Top News:
Conan O'Brien / Variety:
Conan O'Brien, accused of stealing jokes from Robert Kaseberg's Twitter account and blog, says he stands by his writers but settled to avoid an expensive trial — “Conan” host Conan O'Brien was sued in July 2015 by Robert Alexander Kaseberg, who accused O'Brien and others on the TBS show …
Discussion:
TVWeek.com, @ericzuck, @nixxin, The A.V. Club, @petersagal, @lindaholmes, Vanity Fair, Press Herald, Hollywood Reporter and @anylaurie16
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Fox Corporation COO says the company has no plans to launch direct-to-consumer services beyond FoxNation; Lachlan Murdoch says Fox won't reunite with News Corp — The company, slimmed down following the Murdochs' sale of large parts of 21st Century Fox to Disney, holds an investor day to share …
Discussion:
Variety, Broadcasting & Cable and Forbes
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Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Fox to invest $236M in Canadian gambling company The Stars Group for ~5% equity, marking the first time a big media company puts its name behind sports betting — - Fox is investing $236 million in The Stars Group, part of a partnership to launch Fox Bet, a new online sports betting service.
Discussion:
The Drum, @pkafka, The Big Lead and Engadget
Rachel Weiner / Washington Post:
Former government analyst Daniel Hale is charged with leaking info on drone warfare, apparently to The Intercept, the third Intercept source charged under Trump — A former government intelligence analyst has been charged in Alexandria federal court with leaking classified information on drone warfare to a reporter.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Daily Beast, @kenklippenstein, @ggreenwald, @erratarob, @erratarob, @erratarob, @erratarob, @erratarob, @erratarob, Vanity Fair, @empiricalerror, @nicoleperlroth, @ggreenwald, @jesselynradack, @kenklippenstein, Washington Examiner, @stevenlhall1, @alexadobrien, @alexadobrien, CNN, @trevortimm, @curaffairs, Fox News, Mediaite and Associated Press
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix acquires children's media brand StoryBots, its third-ever acquisition, from the founders of JibJab Media for an undisclosed sum — Netflix announced that it has acquired StoryBots, the children's media brand created by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the founders of JibJab Media.
Discussion:
CNBC, Bloomberg, Ad Age, Engadget, @storybots, @sherman4949, @wired, Vox, Benzinga and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Instagram says it will begin hiding search results for hashtags that consistently return false vaccine information, plans a pop-up to link to high-quality info — The company says it will use machine learning to identify where misinformation shows up most — Instagram will begin hiding …
Discussion:
USA Today, Gizmodo, CNN, TechCrunch, @kyurieff, @kevinroose, @astepanovich and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
The Association of Online Publishers says the average UK publisher is losing nearly £950K per year in revenue due to ad blocking — U.K. publishers continue to hemorrhage revenue to ad blocking, despite the fact that ad blocking rate growth has steadied, according to a report …
Estizer Smith / Democracy Fund:
Democracy Fund announces a new fund to support university legal clinics that focus on defending the First Amendment, media access, and transparency — Most of the coverage of struggles in local news has focused on their revenue and changing business model.
Discussion:
@ericnewton1, @estizer_smith, @estizer_smith, @estizer_smith, @estizer_smith, @estizer_smith, @jcstearns and @democracyfund
Jared Holt / Columbia Journalism Review:
A first-person account of a press conference by right-wing activist Jacob Wohl and lobbyist Jack Burkman and why mainstream reporters say they cover such events — On Wednesday, a dozen reporters stood on a brick driveway in Arlington, Virginia. They were awaiting the arrival …
Discussion:
@jaredlholt
Greg Dool / Folio:
Penske Media confirms that Rolling Stone and Andrew Budkofsky, publisher and chief revenue officer, “have agreed on a mutual separation” — A rep for Penske Media calls it “a mutual separation.” — Publisher and chief revenue officer Andrew Budkofsky is out at Rolling Stone …
Discussion:
Digital Music News and @sterlewine
Anna Merlan / Splinter:
Chuck Johnson's GotNews, which went offline in September 2018, has filed a petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing total liabilities between $500,000 and $1M — The far-right news site GotNews filed a petition for federal Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 24, court records show.
Discussion:
@yancyfaith, @annamerlan, @hunterw, Mediaite and The Daily Beast
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Fact-checking startup Factmata gets investment from Eyeo, creator of Adblock Plus, will take over Trusted News, Eyeo's Chrome plugin that identifies false news — “Fake news” — news content that either misleads people with half-truths, or outright lies — has become a permanent fixture of the internet.
Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:
Disney discloses a $353M writedown on its ownership stake in Vice Media, following its $157M writedown in November — The entertainment giant previously recorded a $157 million impairment charge on its Vice stake. — Disney has taken another write-down on its investment in Vice Media.
Discussion:
Vox, Bloomberg, @matthewkeyslive, @matthewkeyslive, @ryanlcooper, @moisesnaim, Variety, @lgbtqfc, @felixsalmon, @cramersshirt, @jasonabbruzzese, @thrmattbelloni, @natjarv, @pkafka, Yahoo and Business Insider
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Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Disney beats Q2 estimates with $14.92B revenue, up 3% YoY, vs. $14.36B est.; revenue from media networks was $5.53B, down from $5.92B the previous quarter
Discussion:
The Walt Disney Company, BGR, @mattrosoff, Variety, @eriqgardner, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Broadcasting & Cable, FierceVideo and The Verge
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