Mediagazer: Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes testifies in antitrust trial that his company needs to merge with AT&T to better compete for ads with Google, Facebook, and Amazon (CNNMoney)

10:40 AM ET, April 19, 2018

Top News:

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Michael Cohen drops libel lawsuits against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS over publication of Steele dossier, which alleges he met with Russian operatives for Trump — Embattled attorney Michael Cohen has dropped a pair of much-touted libel suits against BuzzFeed and the private investigation firm Fusion GPS …

Discussion: New York Post, Mediaite, NBC News, Law & Crime, @drdenagrayson, Above the Law, Axios, @mattmittenthal, The Daily Beast and The Week

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

Model Karen McDougal settles lawsuit against American Media, giving her right to discuss alleged affair with Trump and allowing AMI to avoid pretrial discovery — The tabloid news company American Media Inc. agreed to let a former Playboy model out of a contract that had kept her from talking freely …

Discussion: The Week, CBS News, NBC News, VICE News, Slate, East Bay Times, Bustle, Newser, UPROXX, The Wrap, @arimelber, @kylegriffin1, Mediaite, TMZ.com, @evan_rosenfeld and @joncoopertweets

David Ingram / Reuters:

Facebook says it will change ToS in May for 1.5B users outside EU; US, Canada to be governed by US instead of Ireland ToS, limiting GDPR impact to 400M users — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - If a new European law restricting what companies can do with people's online data went into effect tomorrow …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mashable, Recode, Fast Company, @david_ingram, Vanity Fair, Engadget, CNBC, @mikarv, Gizmodo, The Hill, @markfollman, @profcarroll, @swiftonsecurity and @profcarroll, more at Techmeme »

Facebook:
Ahead of GDPR, Facebook debuts enhanced privacy controls for all users globally, starting in EU, with more choices about ads, allowing face recognition, more

Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times:

Harper's Magazine Editor James Marcus says he was fired after a story by Katie Roiphe was assigned over his objections; he says he refused severance tied to NDA — James Marcus wants the world to know that he was fired from his job as the editor of Harper's Magazine.

Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:

Sources: Netflix has considered buying movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles, including Landmark Theatres, but the price was too high — Netflix, the global streaming giant that has dramatically changed the TV industry and clashed with movie theater owners, may be ready to move onto …

Discussion: @latimes, @andredoesthings and UPROXX

David Sims / The Atlantic: The standoff between Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival reflects disagreement that will be hard to resolve over the importance of theatrical movie experiences

Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
Sources: Netflix plans to spend ~$1B on original productions in Europe this year, more than double what it spent last year, across multiple languages

more at Techmeme »

Sara Jerde / Adweek:

HelloGiggles, bought by Time Inc. in 2015 and now part of Meredith, launches a print version, with a 500K-copy initial run sent to People subscribers age 18-39 — The millennial-focused website launched in 2011 — Readers of HelloGiggles can hold the website's content in their hands …

Discussion: Folio, @ginainterrupted and @hellogiggles

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer / Tampa Bay Business Journal:

The Tampa Bay Times is cutting about 50 jobs across departments; spokeswoman says the cuts are a direct response to rising costs from newsprint tariffs — The Tampa Bay Times is cutting “approximately” 50 jobs after new tariffs sent the price of newsprint skyrocketing.

Discussion: @davidsirota, @kristenorsborn, HuffPost, @kirbywtweets and @journo_christal

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:

Source: Meredith rejected a $300M+ offer for Time, Fortune, Money, SI from AMI; interest in the outlets is from wealthy individuals with non-media backgrounds — Meredith is entertaining offers for Time Inc.'s old crown jewels, to be sold together or separately—but Donald Trump's favorite publisher is not in the running.

Wall Street Journal:

Regulatory filing confirms 21st Century Fox rejected Comcast offer largely due to antitrust risks, even though bid was 16% higher per share than Disney's offer — Fox agreed instead to sell entertainment assets to Disney in $52 billion deal — 21st Century Fox Inc. FOX -.73% rejected …

Discussion: @shalini, New York Times, @pkafka and @shalini

CNNMoney:

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes testifies in antitrust trial that his company needs to merge with AT&T to better compete for ads with Google, Facebook, and Amazon — Why the AT&T-Time Warner trial matters — Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes made the case for his company to be acquired by AT&T …

Discussion: Variety, CNBC, Bloomberg, Multichannel News, Reuters, @hadas_gold, Axios and @hadas_gold

Eugene Kim / CNBC:

Jeff Bezos says Prime has 100M+ members worldwide, sharing for the first time Prime membership numbers via his annual shareholder letter — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has released his latest annual shareholder letter. — In the letter, Bezos stressed the importance of having higher standards in running a business.

Discussion: Variety, Ad Age, MediaNama, Variety, TechCrunch, @edmundlee, Business Insider and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Ad-blocking browser Brave and Dow Jones partner to give free access to Barrons.com or a premium newsletter and to test blockchain-based tech to pay publishers — It looks like at least one major news publisher is on-board with Brave, the ad-blocking web browser founded by former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich.

Discussion: CNET and Basic Attention Token

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More News:

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
Analysis of ~87K articles about Facebook from USA Today, NYT, Guardian, and BuzzFeed from 2006-2018 shows coverage turned mostly negative after 2016 election

Discussion: @caseynewton, @brianprovost, @cwarzel and @cwarzel, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sports-focused streaming service fuboTV raises $75M Series D with AMC Networks as a new investor and 21st Century Fox, Sky, and more participating

Discussion: Recode, MediaPost, Variety, Variety, Bloomberg and Multichannel News

Bryan Curtis / The Ringer:
A look at The Denver Post's gilded age of sports coverage in the 1980s, as longtime columnists and reporters mourn its decline and some defect to The Athletic

Discussion: @montecristo, @kylenewmandp, @chuckmindenhall, @mattdpearce, @bryancurtis, @joeyrkaufman, @mikejudsondp, @mccarthyryanj, @robert_matthew, @salimvalji, @cnewquist, @johnwenzel, @willgravesap and @markkiszla

Earlier Picks:

Claire L. Evans / New York Magazine:
Profile of Jaime Levy, the cyber punk publishing pioneer who created two of the most popular magazines of the 1990s, Cyber Rag and Electronic Hollywood

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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube introduces new monetization tools for creators and announces expansion of sponsorships, as it faces backlash from smaller creators

Discussion: MediaPost, Adweek, FierceCable, Search Engine Land, @susanwojcicki, Inside AdWords and Polygon

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
Sources: the US FTC plans to investigate allegations that Microsoft is abusing its market power in productivity software to prevent customers from leaving Azure

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI says the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS can now read code from some developer-focused apps, including VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google releases a free Gemini app for iOS, letting users ask questions, chat via text, voice, or their camera, and use the conversational mode Gemini Live

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