Mediagazer: A dozen of the world's richest soccer clubs announce a breakaway European Super League, potentially siphoning off Champions League's billions in TV revenues (Tariq Panja/New York Times)

3:50 PM ET, April 19, 2021

Top News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Zuckerberg says Facebook is planning a short-form audio product called Soundbites, a podcast discovery tool, and more audio products for the next 3 to 6 months — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday said Facebook was launching a suite of new tools and features designed to help users better connect …

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:

Zuckerberg says Facebook is working with Spotify on a music integration project codenamed Project Boombox — - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced that the company is building audio features where users can engage in real-time conversations with others.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mediaite, TechCrunch, @fidjissimo, @petecashmore, @yeshacallahan, @matt, @bridgetobarrett, @facebook, @steverandalluk and @pkafka, more at Techmeme »

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

A majority of 300+ editorial workers at Insider, the news site formerly called Business Insider, say they formed a union with the NewsGuild of New York — Journalists at Insider, the news site formerly called Business Insider, said on Monday that they had formed a union, joining a wave that has swept digital media companies.

Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Penske Media, publisher of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, has agreed to acquire a 50% stake in the South by Southwest festival — SXSW took a big hit when it was canceled last year because of Covid-19 — Penske Media Corp., the publisher of magazines like Rolling Stone …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Hill, The Wrap, WWD, @mkarolian, @rafat, Sportico, Ad Age, @ckrewson, @bmeiselas, @raju, IndieWire, Music Business Worldwide, @ahmed, @paulaforbes, @andylanger, @heidilegg, Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and New York Post

Rachel Abrams / New York Times:

OANN fires Marty Golingan, a producer at the channel since 2016, after he said a majority of its staff don't believe the voter fraud claims being run on the air — A recent OAN segment said there were “serious doubts about who's actually president,” and another blamed “anti-Trump extremists” for the Capitol attack.

Discussion: @rachelabramsny, @rachelabramsny, The Hill, Insider, Mediaite, The Wrap, @adamgoldmannyt, @daveweigel, @cliffordlevy, @nytimesbusiness, @chick_in_kiev, Poynter, @hunterw, Vanity Fair and The Week

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:

Letter to MN's governor from a media group says troopers threw an Asian American CNN producer to the ground, asked if she spoke English, and sent her to jail — A CNN producer was reportedly arrested in a shocking, forceful manner last week as Minnesota law enforcement cracked …

Discussion: New York Times, @brianstelter, @ali_gharib, Vanity Fair, TVNewser, @rb6765g, @picardonhealth, @amysrosenberg, @brianstelter, The Hill, @nytimes, @rachelswarns, @briangaar, @jimsciutto and WCCO | CBS Minnesota

Adrianna Rodriguez / USA Today:
Journalists covering MN protests on Friday say state and local police rounded them up and photographed their faces and IDs before release, despite a court order

Tony Webster / Minnesota Reformer:
Minnesota federal judge bars Minnesota state law enforcement from using force against journalists or ordering them to disperse while covering protests

Tariq Panja / New York Times:

A dozen of the world's richest soccer clubs announce a breakaway European Super League, potentially siphoning off Champions League's billions in TV revenues — Real Madrid, Manchester United, Liverpool and Juventus are among the dozen founding members of a league that would upend the sport's structures and economics.

Alison Herman / The Ringer:

An overview of the intense competition among streaming services over live sports rights, driven by expiring licensing deals, consolidation, and more — Sports were initially limited on streaming services due to technological and financial constraints. But as league licensing deals expire …

Discussion: Politico, @ringer, @kevokeefe, CNET, New York Times and @tkgore

Ben Smith / New York Times:

Ad revenue was up dramatically in Q1 YoY for some publishers, including Bloomberg Media, Insider, Vice, Bustle Digital Group, and Axios — Subscriptions may be the rage, but businesses of all sorts are pouring money into advertising — digital most of all.

Discussion: @felixsalmon, @jakesherman, @cliffordlevy, @jayrosen_nyu, @nytimes, @joshsternberg, @rafat, @tednesi, @patrickcoffee, @kantrowitz, @digitalshields, @phyllisstein, @mgsiegler, @isaacfitzgerald and @tiffkhsu

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Source: Stewart Bainum Jr. has already begun speaking with other potential investors and hopes to submit a new offer for Tribune within a week to 10 days — Hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr.'s effort to buy Tribune Publishing suffered a major setback over the weekend when his partner pull out of the deal.

Discussion: @poynter

Robert Feder:
Tribune says it has terminated negotiations with Newslight following Wyss' withdrawal, leaving Alden as the only one bidding for Tribune

Discussion: MediaPost, New York Daily News, @davidfolkenflik and Daily Herald

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Sources: Hansjörg Wyss has withdrawn from bidding for Tribune Publishing; Stewart Bainum seeks new financing to pursue the ownership of the newspaper chain

Dan Froomkin / Washington Monthly:

Facebook's multimillion dollar payoffs to big outlets like NYT through Facebook News undermine industry-wide efforts to help smaller, local newsrooms — Under the cover of launching a little-known feature, the social media giant has been funneling money to America's biggest news organizations …

Discussion: @benyt, @peterhimler, @froomkin, @ajtweet, @froomkin, @teddydowney, @froomkin, @monthly, @pfpicardi, @justinhendrix, @agallin and @froomkin

New York Times:

Interview with CBS News' Susan Zirinsky on her time at the network, its efforts on strengthening the newsroom, and frustrations with her role as president — In an interview as she prepares to step down as news division head, Susan Zirinsky said, “I feel I have given my entire soul into rebuilding this organization.”

Discussion: @sarah_boxer, @dylanbyers, @ennisnyt, @grynbaum and The Hill

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More News:

Washington Post:
iHeartMedia partners with NFL to launch a podcast network to launch new podcasts and distribute those currently produced by the league's media division

Discussion: Variety and Business Wire

Patrick Frater / Variety:
Chinese streaming service iQIYI is planning to launch in Australia and New Zealand, targeting Chinese and Asian users with free and A$7.99/month tiers

New York Times:
Book sales during the pandemic have lost the serendipitous discovery of stores, boosting established names and existing bestsellers

Discussion: @brianstelter, @viajoshhunt, @jasonpinter, @andrewlavallee, @xanalter and @nytimes

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
HuffPost UK says it is “here to stay” with “a smaller team” after editor-in-chief Jess Brammar and others depart

Discussion: @jessbrammar, Press Gazette, @nadine_writes, @thediyora, @journoramzy, @ayocaesar, @pressgazette and @mehdirhasan

Earlier Picks:

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
FEC reports show RNC and other party-affiliated orgs spent $1M+ bulk buying books by GOP candidates in last election cycle, boosting titles on bestseller lists

Discussion: @crewcrew, @brhodes, @changinghands, @voter99percent, @susiemadrak, @johnjharwood, @mkirschenbaum, @electproject, @crewcrew, @erikhalvorsen18, @burgessct, @mystiberry, @peterbakernyt and The Wrap

Mattie Kahn / Glamour:
Profile of Dana Bash, who has had a slow rise at CNN over almost three decades, from a job logging tape at 22 to current co-host of the State of the Union show

Discussion: @kaitlancollins, @kristenhcnn, @jahnellabella, @arlettesaenz, @danabashcnn, @poppyharlowcnn, @gloriaborger, @jmpalmieri, @stefcutter, @eugene_scott, @aabramson, @dougheye and @kyunglahcnn

Dan Froomkin / Press Watch:
Washington newsrooms should have fewer political reporters, and editors should let subject-matter beat reporters take the lead on most major stories of the day

Discussion: @speechboy71, @braddeltan, @rlocker12, @jkarsh, @hbrucetriplett, @coppetainpu, @vermontgmg, @jayrosen_nyu, @froomkin and @froomkin

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Study: political campaign ad spending on CTV grew from 5% of budgets in 2018 to 20% in 2020 as TV money seems to have been shifted to better target voters

Discussion: @centro and @youngiowagop

From Techmeme:

CNBC:
The Nasdaq falls 6%+, with Apple down 7%+, Nvidia down 8%+, and Meta down 7%+, as the White House confirms that Trump's tariffs on China now total 145%

Wayne Ma / The Information:
A look at the internal chaos behind Apple's Siri failure, in part due to poor leadership, with John Giannandrea's AI/ML group dubbed “AIMLess” internally

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Meta says LLMs have historically leaned left and wants to remove that bias with Llama 4 to “understand and articulate both sides of a contentious issue”

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