Proof Delivers Extensive Previs and Postvis for 'Stranger Things' Final Season
Proof Inc. released new previs and postvis reels for the final season of Netflix’s *Stranger Things*, covering all eight episodes after nearly two years of work. The studio generated roughly 1,900 combined shots, visualizing major action set pieces such as creature attacks, vehicle chases, and dimensional battles. Production relied heavily on Unreal Engine, enabling fully rendered previs to feed directly into editorial and accelerate iteration. A custom lighting pipeline and Gaussian Splats technique further refined creature integration and environment stitching, boosting efficiency for the series’ VFX pipeline.
New Imprint: 3AM Books
Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House, has launched 3AM Books, the company’s first imprint dedicated solely to horror. The imprint will be led by publishing director Rachel Winterbottom and editorial director Simon Taylor, supported by a team of editors...
Commentary: Why I Left National Media to Run a Small Town Newspaper
Skylar Baker-Jordan left a national journalism career to become editor of the Glasgow Courier, a small‑town newspaper in Montana. The piece highlights a nationwide crisis: 40% of local papers have shuttered in the last two decades, with over 130 closures...
ProPublica and The Connecticut Mirror Win Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting
ProPublica and its Local Reporting Network partner The Connecticut Mirror earned the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for the "On the Hook" series exposing abusive towing practices in Connecticut. The investigation revealed that tow companies could sell vehicles within...
New Apple Podcasts HLS Host, Digital Audio’s 2025 Consumer Spend, & More
Apple Podcasts has moved out of beta for video distribution, letting Buzzsprout users push video‑plus‑audio HLS feeds to the platform automatically. The industry is grappling with a surge of AI‑generated "podslop" content, prompting RSS.com to restrict programmatic ads and Spotify...
GUY SEBASTIAN Targeted on GLENN & MICK’S CELEBRITY INTERVENTION
Australian singer‑songwriter Guy Sebastian will be the next focus of Seven Network’s comedy‑talk series *Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention*. Hosts Glenn Robbins and Mick Molloy, joined by co‑host Lawrence Mooney, will guide a conversation that includes Sebastian’s wife Jules and fellow...
RAIN Time Travel: May 2016 Headlines
The May 2016 roundup revisits a pivotal month when digital audio accelerated across multiple fronts. DAB+ smartphones launched in Australia and the UK, while iHeartRadio hit 85 million registered users and SoundCloud expanded ads into the UK and Ireland. Industry forecasts predicted...
Best of Show: Wheatstone VMX Virtual Mixing Platform
Wheatstone’s VMX virtual mixing platform won Radio World’s Best of Show award at the 2026 NAB Show. The web‑based system removes physical studio constraints by running on existing servers or dedicated appliances. It is hardware‑agnostic, AES67‑compliant, and integrates with WheatNet’s...
Amazon Music To Livestream Rolling Loud 2026
Amazon Music has secured exclusive rights to livestream the 2026 Rolling Loud festival, held May 8‑10 in Orlando, Florida. The three‑day event, featuring more than 75 hip‑hop artists including headliners Playboi Carti, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Don Toliver, will be broadcast on the Amazon Music...
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TikTok: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It's Popular
TikTok, launched in 2016 by ByteDance, has become a dominant short‑form video platform with over 5 billion downloads and more than 100 million U.S. users. Its AI‑driven feed fuels high engagement, attracting brands that invest heavily in viral ad formats. In April 2024,...
Adthena Launches Industry-First Tool for ChatGPT Ads Campaigns
Adthena unveiled ChatGPT AdBridge, a free migration tool that converts existing Google Ads campaigns into keyword and negative‑keyword lists ready for the new ChatGPT Ads platform. The solution uses AI to enrich keywords, broaden coverage and streamline negatives, then delivers...
The Audio Industry Is Grappling With the Rise of 'Podslop'
The audio ecosystem is confronting a surge of AI‑generated shows, a phenomenon dubbed “podslop.” Platforms such as Amazon have begun auto‑creating quasi‑podcasts, while the Atlantic’s CEO noted the term flooding Spotify searches. Apple Podcasts now mandates AI disclosure, whereas Spotify...
Fox News Media Leads News Brands on YouTube in April
Fox News Media closed April as the top news brand on YouTube, racking up 605 million video views across its channels. The flagship Fox News YouTube channel alone delivered 471.9 million views, outpacing MS NOW, CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS. The network also...
Allen Media Channels Coming to Lower-Priced YouTube TV Packages
YouTube TV and Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group have renewed a multi‑year carriage agreement that places Allen’s national cable networks, including The Weather Channel and Comedy.TV, in YouTube TV’s base package priced at $83 per month. The deal does not...
AI Search Visibility Index: Influencer Marketing Platforms, May 2026
Net Influencer and Grow and Convert analyzed how AI chat tools surface influencer‑marketing platforms. Across 40 query runs on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, 50 platforms were mentioned, but visibility is heavily skewed toward the top....
Fox News Viewership Linked to Belief in a Racist Conspiracy Theory
Researchers led by Jesse Rhodes tracked over 1,000 white Americans from summer 2024 to 2025 and found a strong link between regular Fox News viewership and belief in the Great Replacement Theory. Viewers of specific Fox programs, such as those...
I Used to Spend 5 Hours a Week on Research. Two AI Agents Replaced All of It.
An entrepreneur reduced a weekly five‑hour research routine to under 20 minutes by deploying two AI agents. Agent 1 monitors 20 YouTube channels, summarizing new videos into Slack; Agent 2 aggregates those summaries, selects highlights, and drafts the newsletter research section. The...
CANAL+ App to Be Pre-Installed on Sharp TiVo TVs
CANAL+ announced a strategic partnership with Sharp Consumer Electronics to pre‑install its streaming app on Sharp Smart TVs powered by TiVo in Europe. The app will be pre‑loaded on models sold in France, Poland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary,...
NBC Sports’ NBA Playoff Viewership Up 58%
NBC Sports reported that its NBA playoff coverage on NBC and Peacock averaged 4.9 million viewers during the first 13 games, a 58% increase over the same period last year. The surge created the most‑watched comparable playoff window since 1996 and...
YouTube TV Will Keep The Weather Channel in New Deal
YouTube TV has reached a new long‑term agreement with Allen Media Group that keeps The Weather Channel on its lineup, along with niche channels Comedy.TV, Justice Central and Recipe.TV. The Weather Channel was reportedly at risk of removal before negotiations...
6 TV and Streaming Shows You Should Binge-Watch in May
May’s streaming calendar is packed with six high‑profile series, ranging from spy thriller Citadel’s Season 2 debut on Prime Video to the final episode of Good Omens. The Yellowstone universe expands with the Dutton Ranch spin‑off on Paramount+, while Rick and...
Top 3 New Netflix and Prime Video Arrivals for a Mid-Week Binge (May 4-8)
Netflix and Prime Video unveiled three standout titles for the week of May 4‑8, targeting viewers looking for a mid‑week binge. Netflix adds the British‑produced drama "Legends" on May 7, a gritty tale about customs agents turned anti‑drug operatives. On May 8, Netflix...
WNYC, WQXR Parent Adds Three To Executive Team
New York Public Radio, which operates WNYC, WQXR and the Gothamist website, announced three senior hires. Ruchika Sharma joins as Chief People Officer, Emily Christner as Chief Growth and Engagement Officer, and Patti Cohen as Senior Vice President of Analytics,...
All Things Creator Marketing with Mae Karwowski
Mae Karwowski, founder and CEO of influencer agency Obviously, will speak at Marketing Brew’s "The Next Phase of Social & Creator Marketing" on May 12. She notes U.S. creator ad spend is expanding four times faster than the broader media...
Study: Paramount-WBD Deal Signals New Era of Streaming Scale
Parks Associates' latest research indicates that the proposed Paramount‑Warner Bros. Discovery merger would extend the combined company's reach to 57% of U.S. internet households, putting it on a level with Netflix, Google, Amazon and Disney. The study shows the four current...
Daredevil: Born Again and the Fascism of State Gangsters
Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again returns the original cast and retools its narrative to portray Wilson Fisk as a mayor who weaponizes the police as a private army. The series draws explicit parallels between state‑sanctioned violence and organized‑crime tactics, echoing historical...
AI Brands Are Pumping Ad Dollars Into Linear TV
Leading AI companies are pouring tens of millions of dollars into linear television advertising to shape public perception and drive adoption. By April 20, 2026, OpenAI has spent roughly $64.9 million, Google $81.7 million, Microsoft $34.4 million and Meta $64.2 million, amounts that nearly...
WKRP Is Back in Cincinnati
After nearly 50 years, the iconic WKRP call letters have returned to Cincinnati on 97.7 FM. The launch featured former sitcom star Gary Sandy recording new liners, and the station joins a three‑station “Oasis” oldies network covering Ohio and Kentucky. Radioactive LLC...
Triton Digital Launches Its March 2026 Canada Podcast Ranker
Triton Digital released its March 2026 Canada Podcast Ranker, confirming CBC/Radio‑Canada as the top sales network with 2.4 million average weekly downloads, followed by Audioboom and the BBC. The same three CBC‑produced shows – Front Burner, World Report and The World This...
Penske Truck Rental Renews Sponsorship of Pit Pass Indy Podcast with Award-Winning Journalist Bruce Martin
Penske Truck Rental has renewed its role as presenting sponsor of the Pit Pass Indy podcast for the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. The weekly Wednesday episodes, running from March through September, will feature IndyCar luminaries such as Alex Palou, Scott Dixon...
Tink Media to Co-Present International Women’s Podcast Awards with Naomi Mellor of Everybody Media
Podcast growth firm Tink Media announced it will co‑present the 2026 International Women’s Podcast Awards alongside Naomi Mellor of Everybody Media. The ceremony, traditionally held online, will be hosted in Toronto later this year, marking its first North American venue....
DoorDash Delivers Memes, Reality TV Moms for Mother’s Day Campaign
DoorDash launched a Mother’s Day campaign that mixes meme‑driven video spots with a reality‑TV‑style series called “The Real Moms of the Group Chat.” The multichannel effort, built with Loop, Get Engaged Media and Gut Los Angeles, runs on Instagram, TikTok and...
How Earned Media Supports Nonprofit Authority in a World Powered by AI
Nonprofit organizations are losing control of first‑contact impressions as AI‑generated summaries and third‑party citations replace direct website visits. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) now prioritizes earned‑media placements, making credible external coverage essential for AI‑driven search visibility. To thrive, nonprofits must craft...
Is the Retail Media Network Gold Rush Over?
Retail media networks are moving from a gold‑rush expansion to a consolidation phase as marketers reallocate spend toward platforms that prove clear ROI. New data from Keen Decision Systems shows over a quarter of retail marketers pulling budget from RMNs...
NAB Says Nomination Window for Marconi Awards Is Open
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has opened nominations for the 2026 Marconi Radio Awards, with submissions accepted through May 31 via the NAB member portal. Winners will be revealed at a dinner on October 20, 2026, the night before the NAB...
Beasley Best Community of Caring Initiative Launches
Beasley Media Group has launched its "Beasley Best Community of Caring" initiative to mark Mental Health Awareness Month. Throughout May, the company will air on‑air public service announcements, publish relatable digital stories, and display supportive messages on Quu dashboard screens...
Syracuse University Launches Creator Economy Minor
Syracuse University will debut a Creator Economy minor in fall 2026, the first formal credential from its Center for the Creator Economy. The program requires three core courses—an introduction to the creator economy, a business toolkit for creators, and entrepreneurship—plus...
Billy Bob Thornton's Big Break Came In Α Short-Lived Fox TV Sequel Series
In 1990 Fox aired a short‑lived sequel series to S.E. Hinton’s novel *The Outsiders*, produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Billy Bob Thornton landed his first major television role as greaser Buck Merrill, appearing in ten of the show’s thirteen episodes. The series also featured...
More Eye-Popping Mergers Ahead: Comcast And Charter?
Comcast and Charter are exploring a merger that would unite roughly 26 million video subscribers, representing about 20 percent of U.S. households. The deal is driven by two forces: a 15‑year decline in traditional pay‑TV subscriptions and the need to bolster weakening...
Hisense Aggressively Cuts the Price of Its RGB LED TV on Release Day
Hisense slashed the launch price of its UR9 RGB LED TV by more than 40%, cutting $1,500‑$2,000 off each size. The 65‑inch model now sells for $1,999, the 75‑inch for $2,999, and the 85‑inch for $3,999, making it cheaper than Samsung’s...
Netflix Unveils Trailer for Dibu Martínez: The Kid Who Stops Time
Netflix has released the trailer for "Dibu Martínez: The Kid Who Stops Time," an animated‑documentary that chronicles Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez’s journey from a Mar del Plata child to World Cup hero. The feature, produced by PEGSA and directed by...
Barry McKay Named PD at Coastal Virginia’s 92.9 The Wave
Max Media of Coastal Virginia announced two internal promotions. Barry McKay, a longtime on‑air personality, has been elevated to Program Director and Brand Manager while also taking the afternoon host slot at 92.9 The Wave. Jerry Hoyt, a versatile veteran of the company, will...
Dollar General Launches Unified Retail Media Platform
Dollar General, together with Kevel and The Trade Desk, unveiled a unified retail media platform that merges its onsite ad inventory with offsite digital channels. The solution lets advertisers plan, execute and measure campaigns across the full purchase funnel from...
Blog: Wifi Killed the BBC Radio Car
The BBC has retired its iconic Radio Car, a £70,000 (≈ $86,000) on‑site broadcast vehicle, moving the service to on‑demand, Wi‑Fi‑enabled reporting. The newer Verv model, which replaced the original car with a satellite dish, is also being phased out as...
How to Navigate Burnout
Burnout is a pervasive, work‑related stress response affecting roughly 70% of journalists, with women and younger staff reporting higher rates. The American Press Institute argues that self‑care alone cannot solve the problem because burnout is rooted in organizational culture. News...
Mental Well-Being in the Newsroom
The American Press Institute launched a May Special Edition series on newsroom mental well‑being, timed with Mental Health Awareness Month. The program offers a trio of webinars and practical guides for news leaders to recognize burnout, trauma, and to build...
National Library Report Finds Book Readership to Be ‘Stable’ in Poland
Poland’s National Library reports that 41% of residents aged 15 and older read at least one book in 2025, matching the previous year’s figure and up from 37% in 2015. Young adults lead the market, with 45% of 15‑24‑year‑olds reading,...
Jessi Draper Only Has One Reality-TV Nemesis
Jessi Draper, formerly Jessi Ngatikaura, rose to prominence on Hulu’s *The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives* after an on‑camera affair with Marciano Brunette from *Vanderpump Villa* became a headline‑grabbing storyline. The scandal helped Hulu position its reality‑TV slate as a...
Andy Cohen Bent the World to His Reality
Andy Cohen has been the architect of Bravo’s reality‑TV empire, guiding shows from *Top Chef* to the *Real Housewives* franchise for over two decades. After stepping down from his executive role in 2013, he became the on‑camera face of the...
The Masterminds of Reality TV
Vulture unveiled its inaugural Reality TV Masterminds list, spotlighting the genre’s cultural dominance in 2026. The publication honored Andy Cohen with its sixth honorary degree and named Kathy Hilton the first Forever Icon. Reality shows such as *Survivor*, *Love Island* and *The...