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6:30 PM ET, April 17, 2019

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 Top News: 
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp debuts an original podcast, Going Through It, a series of 14 interviews with notable women, including Hillary Clinton, Ellen Pao, and Soledad O'Brien  —  Going Through It is a Mailchimp original podcast, hosted by Ann Friedman.  Listen as remarkable women share pivotal moments …
Discussion: Nieman Lab
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Interviews with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and employees shed light on her stewardship and what has been a difficult year so far, with a myriad of scandals  —  Even by the nightmarish standards of the empire she oversees, Susan Wojcicki, the chief executive officer of YouTube, has had a dreadful start to 2019.
David Ng / Los Angeles Times:
WGA says it is suing the four main talent agencies in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming the widespread use of packaging fees violates state and federal laws  —  The Writers Guild of America said it is suing the four main talent agencies over a practice the union says is harmful to the interests of its members.
Ben Collins / NBC News:
Both Twitter and YouTube struggled again to contain the spread of conspiracy theories and Islamophobic content amid a news event, as Notre Dame burned  —  Images and videos of the flaming cathedral spread quickly across social media and were quickly seized upon to push Islamophobic narratives that have flourished in far-right politics.
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
In covering the Mueller report, which is being released Thursday, journalists must learn from the mistakes of last month and resist urges to simplify the story  —  It's certainly possible that the news media will do a nuanced, accurate job Thursday of helping citizens understand the redacted version of the Mueller report.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Sony Pictures Television has signed a first-look deal with writing platform Wattpad, plans to work with the company to identify and develop popular stories  —  Sony Pictures Television will comb through Wattpad's 500 million stories for the next potential breakout entertainment property.
Discussion: MediaPost, TechCrunch and The Wrap
Edmund Lee / New York Times:
Hulu remains Netflix's strongest competitor, despite stiff competition, as sources say its $6/month streaming service makes $15+/subscriber/month due to ads  —  With 148 million subscribers and a value of $157 billion, Netflix is the leader in streaming.  But Hulu, now controlled by Disney, has something Netflix doesn't: ads.
Jonathan O'Connell / Washington Post:
Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund trying to take over Gannett, is facing a federal probe after moving employee pension savings into its own accounts  —  Alden Global Capital, a prominent hedge fund that controls more than 100 local newspapers, moved nearly $250 million of employee pension savings …
Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: filming for DC Universe's Swamp Thing is cut to 10 episodes from the original 13 as parent company WarnerMedia plans its own, larger streaming platform  —  Three episodes of the drama, set to premiere May 31 on the streaming platform.  —  Swamp Thing is going to spend a bit less time in the swamp.
Kristen Chick / Columbia Journalism Review:
World Press Photo disinvites Andrew Quilty from its awards ceremony after claims of inappropriate behavior; Quilty says no allegations were made known to him  —  The World Press Photo Foundation disinvited an award-winning photographer from its annual awards ceremony Thursday following allegations of …
Discussion: @kristenchick
Jon Levine / The Wrap:
Paul Pope, son of National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr., says he has dropped plans to buy back the magazine as it is not salvageable  —  Paul Pope, son of National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr., says he will drop plans to purchase the tabloid from its current owner, American Media Inc. …
Discussion: New York Post and @levinejonathan
Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:
Universal Music Group says it is working with podcast production company Wondery on audio stories that could later be developed into films or TV shows  —  Universal Music Group says it is working with podcast production firm Wondery on audio stories that could later be developed into films or TV shows.
Discussion: RAIN News
James Stavridis / TIME:
The Pentagon has not held a press briefing in over 300 days, a move which will sow mistrust in the local and international community, says ex-Nato commander  —  For about six months now, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has used her briefing room so little that officials might …
Jacob Granger / Journalism.co.uk:
Velocidad, a new startup accelerator aimed at digital media companies, has launched in Latin America with $1.5M from an Omidyar-backed philanthropy group  —  New accelerator Velocidad will support 10 innovative projects to build resilient business models with $1.5m USD in grants
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Netflix says it looks to add only ~300K US subscribers in the next quarter, down from 850K a year ago, reflecting its struggle to grow domestically  —  The streaming company added 9.6 million subscribers last quarter — and it says it isn't worried about Apple or Disney.
RELATED:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q1 revenue surpassed $4.52B, up 22% YoY, vs $4.50B est.; net subscriptions grew 9.6M, up 16% YoY, with 1.74M in the US and 7.86M internationally
 
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 More News: 
BuzzFeed News:
Investigation finds six Android apps from DU Group, a major Chinese developer, that have been committing large-scale ad fraud and abusing user permissions
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook adds fact-checking partners: CheckYourFact.com, a for-profit unit of The Daily Caller, and Sciencefeedback.co, a not-for-profit focused on science
Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:
Instead of attending this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner, Trump is going to a rally for his supporters in Wisconsin
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
NBCUniversal signs long-term ad deal with the LA 2028 Olympics organizing group and commits to helping them meet their goal of raising $2.5B in sponsorship
Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Adweek
Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Q&A with HBO's Bob Greenblatt and Casey Bloys on genre expansion, HBO's development approach, and how its programming fits into the Warner streaming platform
Discussion: Observer
 Earlier Picks: 
Pankaj Mishra / FactorDaily:
FactorDaily, a three-year-old longform tech journalism site in India, will end its text stories next week to focus on podcasts
Lydia Polgreen / HuffPost:
HuffPost is launching a membership program, HuffPost Plus, with tiers from free to premium, offering access to members-only newsletters and other features
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: James Murdoch wants to use some of his proceeds from the sale of 21st Century Fox to invest in comic book publisher Artists, Writers and Artisans
Wired:
Interviews with 65 current and former employees on the meltdown inside Facebook over the last 15 months as the Cambridge Analytica scandal unfolded
 

 
From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh

 
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