AI isn’t replacing media salespeople; it’s giving them a powerful new way to become indispensable marketing advisers. In her latest E&P “Ad Sales Life” op-ed column, Shannon Kinney — founder and client success officer at Dream Local Digital — explains how media professionals can use AI to move beyond selling ad inventory to diagnosing client challenges, uncovering opportunities and delivering the strategic insights businesses need to grow. more

Adam O’Neal, the top editor of The Washington Post’s opinion section, resigned on Friday, a little over a year after Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner, hired him to reorient the section toward a more libertarian bent. more

Perched high above the ground, a worker cuts steel with his torch, dismantling an old water tower in Brookings, South Dakota, on May 14, 2026. Photo credit: David Bordewyk more

The eight local ABC television stations targeted by President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission have generated a staggering amount of public support in recent weeks. ABC says the reason is clear: Supporters across the ideological spectrum “share a fundamental commitment to free speech and press freedom.” more

Disney will sell its 50% stake in A+E Global Media to Hearst in a billion-dollar deal, TheWrap has learned. The company is expected to announce the sale in its earnings call next week. This marks the company’s first strategic sale under the leadership of new CEO Josh D’Amaro. The deal is reportedly worth upwards of $1 billion and is all-cash, according to media reports. Rich Greenfield’s LightShed Partners initially reported news of the deal. more

The insults. The lies. The extremely unfunny attempts at humor. The lack of respect for the role of the free press. The lack of respect for the U.S. Constitution, which forbids a Trump run for president in 2028. The lack of respect for the rule of law. more

President Trump’s nominee to oversee the parent agency of Voice of America, a government-funded news group that operates in countries with limited press freedoms, said on Thursday that if the Senate confirmed her, she would bring back many of the journalists who had been placed on paid leave since the early weeks of Mr. Trump’s second term. more

There is a familiar temptation to treat the FCC's coming national ownership vote on August 6th as a simple deregulatory move: raise the cap, let the biggest broadcasters get bigger and move on. But that framing misses what is actually on the table. The Commission is not just considering a higher number. It is considering whether a fixed national reach limit still makes sense at all, and whether the agency should instead judge oversized deals one by one under its longstanding “public-interest standard.” more

In February of 2025, as college students across the country settled into their spring semesters, administrators at four major public universities in the Midwest received public records requests about their policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. more

Deliberate audience initiatives and breaking news alike have driven traffic to local newspapers in the last few months. According to Similarweb’s data, The Philadelphia Inquirer received 1.1 million more web visits in April than it did in March, about a 17% jump. Lisa Hughes, the Inquirer’s publisher and CEO, told me the spike coincided with the launch of Inquirer Weekend, more

The Democratic candidates challenging the expanded lowest unit rate guidance are telling a federal appeals court that the FCC’s reliance on former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown’s 2024 campaign only proves broadcasters have long misapplied the law — not that the agency’s new guidance is legal. more

As access to information and media habits have changed over time, so have the needs of news consumers. The best way to identify how the local news needs of American citizens have evolved is to ask them. more

Advertisers should soon have plenty of energy to run ad campaigns and projects related to advancing artificial intelligence (AI). A consortium of banks led by Morgan Stanley reportedly will lend $15 billion to Nexus Data Centers, a Texas-based privately held developer of large-scale, AI-ready data-center campuses. The company will build a campus in Hubbard, Texas. more

Richard J. Tofel, Second rough Draft: “You can read a lot these days about how the emergence of AI and especially the changes in search are triggering declines in the audience for news. While that’s a very real problem, I sense that there’s a pervasive feeling among publishers of a deeper, much quieter crisis in the audience for news that people are reluctant to discuss ...” more

CNBC editor in chief Dave Cho and managing editor of digital and editorial strategy Ken Brown sent out the following on Thursday: Team, We are excited to announce several important updates to our markets team as we continue to strengthen CNBC’s investing coverage. These changes will boost our offering of sophisticated financial analysis while creating clear leadership and stronger coordination across our markets coverage. more

Podcast listening continues to reach new audiences, but the medium is evolving into something much broader than an audio format as Americans increasingly watch podcasts, follow creators across multiple platforms, and look for ways to engage beyond the weekly episode. more

What does it take to lead a global media brand through AI disruption, changing audience behavior and an escalating crisis of trust? In the first episode of FT Strategies’ new Executive Exchange series, Financial Times CEO Jon Slade shares how the FT is building a more customer-centered organization while keeping human judgment at the center of its journalism. more

Beginning Aug. 1, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lisa Krantz, Ph.D., will draw on more than 25 years of experience as a photojournalist to teach visual journalism to the next generation of students. more

William (“Bill”) McDonald spent nearly five decades in journalism, including the past 20 years overseeing one of The New York Times’ most fascinating beats: obituaries. In this exclusive interview with Editor & Publisher’s Editor-in-Chief Gretchen A. Peck, McDonald speaks to the editorial judgment, research and narrative care that goes into the Times’ obituaries — and why writing about death is really about celebrating life. more