Mediagazer: After suing Twitter, Rep. Devin Nunes is suing McClatchy and others for alleged defamation, referring to a McClatchy-owned Fresno Bee article, seeks $150M (Josh Feldman/Mediaite)

2:35 PM ET, April 9, 2019

Top News:

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

After suing Twitter, Rep. Devin Nunes is suing McClatchy and others for alleged defamation, referring to a McClatchy-owned Fresno Bee article, seeks $150M — Congressman Devin Nunes is filing another lawsuit. — Following the lawsuit he filed last month against Twitter, Liz Mair …

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Magna Global: OTT-based advertising reached $2.7B in revenue in 2018, up 54% YoY, and is expected to grow 39% in 2019 to $3.8B and 31% in 2020 to $5B — Disney, WarnerMedia and other media giants are going “direct to consumer” with new subscription streaming services.

Discussion: FierceVideo

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Roku rolls out an update that makes it less of a neutral platform, as it now more prominently features and automatically plays back The Roku Channel's content

Discussion: Fast Company and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Subscription-based sports site The Athletic is launching 20 ad-free podcasts across its app and website on Tuesday, produced by 12 new hires — The Athletic, a subscription-based digital sports media company, is launching a multi-million dollar podcasting business.

Mike Fleming / Deadline:

Sources: Netflix is in talks to buy the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, which would be its first brick and mortar theater acquisition — EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is in preliminary talks with American Cinematheque to buy the venerable Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Discussion: /Film, Bloomberg, @uhnet, @theflitecast, The Playlist, @r2b2walton, @functionalnerd and @thathagengrrl

Louise Story / Nieman Lab:

The Wall Street Journal has redesigned its comments section, renaming it “Conversations”, in an attempt to engage readers who do not comment often — Our readers this week will see a lot of changes built around the goal of elevating the quality of community discourse on WSJ.com.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @toddjolmstead, @janebsinger, @niemanlab, @gvipers, @ismaelnafria and @laurahazardowen

Kelly McCarthy / ABC News:

ABC News producer Alexa Valiente passed away over the weekend at the age of 27 — She will be remembered for her bright personality and infectious love of life. — Alexa Valiente, a producer for ABC News for six years, passed away over the weekend. — Valiente, who had been facing health issues …

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Politico, The Wrap, @jazdidwhat, @betsy_klein, @abbydphillip, @springer, @alyssanewcomb, @abcworldnews, @kfaulders, @nia_official, @myhlee, @iamamnanawaz, @mattgutmanabc, Fox News and gofundme.com

William D. Cohan / Vanity Fair:

Sources: CBS is struggling to recruit a CEO, as potential candidates are wary of the Redstones and the company's culture; Richard Plepler turned down the job — Plepler is a no. Katzenberg is a no. Ianniello wants to stay—but he's a Moonves guy. Will an A-lister come to clean up Redstone's mess?

Discussion: @gerryfsmith and @media_evan

Wendy Davis / MediaPost:

Major ad industry associations, including ANA and IAB, are launching Privacy for America, a new lobby group that will advocate for a federal data privacy law — A group of major ad industry associations is launching a new organization, Privacy for America, that aims to shape federal privacy laws.

Discussion: AList

Ted Johnson / Variety:

YouTube has disabled comments on a livestream of the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on hate crimes because it was generating too much hate speech — WASHINGTON — YouTube has disabled the commenting function on a livestream of a House Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes …

Discussion: Mediaite, NBC News, Splinter, @oneunderscore__ and The Daily Beast

Sarah Whitten / CNBC:

At CinemaCon in Las Vegas last week, movie distributors and theatre owners alike said streaming services like Netflix were not impacting theatre ticket sales — - At CinemaCon in Las Vegas last week, movie distributors and theater owners alike say there is little to fear from a growing population of streaming services.

Discussion: @ckrewson and @cnbc

Aliya Iftikhar / Columbia Journalism Review:

Rising Kashmir editor Syed Shujaat Bukhari's murder remains unsolved after 10 months, perpetuating a climate of fear and censorship among Kashmiri journalists — Ahead of India's national elections, the mystery of Shujaat Bukhari creates a climate of fear and censorship

Discussion: @cjr, @pressfreedom, @jameelyusuf, @aliyazeba, @pressfreedom, @pressfreedom, @pressfreedom, @pressfreedom, @pressfreedom, @gijn, @jclassrooms and @stphnfwlr

Roy J. Harris Jr / Poynter:

A look at the reporting projects that could win the 2019 Pulitzers being announced next week, based on this season's award winners so far — As the Pulitzer Prize Board prepares to select its slate of 2019 winners to announce next week, likely little time will be spent reacting to presidential tweets …

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Press Association says eight regional news companies have signed up to its robot-powered news service, Radar, which has filed 100K stories since June 2018 — Eight regional news providers have signed up as the first paying subscribers to the Press Association's “robot-generated” news service.

Discussion: @puzzlesthewill

James Ball / MIT Technology Review:

Some fear the sweeping nature of UK's proposal to combine work done by 8+ regulators into a new “super-regulator” with the power to block online platforms, more — Technology giants will be forced to have a “duty of care” for their users, if a proposal announced by the government on Monday becomes law.

Discussion: @techreview and @niallfirth, more at Techmeme »

BBC:
UK whitepaper proposes “code of best practice” for how internet platforms should deal with harmful content, suggests expanding liability to tech company execs

Discussion: Techdirt, GOV.UK, @margot_james_mp, @kazweida, @jmechner, @mathver, @tomlinsoncj, @notjessewalker, @mungowitz, @tonyromm, @parmy, @digiphile, @jason_kint, @javedkhanceo, Hit & Run, @vranicawsj, @auerfeld, @paul_shetler, Breitbart, Forbes, @jason_kint, The Guardian, @cjsnowdon, Gizmodo and The Next Web

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