Today's newsletter is the story of how Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's former head of ads - led a coup so that he could run Google Search, and how an email chain from 2019 began a cascade of events that would lead to him running it into the ground.

wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-ki…

😂😂😂

I'm going through the Google News Initiative (Google News Initiative) and today's session was about ad revenue. Took a few minutes to offer some thoughts on how Google's HCU was hurting small publishers, and express concerns over their decision to block links to California publishers.

One day last week, I had more Search traffic from Bing than Google.

Nationally, Google gets 62 percent of all Search traffic while Bing gets only around 10 percent.

That tells you what Google is doing to small publishers, at least this one. It's a wipe out.

BREAKING: The #FTC has banned noncompete agreements, by a vote of 3-2.

Ruling makes all existing noncompetes unenforceable EXCEPT for those pertaining to senior executives.

Rule would go into effect in 120 days after it is published in the Federal Register. Litigation expected.

Some baseball media news: Roku has emerged as a suitor for the Sunday morning streaming package of games known as 'Sunday Leadoff.' NBCU's Peacock had the package for last two seasons but their deal expired and as yet there is no new home for the small package of games.

Oh god. Adding to bookmarks 😅

WADL owner Kevin Adell, who is selling his station to Mission for $75 million, declined to comment on the conditions imposed by the FCC on Tuesday, but did say over text message that 'I haven't been this happy since my Bar Mitzvah!'

So...there's that.

This was no small feat. Lots of lobbying on behalf of WADL and extending the deadline to get a deal done before the FCC. Conditions set to minimize Nexstar role in Mission's operations. Of course, now everyone has to agree to conditions.

#BREAKING : FCC approves Mission Broadcasting's application to purchase Detroit-area independent station WADL-TV, but with conditions thedesk.net/news/fcc-appro… $NXST

I built a tool.

I posted it on Reddit for exposure.

I searched for my tool.

My Reddit post is ranking above my tool.

Guess I occupy two slots on the SERPs now?

Scoop: Jo Ann Ross, the first woman to lead ad sales at a broadcast TV network, plans to retire, leaving her role as ad sales chair at Paramount Global at the end of April

variety.com/2024/tv/news/j… via @variety

Plex has added the free NFL Channel to its line-up of streaming channels ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft thedesk.net/news/plex-adds…

DirecTV is launching more than a half-dozen new channels from Cineverse 💫 and The E.W. Scripps Co., including Dove Channel, the Bob Ross Channel, @ScrippsNews and Court TV thedesk.net/news/directv-c… $CNVS $SSP $T

We're starting to see the unwinding of what are now apparent falsehoods made by Timothy Burke and his attorneys last year, and a lot of journalists who bought into the whole 'press freedom' argument are going to have egg on their faces. thedesk.net/news/marco-gau…