play, Roblox, Steam, Google Classroom, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and YouTube Kids