Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Facebook offered millions to ABC News, Dow Jones, Washington Post, and Bloomberg to license their content for a Facebook news section to debut in 2019 — Company approached ABC News, Dow Jones, Washington Post and Bloomberg as it plans to launch news section
Discussion:
@caseynewton, New York Times, Press Gazette, CNBC, Ad Age, Nieman Lab, Mashable, What's New in Publishing, @nicnewman, @benmullin, @pat_garofalo, @benmullin, @benmullin, @perlberg, @rafat, @dskok, @bradesposito, @mathewi, @mattyglesias, Engadget, @rdmurphy, @waltmossberg, @jbillinson, @rachelcharlenel, @jeffyoung, @rasmus_kleis, @jayrosen_nyu, Digital Trends, @caseynewton, @mikeisaac, @ow, @samsanders, @bendreyfuss, @niemanlab, @juddlegum, @futterish, @mikeisaac, The Next Web, Reclaim The Net, Deadline, Associated Press, The Verge, Ars Technica, Boing Boing, The Hill and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »
New York Post:
New Media Investment Group's shares fell ~33% between Monday and Wednesday, after the cash and stock acquisition of Gannett was announced, endangering the deal — A $1.4 billion deal to buy USA Today owner Gannett Co. has been so poorly received since it was announced on Monday that executives …
Discussion:
@mattdpearce, @mattdpearce, @breakinbriks44, @abbeycrain, @mattdpearce, @lmower3, @conarck, @dekotagregory, @gtoppo, @senyorreporter, @mattkatz00, @cmonstah, @apantazi, @mbayer1248, @ehernandez, Awful Announcing, @sindap, @chrisvannini, @davidfolkenflik, Milwaukee Business Journal and Bloomberg
Michael Malone / Broadcasting & Cable:
CBS says it is accelerating its rollout of streaming news service CBSN Local to remaining 11 markets by early 2020, ahead of political primaries and elections — Accelerated rollout means local streaming news products in place before primaries — CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, investors.lionsgate.com, The Wrap, Variety, The Streamable and The Streamable
RELATED:
Trevor Timm / The Intercept:
A Brazil Supreme Court minister bars the Bolsonaro administration from investigating The Intercept Brasil and Glenn Greenwald for their reporting — In a crucial victory for press freedom in Brazil, Minister Gilmar Mendes, a member of Brazil's Supreme Court, has barred the Bolsonaro administration …
Discussion:
@trevortimm and @freedomofpress
Sam Levin / The Guardian:
Court docs show Monsanto ran a “fusion center” that monitored a Reuters journalist and encouraged negative reviews of her 2017 book on its Roundup weedkiller — Internal documents show how the company worked to discredit critics and investigated singer Neil Young
Discussion:
@dabeard, @foe_us, @kimseverson, @careygillam, @careygillam, @colinlecher, @gmwatch, @peterhimler, @dangillmor, @janeferguson5, @davidlwindt and Boing Boing
Rachael Burford / London Evening Standard:
An administrator at The Guardian, who was in charge of paying freelance journalists, has been jailed for 20 months for stealing £138K+ from the newspaper — An administrator at The Guardian who stole more than £138,000 from the newspaper to bankroll his wedding has been jailed for 20 months.
Discussion:
@markdistef, @adambanksdotcom, @whatthebit, @markdistef and @imaniamrani
Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:
News UK says The Times and The Sunday Times now have combined paid digital-only subscribers of 304K, up 19% YoY, for a total of 539K paid subscribers — The Times and Sunday Times now have more than 300,000 paid digital-only subscribers between them. — The titles, which both publish …
Discussion:
The Drum
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Google will start surfacing individual podcast episodes in search results and will soon let users ask Google Assistant to play podcasts about specific topics — Search for what you want to hear — Google is taking the next step in making podcasts easier to find.
Discussion:
Fast Company, The Keyword, TechCrunch, @zkahn, @dzohrob, @mrpaulbae and @ashleyrcarman, more at Techmeme »
Abigail Summerville / Wall Street Journal:
Strategy Analytics: Roku, through partnership with TCL and others, crossed Samsung to become the top-selling smart-TV platform in the US with a 33% market share — The Los Gatos, Calif., firm has carved out a lucrative niche in the world of streaming video despite competing against tech giants
Discussion:
Fast Company, more at Techmeme »
Dave McNary / Variety:
Lionsgate reports Q1 revenue of $963.6M and operating income of $67.3M, beating estimates, amid growth in Starz subscribers to 26.5M, up 2.6M YoY — Lionsgate has posted revenues and operating income above Wall Street projections for its first fiscal quarter of 2019, amid growth …
Discussion:
The Wrap
Michael Malone / Broadcasting & Cable:
CBS All Access will add children's programming, including more than 1,000 episodes from its library and new original series, will begin rollout this year — Original series include ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ and new ‘Danger Mouse’ — CBS All Access is bringing children's programming …
Discussion:
The Streamable and The Streamable
Shira Feder / The Daily Beast:
NYT is examining deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman's “poor judgment on social media and in responding to criticism”, after his responses to Roxane Gay — The New York Times is “closely examining” the social-media habits of its deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman …