Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple Music has been growing at a monthly rate of 2.6% to 3%, had 28M users in US in February, compared to Spotify's 26M users and growth of 1.5% to 2% — Apple's music-streaming service has surpassed Spotify's in paid U.S. subscriptions yet lags its Swedish competitor globally.
Discussion:
CNBC, MediaPost, RAIN News, USA Today, @tomwarren, @ow, 9to5Mac, @pkedrosky, @carlquintanilla, MacRumors, Ars Technica and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
An example of the usability issues trying to find stories on Apple News+: a search for The Highlight by Vox — Eleven days ago, Apple unveiled its premium news subscription service, Apple News Plus. And as I wrote at the time, it was kind of disappointing.
Paul Karp / The Guardian:
Australia passes law penalizing content service providers and hosting services for failing to quickly remove abhorrent violent content, despite tech opposition — Labor supports legislation in response to Christchurch shooting that threatens jail for executives, despite media companies' concerns
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Wrap, @donie, New York Times, @vickerysec, ZDNet, TechCrunch, @baekdal, iTnews, ZDNet, ARN, Boing Boing, aph.gov.au, Engadget, 9to5Google and NPR
RELATED:
Harry A. Jessell / TVNewsCheck:
Borrell report: Facebook, Google made up 70% of the $60B in local digital ad spending in 2018; TV comprised 9% of local ad spend, beating newspapers, a first — The social media giant and search engine now account for 70% of the $60 billion spent on digital advertising in 2018, says a new Borrell report, with Facebook leading the way.
Julia Ziemer / Polis:
Google News Initiative and LSE's journalism think tank are collaborating on Journalism AI, a project to survey media usage of AI and foster AI literacy — Introducing Journalism AI, a collaboration between LSE's Polis and the Google News Initiative to foster literacy in newsrooms globally about artificial intelligence.
CNN:
Netflix's DVD service, with its 2.7M US subscribers, appeals not only to those with poor broadband but also to many in urban areas seeking an extensive catalog — (CNN)Remember when Netflix used to be a DVD-by-mail company? Well, for 2.7 million subscribers in the US, it still is.
Discussion:
FYIMusicNews
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Africa-focused music streaming service Boomplay raises $20M, bringing the total raised to $25.5M, says it has 42M MAUs and is adding ~2M users/mo — While Spotify dukes it out with Apple and other big tech names to target high-end users in mostly developed markets, a startup out of China …
Patrick Wintour / The Guardian:
Amal Clooney appointed UK Foreign Office special envoy on media freedom and chair of a panel of legal experts that will propose policies to protect media — Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt hires human rights lawyer for journalist safety campaign — Amal Clooney, the international human rights lawyer …
Discussion:
Press Gazette, BBC and @foreignoffice
David Jackson / USA Today:
Trump says he will again skip the White House Correspondents Dinner, which has dropped a comedian as the main speaker, inviting historian Ron Chernow instead — At the 2018 White House Correspondents' dinner, comedian Michelle Wolf delivered a number of racy jokes. Her main target seemed to be Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
Rob Williams / MediaPost:
Vogue returns to Greece after shutting down in 2012 due to the economic crisis; its 29-year-old EIC Thaleia Karafyllidou is the youngest of any Vogue title — This week, Vogue returned to Greece after a seven-year absence as the Mediterranean country's economy enters its third year of growth after bottoming in 2016.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Google pilots a row of ads on the Android TV home screen of Sony smart TVs, NVIDIA Shield TV, others; users say they cannot disable the ads — The Sponsored Channel pictured here is blank, but it will be an entire row of the UI. [credit: AtHeartEngineer ]
Discussion:
CordCutters, Business Insider, @mistydemeo, @marypcbuk, The Verge, @blowdart, 9to5Google, Android Police and XDA Developers, more at Techmeme »
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos announce a divorce settlement that will leave him with 75% of their Amazon stock and their full stake in The Washington Post — In a tweet Thursday, MacKenzie Bezos said that her divorce from Jeff Bezos was finalized and that she would give her ex-husband voting control of her Amazon shares.
Discussion:
@mackenziebezos, Washingtonian, Vox, TechCrunch, @ianbremmer, @jackshafer, @sdkstl, @yashar, @ebboyd, @pkcapitol, @eriqgardner, @edmundlee, @edmundlee and CNN, more at Techmeme »
Editor - The Upshot, NY — 
Economic Policy Reporter, DC — 
Senior Director - Editorial, NY — 
Accountability Reporter, ME — 
Senior Editor, FL — 
Senior Writer - Politics, NY — 
Senior Sydney Correspondent — 
Investigative Reporter, OR — 
Decision Desk Specialist - Elections, PA — 
Publishing Editor, NY — 
Watchdog Reporter, CA — 
News Editor, IN — 
Senior Writer - Politics, TN — 
Editor - CFO Brew, NY — 
Breaking News Reporter, CA — 
Audience Strategist, CO — 
Senior Editor, Remote US — 
Reporter, NY — 
IT Industry Reporter, MA — 
Jackson Reporter, MS — 
Curation Editor, NY — 
Managing Editor, OR — 
Deputy Editor-in-Chief, NY — 
Arts & Culture Reporter, WI — 
Breaking News Reporter, Remote — 
Assitant Business Ed., TX — 
Asset-Based Finance Reporter, NY — 
Ellsworth/Acadia Reporter, ME — 
Live Blogger, London — 
Criminal Justice Reporter, LA — 
Editorial & Opinion Page Editor, NV — 
Senior Editor, NY — 
Principal Writer - Investigative & Trust — 
Culture & Travel Reporter, NY — 
