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While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important. I also try to include some resources & opportunities. Please let me know what you think.
Important Items
Southern Baptists Endorse Effort to Overturn Same-Sex Marriage
The nation’s largest Protestant denomination was motivated by conservative Christians’ success in reversing Roe v. Wade.
Trump’s EPA announces major rollbacks to power plant pollution limits
The EPA will repeal federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants while loosening limits on toxic substances like lead, arsenic, and mercury by up to 70%.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/11/trump-administration-epa-pollution
RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory committee
https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-cdc-acip-vaccines-3790c89f45b6314c5c7b686db0e3a8f9
Systems are crumbling – but daily life continues. The dissonance is real
I feel this! “Hypernormalization” captures the weird, dire atmosphere of the US in 2025. First articulated in 2005 by scholar Alexei Yurchak to describe the civilian experience in Soviet Russia, hypernormalization describes life in a society where two main things are happening: The first is people seeing that governing systems and institutions are broken. And the second is that, for reasons including a lack of effective leadership and an inability to imagine how to disrupt the status quo, people carry on with their lives as normal despite systemic dysfunction – give or take a heavy load of fear, dread, denial and dissociation.
The job market is brutal for women executives
https://www.axios.com/2025/06/09/dei-meta-female-executives
Innovation
AI Tools Helped Restore Speech for a Woman With Paralysis: ‘She Felt Embodied’
Technology
Using AI to Supercharge Book Marketing
Did you miss @KeithRiegert‘s presentation at the US Book Show last week? He has some interesting AI case studies for publishing starting at p. 20 of this deck.
Gannett unveils AI-powered DeeperDive to deliver answers from journalists
Gannett is launching generative AI engine DeeperDive, giving readers answers to questions from sports to news
Axel Springer: AI Audio for Business Insider
Business Insider has unveiled an AI-powered audio brief that serves voice-over summaries of its top stories in real-time.
Taboola launches gen AI search engine for publishers called DeeperDive
https://www.axios.com/2025/06/11/taboola-gen-ai-search
News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/google-ai-news-publishers-7e687141
Google fends off part of textbook publisher lawsuit over ads
US judge ruled Cengage Learning, McGraw Hill, Macmillan Learning, & Elsevier failed to support their allegations that Google committed vicarious copyright infringement or violated NY state law.
Journalists are adding extra checks to keep ahead of the fake experts
HT @BoSacks The fake expert industry continues to churn out AI-generated commentary.
https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/fake-experts-seo-journalism/
Disney and Universal sue Midjourney for making AI ripoffs of their biggest characters
The lawsuit calls Midjourney a ‘bottomless pit of plagiarism’ and demands a jury trial.
Reddit sues Anthropic over AI scraping that retained users’ deleted posts
In the age of AI, we must protect human creativity as a natural resource
When used carelessly or excessively, generative AI is a threat to the creative ecosystem, but AI tools can potentially amplify rather than merely extract creative capacity.
A Chip Has Broken the Critical Barrier That Could Ultimately Begin the Singularity
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a64275674/self-learning-memristor/
Meta Is Creating a New A.I. Lab to Pursue ‘Superintelligence’
How much information do LLMs really memorize? Now we know, thanks to Meta, Google, Nvidia & Cornell
Apple study challenges whether AI models truly “reason”
Today’s tests only care if the model gets the right answer to math or coding problems that are in training data. Less than 5% score on new problems with severe performance degradation on extended systematic reasoning
Apple makes major AI advance with image generation technology rivaling DALL-E and Midjourney
AI’s metrics question
Via @benedictevans We want to measure growth but confused about what to measure. This is partly a prob of data & definitions, but really a question about what this is going to be. LLMs will be mostly embedded inside other things.
https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2025/6/9/generative-ais-metrics-question
Record Labels in Talks to License Music to AI Firms Udio, Suno
WWDC 2025: iOS 26, new Liquid Glass design and everything else Apple announced
Apple brings Apple Intelligence to the iPhone screen at WWDC 2025
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/09/apple-brings-apple-intelligence-to-the-iphone-screen-at-wwdc-2025/
iPhone’s Phone App Is Getting a Major Upgrade, Including a Smarter Way to Wait on Hold
Meta Aims to Fully Automate Ad Creation Using AI
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-aims-to-fully-automate-ad-creation-using-ai-7d82e249?st=2pv97S
Google-Backed AI Startup Focuses On Personal, Not Personalization
Glance, backed by Google and sister company to InMobi, has launched a platform for AI-driven commerce that maps an uploaded image of a consumer and matches it to shoppable products from retailers who sign up for the service.
China shuts down AI tools during nationwide college exams
https://www.theverge.com/news/682737/china-shuts-down-ai-chatbots-exam-season
Social media creators to overtake traditional media in ad revenue this year
Publishing & Media
Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction in ‘ALA v. Sonderling’ IMLS Case
New Listeners Boosting Sales for Spotify, Publishers
Spotify’s growing audiobook service. launched Oct. 2023, has expanded to more than 400K titles. According to Spotify, the audiobook listeners in the US, UK, + Australia rose by 30% from Jan. 2024 to Jan. 2025.
Everand Acquires Online Book Club Platform Fable
Everand, the online e-book and audiobook subscription service and subsidiary of Scribd, has acquired the social reading and book club app Fable, which has three million users and hosts more than 100,000 book clubs.
Reading for Pleasure
MT @PenguinUKBooks Reading enjoyment among children and young people continues to decline, according to new National @Literacy_Trust research. Read the full report – and find out how to help us #GrowAGenerationOfReaders #teamPRH
https://literacytrust.org.uk/reading-for-pleasure/
Disney Takes Full Control of Hulu for Billions Less Than Comcast Wanted
Disney said it had agreed to add $439 million to what it had already paid for the streaming service. Comcast had wanted $5 billion more.
Oregon ‘freedom to read’ library bill heads to governor’s desk
Some good news! Senate Bill 1098 would prohibit schools and libraries from removing books on the basis of being by, or about, members of a protected class
Resources & Opportunities
WMG Job Seekers
Hey out-of-work WMG friends: We have a new series for you! Come to this FREE session with an expert on 6/18 from 12-1pm ET via Zoom for members only!!
https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6206707
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore at the IFC Center with Frances McGarry
Meet up with WMG member Frances McGarry at IFC Center for a screening of “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” and a post-screening Q&A with Marlee Matlin and director Shoshannah Stern. 6/20 7:10pm, NYC. Members only.
https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6216526
WMG Summer Networking Party
Get together with your WMG community at our summer mixer, a relaxed evening of networking, conversation, and connection. 7/10 5:30-7, NYC. $30. Members Only.
https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6215573
AI for Editors: An AMA with Erin Servais
Writers, Journalists, Editors get answers to your questions about using AI for storytelling, enhancing creativity, and more! 8/6 12-1pm ET via Zoom. Free for Women’s Media Group members, $15 non-members.
https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6222466
We Need Diverse Books now accepting applications for 2026 Mentors
If you are interested in being a mentor, please email info@diversebooks.org with the subject line ‘2026 WNDB Mentor.’ Please include: your name, a brief publication history, and the genre (or genres, if you qualify for several) that you are seeking to mentor.
https://x.com/diversebooks/status/1932082760727871720/photo/1
Pitch Calls from The Writer’s Job Newsletter
Pitch calls & writing opportunities for freelance writers & journalists via @job_writers.
https://x.com/job_writers/status/1932099029967442275
New York State Bar Association Webinar on Book Banning in Public Schools
Continuing legal education course “Burn Before Reading: State Book Banning Laws and Litigation” 6/18 12:30pm-2pm
https://nysba.org/new-york-state-bar-association-to-explore-book-banning-in-public-schools/
Across a Crowded Room 2025
MT @nypl_lpa Aspiring or emerging theater maker: Sign up to participate in our 2025 Across a Crowded Room incubator program! The program allows bookwriters, lyricists, and composers to meet, form groups, and create new musical theater works throughout the summer.
https://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/events/across-a-crowded-room
Lincoln Center Free Big Umbrella Day
The Big Umbrella Festival centers our audiences by sharing unique approaches to multi-sensory, interactive, and engaging artistic experiences, designed with and for neurodiverse audiences. 7/5 11am-7:30pm.
https://lincolncenter.org/series/summer-for-the-city/big-umbrella-day-449
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