Mediagazer: Conviva report: viewing of OTT video grew by 114% YoY in Q1, with total viewing hours reaching nearly 5B across mobile, connected TV, and desktop (Jon Lafayette/Multichannel News)

Reporters without Borders has released its annual press freedom report-card and the US is ranked 45th in the world; Philippines slid to #133 and Turkey to #157 — Last weekend, as Nicaragua's police brutally cracked down on protesters demonstrating against President Daniel Ortega …

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders, The Daily Beast, Japan Times, Al Jazeera English and Media Law Prof Blog

Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix orders one of its first shortform series, Follow This, a weekly docuseries following BuzzFeed News journalists as they work, premiering July 9 — The shortform series will follow the journalists at BuzzFeed News as they report a variety of stories.

Discussion: YouTube, Nieman Lab, Columbia Journalism Review, Variety, Fast Company, @believekarolina, The Daily Caller, @mathewi and Slate

Jon Levine / The Wrap:

Report: billionaire investor Peter Thiel agrees with Gawker administrator to withdraw bid for the website and its archives — Peter Thiel won't be buying Gawker after all. — The billionaire investor who helped bankrupt the once-mighty gossip empire reached an agreement Wednesday …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Fast Company, @theseantcollins, @edmurrieta, @albertburneko, @smorgasboredom, @hamiltonnolan and @tomscocca, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

Danish inventor Peter Madsen convicted of murdering journalist Kim Wall; court heard how he invited her on to his submarine with the intention of killing her — COPENHAGEN — A Danish inventor who admitted to dismembering a journalist and discarding her body from the submarine he built …

Discussion: CNN, The Wrap, @emilynussbaum, Politico, @afreedma, @kennwhite, @erinlea7, @ap and Committee to Protect …

Justin Baragona / Contemptor:

Infosec expert for Joy Reid says significant evidence exists that her old blog was compromised and some recently circulated posts were not on site at any time — Earlier this week, Mediaite published a bombshell report on the discovery of a large number of homophobic posts that had been discovered …

Discussion: Mediaite, @erikwemple, Fox News, @ggreenwald, Sean Hannity, @angryblacklady, @angryblacklady, @liamstack, @phonedude_mln, Web Science …, shoqvalue.com, @bernstein and Mediaite

Chris Butler / Internet Archive Blogs:
Wayback Machine says it declined to take down “fraudulent” blog posts after Joy Reid's lawyers contacted archive; robots.txt later excluded blog from archives

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser, Variety, The Wrap, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Politico, Slate, CNNMoney, Contemptor, The Daily Beast, HuffPost, New York Times, The Daily Caller, PFLAG, Fast Company, New York Post, Splinter, BuzzFeed, @dangillmor, @kfile, Boing Boing, @ggreenwald, @kfile and The Intercept

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:

The Guardian halves its losses to £19M in the year to the end of March and is on track to break even in 2018 — Publisher reports smaller than expected loss of £19m as benefits of tabloid switch filter through — The publisher of the Guardian and Observer halved its losses …

Discussion: @helenpidd

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Viacom says it is working with Snap on multiyear original content and ad deal that would include Snapchat influencers in new and existing shows — Viacom and Snapchat are working together to create new shows that would star top Snapchat stars. — In a multiyear original content …

Discussion: @kerrymflynn

Discussion: The Wrap and The Wrap

Chronicle of Higher Education:

Drew Cloud, an “expert” on student loans quoted by WaPo, CNBC, and The Boston Globe, is a fictitious persona created by a student finance company — Drew Cloud is everywhere. The self-described journalist who specializes in student-loan debt has been quoted in major news outlets …

Discussion: @muckrakery, @mollyhc, @zittrain, @edpolicyhabash, @ralphehanson, @trace_urdan, @dynarski and Talking Biz News

Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

Comcast makes £22B bid for British broadcaster Sky, at £12.50 a share, sparking a bidding war with 21st Century Fox and Disney — The US cable behemoth Comcast has declared a bidding war with 21st Century Fox and Disney for control of Sky by making a formal bid for Britain's dominant pay-TV operator.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and Business Insider

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Memo: staff in The Wall Street Journal's editing operation have been asked to reapply for their jobs following reorganization — Jason Anders, chief news editor at The Wall Street Journal, and Steve Wisnefski, editor of professional news, sent out the following message to the staff on Tuesday:

Discussion: @michellemanafy, @dabeard and @moorehn

Jon Lafayette / Multichannel News:

Conviva report: viewing of OTT video grew by 114% YoY in Q1, with total viewing hours reaching nearly 5B across mobile, connected TV, and desktop — Total viewing hours reach nearly 5 billion — Viewing hours of over-the-top, internet-delivered video grew by 114% in the first quarter from a year ago …

Discussion: MediaPost, TechCrunch and FierceCable

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast Q1 earnings: $22.8B in revenue, boosted by a 21.3% increase in revenue at NBCUniversal, but lost 93K cable customers while gaining 351K broadband subs — Comcast beat Wall Street expectations for the first quarter, as NBCUniversal revenue jumped 21.3% year over year thanks to a big boost …

Discussion: MediaPost, Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable