Mediagazer: Belgian media company Mediahuis has agreed to buy Independent News and Media, Ireland's largest newspaper group, for ~€146M (Eoin Burke-Kennedy/The Irish Times)

Cable operator Altice USA agrees to acquire streaming-video network Cheddar for $200M; Cheddar founder Jon Steinberg to become president of the Altice News unit — Cheddar founder and CEO Jon Steinberg is set to become president of Altice News, overseeing Cheddar, News 12 and i24News

Discussion: @lilliannnn, Business Insider, The Wrap, Talking Biz News, Benzinga, @adamsinger, @lisahopeking, @rafat, @melisoncheddar, @arashmassoudi and @richbtig, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

ESPN announces plans to shut down ESPN The Magazine in September after 21 years; the company is considering publishing standalone print issues — ESPN, the sports-media giant with an influence that extends across several types of media, is getting out of one particular venue: print.

Discussion: Sports Business Daily, Adweek, Awful Announcing, @tommytomlinson, @tommytomlinson, The Spun and The Big Lead

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Twitter announces live streaming content deals with Univision, WSJ, and Time and new initiatives with previous partners including Viacom, the NFL, and ESPN — - Twitter Expands Live-Streaming Video Lineup, Sets Content Deals With Viacom, ESPN, Live Nation, Univision, and More

Discussion: MediaPost, Multichannel News, Adweek, Awful Announcing, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Tubefilter and Deadline, more at Techmeme »

Discussion: The Wrap, Multichannel News, TechCrunch, Variety, The Verge and Engadget

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed:

On paid email newsletter platforms, small audiences are translating to dollars for writers, such as on Substack, where the 12 top earners make $160K+ on average — As writers gravitate toward paid email newsletters, small audiences translate to meaningful dollars.

Discussion: American Press Institute, @tonyajoriley, @rachelysanders and @elizabethminkel, more at Techmeme »

Sara Guaglione / MediaPost:

At NewFronts, The New York Times says The Daily podcast has reached 2M listeners per day, talks ad targets, smart speakers, and its upcoming food festival — The New York Times announced new ad target offerings and events, as well as an emphasis on its TV-film commitment at its NewFront this morning.

Discussion: WWD

@the_corres:

The Correspondent apologizes for creating the impression its expansion would be US focused, says it will share plans for the $2.6M it raised in coming weeks — We screwed up: pic.twitter.com/4x5ctdFmTQ

Discussion: @natesilver538, @jayrosen_nyu and @aodespair

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

New York Times ends relationship with CartoonArts, the cartoon syndication service that supplied the anti-Semitic cartoon — A ‘Times’ spokesperson told The Daily Beast exclusively about the paper's decision to stop using syndicated cartoons, including those from the syndicator of the offensive cartoon.

Discussion: Poynter, Religion News Service, Newser, Breitbart, New York Post, iMediaEthics and New York Times

Alex Weprin / MediaPost:

Former Roku executives launch Tetra TV, an advertising network that aims to connect buyers to ad inventory from 100+ streaming video channels across platforms — A pair of veterans of the OTT platform Roku are launching a new advertising network, focusing on connected TV.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and PR Newswire

Ed O'Keefe / Shorenstein Center:

Legacy media and native streamers should focus on live news because now, as before, it will help attract and retain subscribers though it can be controversial — Searching for a way for streaming to save the news (and for the the news to save streaming) — Additional Research & Interviews: Andrew J. Zucker

Discussion: @aobaoill

Roger Parloff / Yahoo Finance:

Profile of Chris Cox, who, despite being chief product officer for years, never drew the attention for Facebook's scandals that Zuckerberg and Sandberg did — In late 2003, during his senior year at Stanford, Chris Cox, the future Chief Product Officer at Facebook (

Discussion: @alexeheath, @hkanji, @mathewi, @hardcorevalue, @yahoofinance, @zooko, @mikeisaac, Business Insider and Beyond Search

Amanda Meade / The Guardian:

Nine Entertainment sells its Australian Community Media & Printing business, which includes 160+ former Fairfax regional papers, to ex-Fairfax exec for AU$115M — Former Domain boss Antony Catalano and Thorney Investment Group reach deal for Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald and others to change hands

Discussion: @jbenton, @lukehgomes, @grogsgamut, The West Australian, Australian Financial Review, ABC and Reuters

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Viacom to launch 14 free, ad-supported channels on Pluto TV on May 1 with content from BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV — - Twitter Expands Live-Streaming Video Lineup, Sets Content Deals With Viacom, ESPN, Live Nation, Univision, and More — For Viacom, the future of television has an increasingly online sheen.

Discussion: Beet.TV, Deadline, NickALive!, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Adweek, The Wrap and Broadcasting & Cable