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Netflix looks to be gaining a new ad-supported tier and losing about 300 employees. In a Thursday panel at the Cannes Lions, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said the company is speaking with several partners as it looks to introduce ads to the platform. According to a report on Deadline, those potential partners are rumored to include Google, NBCUniversal and Roku. The 300 axed staffers follow 150 who were let go by Netflix in May. The streamer has a global workforce of around 11,000. It has lost nearly 70 percent of its value since it announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers at the end of the first quarter and expected to shed 2 million more in the second quarter.
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The International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter launches a Legal Support Fund that will offer financial assistance to fact-checking organizations that face threats of harassment, intimidation and litigation. The fund is supported by Meta and the Google News Initiative’s partnership with IFCN. The fund will be administered by the IFCN. Grantees will be selected by a committee from regional and global organizations with legal, journalism, and freedom of press domain expertise. Committee members will review each application for recognized risk that the case could result in imprisonment, bankruptcy and closure. “Fact-checkers around the world are experiencing harassment and online abuse in different forms and capacities,” said IFCN director Baybard Örsek. “We are excited to offer a sense of support to organizations facing those challenges on the ground and working toward finding sustainable solutions to navigate increasing attacks on journalism and fact-checking.”
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The final print edition of London’s Time Out, which focused on listings of entertainment venues and other events, has hit the stands. Launched in 1968, the magazine was originally a paid-for publication. Still, it became free in 2012, after the internet undermined its traditional business model by making it easy to find event listings online. Its New York print edition, which was launched in 1995, ceased publication in 2020. At its peak prior to the pandemic, the magazine had been published in over 40 cities around the world. It briefly rebranded as “Time” for a while in 2020 since many of its readers were unable to socialize or go out to work due to the pandemic lockdown.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
Michael Kaminer, who was responsible for the Observer’s “Power List” for the past 13 years, has cut ties with the publication... The New York Times Company continues the march toward its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is providing more than $6 million in funding to eight organizations working to address the challenges local news and information environments face along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
