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“Last month, an A.I. bot that handles tech support for Cursor, an up-and-coming tool for computer programmers, alerted several customers about a change in company policy. It said they were no longer allowed to use Cursor on more than just one computer…some got even angrier when they realized what had happened: The A.I. bot had announced a policy change that did not exist.”
The Hollywood Reporter / Erik HaydenCNN hires Choire Sicha to lead features as it makes a digital subscriber push →“How will the founder of The Awl make a mark at CNN?…The move marks the latest hire at the brand as it attempts to reorient itself in the online news ecosystem with an eye toward developing subscription products — a big pivot for CNN, but one seen as a necessity as the channel looks past its linear TV roots.”
The Verge / Victoria SongMeta’s AI app is a nightmarish social feed →“If you took Pinterest, mashed it together with everything annoying about Threads, and sprinkled generative Al prompts on top — that’d pretty much sum up the newly launched Meta Al site’s social feed…The result is a fascinating microcosm of the human-Al experience and, specifically, how so few people know what to do with generative Al.”
TechCrunch / Lauren ForristalSpotify will now show users how many times a podcast episode has been listened to →“With this new metric for podcasts, Spotify aims to encourage users to explore podcasts they may not be familiar with, especially if they see that other listeners highly favor these episodes. For creators, this information sheds light on which episodes resonate most with audiences and, more importantly, allows them to benchmark their performance against competitors.”
Axios / Sara FischerThe Guardian plots another U.S. expansion following a record year of revenue →“The Guardian is hiring for more than a dozen new editorial roles…The Guardian U.S. is expected to report in coming months that it earned $65 million in revenue last fiscal year which ended in March…It’s also expected to report that revenue from reader contributions made up around 68% of its total U.S. business last year, or around $44 million — a new record.”
Status / Oliver DarcyFor the second straight year, Washington Post publisher Will Lewis has skipped the newsroom’s Pulitzer celebration →“…quite odd for a publisher. Executive Editor Matt Murray….did, however, relay that Lewis is ‘very proud’ of the winners and will congratulate them in person when he returns — though it seems unlikely [Pulitzer winner Ann Telnaes, who resigned in protest of Lewis in January] will be the recipient of such a gesture.”
Los Angeles Times / Stephen Battaglio and Meg James60 Minutes shows it’s not scared off by Trump’s lawsuit and threats →“Trump has encouraged his Federal Communications Chief Brendan Carr to punish CBS and its corporate parent over his long-running beef with 60 Minutes.”
Media Voices / Esther Kezia ThorpeHow publishers are using apps to deepen engagement and improve retention →“My first question [when I joined The Baltimore Banner] was, why an app? Why so soon? Why not get the web right first? But I think the app play turned out to be really smart, because apps have become table stakes for news organizations, especially subscription-driven news organizations today.”
Bloomberg / Christopher Palmeri and Thomas BuckleyTrump’s 100% tariff on movies made overseas originated in a Mar-a-Lago meeting with Angelina Jolie’s dad →“…a proposal that included federal incentives for U.S. theater owners to upgrade their facilities.”
The Verge / Alex HeathOpenAI has abandoned its plan to become a for-profit company →“Now, OpenAl’s nonprofit board — the one that briefly fired CEO Sam Altman — will continue to oversee its commercial subsidiary, which is being changed from a capped, for-profit business to a public benefit corporation (PBC) like Anthropic and xAI.”
Time / Sander van der Linden and Lee McIntyreHow to address misinformation without censorship →“A common critique of systems that hold liars to account — such as the fact-checking industry — is the accusation that they are biased…The perception of bias comes from the fact that far-right echo chambers objectively spread more misinformation and are therefore impacted more even under politically neutral platform policies.”
Digiday / Krystal ScanlonThe continued uncertainty around TikTok doesn’t seem to have hurt its ad business →“Nearly halfway through its second 75-day countdown to being banned, the platform is still seen as a dependable partner — proof that, in advertising, consistency can sometimes outweigh certainty.”
Business Insider / Lucia MosesGoogle has quietly entered the movie/TV business to “promote a positive view of its products — and tech generally” →“Google and Range announced a partnership this spring called ‘AI On Screen’ to commission short films about AI, with the goal of making two into feature films. Here’s how it described one of the shorts, ‘Sweetwater’: ‘When the son of a late celebrity visits his childhood home, a piece of fan mail reveals a startling AI, forcing him to reconcile his mother’s legacy.'”
The Guardian / Margaret SimonsAustralia’s election results show the Murdochs’ declining political influence in their home country →“Commentators on all sides of politics are suggesting, in the wake of the election rout, that too much listening to and engagement with Sky News…is a reason why the Liberal party is so manifestly out of touch with middle Australia. There are lots of reasons for News Corporation’s declining power. Mostly, it is a part of the wider story of waning influence for mainstream media.”
Digiday / Alexander LeeLinkedIn emerges as a serious player in the creator economy →“B2B influencer marketing agency Creator Match, which launched in early 2024, has made 80 percent of its lifetime revenue in the ‘past few months’ paying out over $1 million to LinkedIn creators during that period…management firm The Wishly Group has gone from managing six LinkedIn creators in August 2024 to 30 creators on the platform in April 2025, with its average number of campaigns per month increasing from 20 to 75.”
Press Gazette / Press GazetteSubstack is now a bigger news brand in the U.K. than CNN.com →Its 42.7 million minutes of monthly usage compares to 42.8 million for The Evening Standard, 41.6 million for GB News, and 47.1 million for the Financial Times. (Still No. 1 by 1,000 kilometers: the BBC with 9.1 billion minutes.)
The New York Times / Tiffany HsuTrump’s return to power elevates ever fringier conspiracy theories →“The real problem with the ideas and the communication of conspiracy theories is when they get evinced by people with the power to act on them…If some guy, somewhere, thinks the Earth is flat, the answer is ‘So what?’ But when people in power have those beliefs, it becomes a serious issue.”
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