Top News:
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, The Spun and The Big Lead
Wall Street Journal:
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:
@melisoncheddar and @arashmassoudi, more at Techmeme »
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:
Adweek, MediaPost, Awful Announcing, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Tubefilter and Deadline, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
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
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, Newser, Breitbart, iMediaEthics, New York Post, New York Times and The Daily Caller
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
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
Facebook to give 60+ academics around the world access to its data for projects on news polarization, disinformation, and more — Facebook knows it screwed up, is trying to do better, and is spending some of this year actually listening to critiques and suggestions (supposedly).
Discussion:
Financial Times, @nanjala1, items.ssrc.org, Facebook, Engadget, The Week, @niemanlab, @mshannahmurphy, @kadhimshubber, @ssrc_org, SOCIAL SCIENCE ONE, The Verge, The Hill, CNET, Poynter, Adweek and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »
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
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
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
David Uberti / VICE News:
Fox News dominates Facebook with 80% more engagement than CNN through a mix of traditional news and viral content, despite having 17M followers vs CNN's 31M — By the time Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference landed, the battle to spin it had already begun, with politicians …
Discussion:
@jason_koebler, @viacristiano, @caseynewton and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check