Meta and other social media firms will pay $27 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Kentucky’s Breathitt County School District over alleged harms to children’s mental health caused by social media addiction, Reuters reports. Meta will pay the most — at $9 million. YouTube will pay $2.01 million, and Snap and TikTok will each pay $8 million to settle the case. 

Prescription brands have dramatically boosted their multiscreen TV advertising spend following a federal enforcement action against deceptive drug advertisers, according to an analysis by the Video Advertising Bureau, PPC Land reports. From October 2025 through March 2026, pharma Rx brands spent $4.95 billion on multiscreen TV advertising, a 53% increase over the $3.23 billion invested during the same period in the prior year.

CNN has sued Perplexity, accusing it of “massive copyright infringement,” Engadget reports. The complaint charges that Perplexity "unlawfully crawls, scrapes, copies, and distributes CNN's content from CNN Digital Platforms and third-party platforms,” and that it has copied more than 17,000 pieces of CNN content. Other media organizations suing Perplexity include The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Reddit, Merriam-Webster, Encyclopedia Britannica and Nikkei.  

CBS News has appointed Nick Bilton as executive producer of “60 Minutes,” CNBC reports. He replaces Tanya Simon, who has been with the program for more than 30 years. Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist, faces the task, of winning over newsroom employees, many of whom believe the changes at the long-running No. 1 news show are politically motivated, but Bilton says his hiring is not a political maneuver. 

Researchers have long known about a phenomenon called the hostile media effect — the perception by people that the media is prejudiced against them. But researchers are now studying what they call the hostile misinformation effect — the impact of ideology on targeting, Nieman Lab reports. The researchers write, “we find clear support for a hostile misinformation effect, as citizens believe their own political party was much more targeted than the political opponent.”

Screenvision Media has named former chief revenue officer of Vox Media Geoff Schiller as chief executive officer, replacing interim CEO Jeff Howe, CityBiz reports. Schiller will also join the board of directors. The hire comes as the in-theater advertising industry seeks to leverage box-office momentum and changing consumer viewing habits. It also comes as advertisers demand less digital clutter and audience fragmentation. 

Colorado Governor Jared Polis has vetoed two media-related bills, The Colorado Sun reports. House Bill 1255, a measure that would require social media platforms to report to law enforcement posts that contain threats, would have a “chilling effect” on online discourse, Polis wrote. House Bill 1418  would force online gaming companies to charge a 5% fee to fund youth mental health programs, but Polis said the fee could violate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

Condé Nast has reached a settlement with the NewsGuild of New York over the firing of four editorial staffers last year. Alma Avalle, Ben Dewey Jake Lahut and  Jasper Lo were terminated after they confronted the chief people officer about recent layoffs, The Hollywood Reporter writes. Three of the four—Avalle, Dewey and Lo-- are now being allowed to resign as active employees. given nearly two years’ pay and provided with letters of recommendation. Lahut was a probationary worker and will pursue the case via an unfair labor practice case with the National Labor Relations Board rather than take a lesser settlement. 

Journalist Sharyn Alfonsi is leaving “60 Minutes,” after a decade-length tenure on the program, The Washington Post reports. Alfonsi had clashed with Editor in Chief Bari Weiss. “This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting,” Alfonsi said in the statement. “It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”

A bipartisan bill that would have required Maryland state agencies to direct half of their ad spend to local news media has been vetoed by Governor Wes Moore, WBOC reports. The Local News for Maryland Communities Act of 2026 would have limited the ability of agencies to use broad ad channels like streaming services, social media, outdoor advertising and regional media, Moore argued. “The State must retain the flexibility to communicate with Marylanders through the most effective and efficient channels available,” Moore wrote.