The Daily Digest: March 31, 2025
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| “It’s funny how you can know nothing about something like LED billboard trucks and then suddenly become an expert in them.” By Neel Dhanesha. |
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| It’s not because they’re tuned out entirely. About 40% of Americans say they’re paying more attention to political news with Trump in the White House for a second time. By Sarah Scire. |
What we’re reading
Semafor / Max TaniGet out of their bubbles, or harden them? Gavin Newsom and Democrats debate their media future →“The [Meidas] network also operates based on best practices rewarded by YouTube: They publish videos every day consistently on an hourly schedule. On an average day, Meiselas and a group of contributors will churn out nearly 20 10-20 minute videos, almost all of which can top 100,000 views. Meiselas has the format down to a science: He scrolls the Twitter feeds of his contributors and researchers, picks a moment that he believes is particularly outrageous, and hits record.”
TechCrunch / Aisha MalikSubstack is rolling out a TikTok-like video feed in its app →“Given the timing of the launch, Substack is likely aiming to capitalize on the potential void left by TikTok if it faces a ban in the United States.”
Financial Times / Hannah Murphy, Cristina Criddle, and Daniel ThomasBrands spend nominal sums on X to keep Elon Musk happy →“’It’s whatever amount is enough to stay off the naughty list,’ said Lou Paskalis, chief executive of marketing consultancy AJL Advisory and a former media executive at Bank of America. ‘It’s not because the brand safety risk has gone away. But the far greater risk is that a comment [from Musk] in the press sends your stock price tumbling, and instead of a multimillion-dollar risk you’re facing a multibillion-dollar risk.’”
Big Technology / Alex KantrowitzAs AI takes his readers, a leading history publisher wonders what’s next →“Late last year, Jan van der Crabben’s AI fears materialized. His World History Encyclopedia — the world’s
second most visited history website — showed up in Google’s AI Overviews, synthesized and presented alongside other history sites. Then, its traffic cratered, dropping 25% in November.”
The Wall Street Journal / Katherine SayreThe head of an IT company in New Jersey wanted to fix local news. It’s harder than he thought. →Jeremy Gulban owns 92 community newspapers though CherryRoad Media. “Gulban needs between 15% and 20% of households in his communities to subscribe to be economically viable. Across the company, about 8% of households subscribe now, but that ranges from 2% to 69%, depending on the paper.”
Student Press Law CenterPress freedom coalition condemns arrest of Tufts op-ed writer →“Such a basis for her detention would represent a blatant disregard for the principles of free speech and free press within the First Amendment, and we call on Tufts University officials, Massachusetts lawmakers and federal authorities to take immediate action to secure her release,” the letter states.
The Atlantic / Elaine GodfreySteven Cheung is the voice of Trump →“Trump’s incursion against American institutions is now benefiting from a communications operation that is more effective—and far more withering. Cheung has been the architect of this new messaging era, bringing all that is authentically vulgar, unflinching, and cruel about his boss to official White House statements.”
The New York Times / Lulu Garcia-NavarroMegyn Kelly is embracing her bias and rejecting the “old rules” →Megyn Kelly: “I’m trying to say to you: Yes, I’m still a journalist, but I’m in this new ecosystem where the old rules don’t apply. I’m in this world with, yes, Charlie Kirk and Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro, but my world is also Joe Rogan and Theo Von. It’s a very large world, and how the consumer receives it is by going on YouTube.com on their television screen or going to the vertical integrations on Instagram or TikTok and just taking in content. What’s the content that you want to receive? I’m on the list of content creators, and so the fact that I’m also a journalist who breaks news and reports on news is an extra. But what’s most important in my business now is authenticity.”
TechCrunch / Maxwell ZeffAmazon unveils Nova Act, an AI agent that can control a web browser →“Several leading tech companies believe AI agents that can navigate the web for users will make today’s AI chatbots significantly more useful. Amazon may not be the first to develop this sort of agentic technology, but via Alexa+,
it may have the widest reach.”
Wired / Zoë Schiffer and Louise MatsakisElon Musk’s xAI acquires X, because of course →“The sale comes just weeks after Musk
reportedly raised an additional roughly $1 billion in debt financing for X that valued the company at $44 billion—the same price Musk paid for it three years ago.”
The Guardian / Edward HelmoreWhite House correspondents’ dinner cancels anti-Trump comedian’s appearance →“On Saturday, the WHCA announced it was dropping Ruffin’s comedic performance so the event’s ‘focus is not on the politics of division’ but rather on honoring the work of the group’s journalists, according to the association president, Eugene Daniels. The decision essentially left the WHCA friendless.”
New York / Charlotte KleinThe newspaper flourishing without a paywall →“There is a real crisis of access to reliable information for people who don’t want or have the means to subscribe to The New York Times. That is a real problem that we have an answer to.”
CNBC / Dan ManganTrump commutes sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson just before prison surrender →“Watson was
convicted at trial in Brooklyn federal court last July of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The former Ozy CEO was sentenced in December to a nearly 10-year stint in prison.” (A
poetic ending of a different kind?)
The New York Times / Katie RobertsonBloomberg has a rocky start with AI summaries →“One summary was removed from a March 6
article because it inaccurately stated that Mr. Trump had imposed tariffs on Canadian goods last year, instead of this year. Another, on a March 18
article about managers of sustainable funds, ‘failed to distinguish between actively and passively managed funds, providing incorrect figures as a result,’ according to a correction. Other errors have included incorrect figures, incorrect attribution and references to the wrong U.S. presidential election.”
Substack / Matt PearceCan’t journalism have an “abundance agenda”? →“Therein lies the dark side of journalism’s abundance paradox: The efficiencies that make content-parsing and content production easier are the very same things that keep putting journalists at a greater and greater economic disadvantage against other types of content creators. Growth in productivity for content creation is the very thing that dooms journalists to fall behind.”
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