The Houston Landing raised $20 million pre-launch. Less than two years later, it’s shutting down.

The Daily Digest: April 15, 2025

The Houston Landing raised $20 million pre-launch. Less than two years later, it’s shutting down. The site will stop publishing by mid-May, CEO Peter Bhatia said Tuesday, and its 43 employees will be laid off. By Sophie Culpepper.

Thomson Reuters is the latest media company to drop “diversity” language in response to Trump executive order What we’re readingThe New York Times / Cecilia Kang, Mike Isaac, and David McCabeMark Zuckerberg takes stand to defend Meta against antitrust suit →“If the government succeeds, the FTC is likely to ask Meta to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, potentially shifting the way that Silicon Valley does business and altering a long pattern in which big tech companies have snapped up younger rivals.”ReutersRussian journalists jailed for 5.5 years for alleged extremist ties to Navalny →“Antonina Favorskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov, and Artem Kriger have been on trial behind closed doors since October on charges, which they deny, of belonging to an extremist group. Prosecutors said they created materials for the YouTube channel of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which is banned in Russia as a ‘foreign agent’ and an extremist organization.”TechCrunch / Aisha MalikMeta to start training its AI models on public content in the EU →“Meta announced on Monday that it’s going to train its AI models on public content, such as posts and comments on Facebook and Instagram, in the EU after previously pausing its plans to do so in response to regulatory pressure due to data privacy concerns….Meta says it will honor all objection forms it has already received, as well as newly submitted ones.”The Verge / Kylie Robison and Alex HeathOpenAI is building a social network →“While the project is still in early stages, we’re told there’s an internal prototype focused on ChatGPT’s image generation that has a social feed…It’s unclear if OpenAI’s plan is to release the social network as a separate app or integrate it into ChatGPT, which became the most downloaded app globally last month.”The Washington Post / León KrauzeAuthoritarians always smile in private — especially to journalists →

“Two weeks ago, the sharp-tongued comedian Bill Maher had dinner with Donald Trump. Maher emerged from the meeting thoroughly charmed. During the opening monologue on his show on Friday, he described Trump as engaged and even likable. Trump made him feel comfortable and listened to…

It’s unfortunate that Maher allowed himself to get played like this. In private, many of history’s most brutal leaders have been described by their contemporaries in surprisingly human, even affectionate, terms.”

Votebeat / Jen FifieldNews report feeds false claim about 50,000 noncitizens on Arizona voter rolls →

A Sunday Fox News story carried the headline “SCOOP: Arizona to begin removing as many as 50K noncitizens from voter rolls following lawsuit.”

From Votebeat: “Arizona has not identified up to 50,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls, nor have counties begun canceling any voter registrations, despite news reports over the weekend suggesting otherwise. The misleading claims showed up in reports by Fox News and other outlets that mischaracterized a recent legal settlement between Arizona counties and the grassroots organization Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, known as EZAZ.org….most of these voters are likely U.S. citizens who simply haven’t submitted the necessary documents.”

The story appears to have been taken down, with a new one here.

New York Times / Benjamin Mullin, Tony Romm, and Jonathan SwanWhite House to ask Congress to claw back funding from NPR and PBS →“The Trump administration’s proposal to defund public broadcasting comes amid sustained pressure on NPR and PBS from Republicans in Congress, who have intensified long-running attacks on the broadcasters.”Poynter / Rick EdmondsThe Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington is going nonprofit →

“Owner and publisher Stacey Cowles and his family are donating the Spokesman-Review to Comma Community Journalism Laboratory, a nonprofit created in 2022 by executive editor Rob Curley, who will remain.

The deal is contingent on raising $2 million from donors, which Cowles plans to match. The Spokesman-Review will have a relationship with Gonzaga University, where Comma is housed, and with other local educational institutions.”

FT / Daniel Thomas and Anna NicolaouCNN plans to roll out a “suite” of new digital subscription services →CEO Mark Thompson “described the launch this year as a ‘non-news digital product, though it might be heavy in information,’ initially in the U.S. before taking it to customers around the world.”

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