Mediagazer: Democracy Fund announces a new fund to support university legal clinics that focus on defending the First Amendment, media access, and transparency (Estizer Smith/Democracy Fund)

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

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

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Fox Corporation beats expectations with profit of $529M, up 16% YoY, on revenue of $2.75B, up 12% YoY, with Fox News and Fox Sports delivering $741M of earnings

Discussion: The Wrap, The Wrap, MediaPost and Broadcasting & Cable

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: Vanity Fair, @nixxin, The A.V. Club, Press Herald and Hollywood Reporter

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, Vanity Fair, @kenklippenstein, @jesselynradack, @empiricalerror, @nicoleperlroth, @kenklippenstein, Washington Examiner, @stevenlhall1, @alexadobrien, Associated Press, @alexadobrien, CNN, @trevortimm, @curaffairs, Fox News and Mediaite

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 »

Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:

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 …

Business Wire:

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

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.

Discussion: @factmata and @timschu

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 and @estizer_smith

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

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, Variety, @ryanlcooper, @moisesnaim, @lgbtqfc, @felixsalmon, @cramersshirt, @jasonabbruzzese, @thrmattbelloni, @natjarv, @pkafka, Yahoo and Business Insider

Discussion: The Walt Disney Company, BGR, @mattrosoff, Variety, @eriqgardner, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Broadcasting & Cable, FierceVideo and The Verge