Top News:


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
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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


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:
Vanity Fair, The A.V. Club and Hollywood Reporter


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.


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 »


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:
Gizmodo, CNN, TechCrunch, @kyurieff, @kevinroose, @astepanovich and Engadget, more at Techmeme »


In earnings call, Bob Iger confirms that Disney has had talks with Comcast about buying the latter's 30% stake in Hulu — The executive says that Comcast-owned NBCUniversal would likely still continue to license programming to Hulu. — Disney has held talks with Comcast about buying …

NYT Q1: net income up 37.6% YoY to $30.1M on revenue of $439M with 223K new digital-only subscriptions, for a total of 4.5M subscribers — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)— The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) announced today first-quarter 2019 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations …
Discussion:
MediaPost, @cnnbusiness, Associated Press, Reuters, @cnnbusiness, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Editor & Publisher and Nieman Lab


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.


Experts say apps like Nextdoor and Ring's Neighbors give people a false sense that the US crime rate is worsening even as violent crime reaches record lows — Why people are socializing more about crime even as it becomes rarer. — Violent crime in the US is at its lowest rate in decades.
Discussion:
@louise_seamster, @tvcolincampbell, @jayohday, Techdirt, @edasante77, @melissakxly4, @mattzollerseitz, @ranimolla, Strange Attractor, New York Post and @dangillmor


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


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


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, Variety, @ryanlcooper, @moisesnaim, @lgbtqfc, @felixsalmon, @cramersshirt, @jasonabbruzzese, @thrmattbelloni, @natjarv, @pkafka, Yahoo and Business Insider
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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, Variety, BGR, @mattrosoff, @eriqgardner, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Broadcasting & Cable, FierceVideo and The Verge