Top News:
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, @lgbtqfc, @moisesnaim, @felixsalmon, @cramersshirt, @jasonabbruzzese, @thrmattbelloni, @natjarv, @pkafka, Yahoo and Business Insider
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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 …
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, Variety, BGR, @eriqgardner, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Broadcasting & Cable, FierceVideo and The Verge
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
The White House has set a difficult-to-meet standard for media “hard pass” credentials but granted exceptions; it refused an exception for WaPo's Dana Milbank — For the past 21 years, I have had the high privilege of holding a White House press pass, a magical ticket that gives the bearer a front-row seat to history.
Discussion:
@milbank, Washington Post, @kaivanshroff, @senatorleahy, @senjeffmerkley, Talking Points Memo, @walshfreedom, @djlavoie, @davidcorndc, @connieschultz, @dabeard, @patrickesque, @capehartj, @joycewhitevance, @pgourevitch, @glennkesslerwp, @mollyjongfast, @thegarance, @olganyc1211, @reaganbattalion, @evan_rosenfeld, @oliverdarcy, @brianstelter, @davidfolkenflik, Splinter, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Caller and Mediaite
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
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, @cnnbusiness, Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Editor & Publisher and Nieman Lab
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:
Ad Age, CNBC, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Benzinga, Engadget, @sherman4949, Vox, @storybots and @wired, more at Techmeme »
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.
Rani Molla / Vox:
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:
Techdirt, @louise_seamster, @tvcolincampbell, @mattzollerseitz, @melissakxly4, @jayohday, @edasante77, @ranimolla, New York Post and @dangillmor
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 …
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:
TechCrunch, @kevinroose, @astepanovich, @kyurieff and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
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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.
Jaren Kerr / CANADALAND:
Canada's Globe and Mail seeks to cut labor costs by $10M via voluntary buyouts, with layoffs if there aren't enough voluntary departures, says union chairperson — The paper will turn to layoffs if they can't hit their target — Globe and Mail staffers received some unfortunate news …
Discussion:
@sdbcraig, @davidmilstead and @jessebrown
Media Matters for America:
Media Matters study: only three of 26 prime-time news shows aired on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox on May 6 covered the UN's biodiversity assessment — BLOG ››› May 8, 2019 6:27 AM EDT ››› TED MACDONALD
Discussion:
@rgatess, @markhertsgaard and @bernstein
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