Top News:
Bloomberg:
Filings: three companies owned by Alex Jones, including Infowars, filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, after Jones lost several Sandy Hook lawsuits — Companies owned by far-right radio host Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy after being hit by a flurry of lawsuits.
Discussion:
Reuters, CBS News, @cwarzel, The Wrap, Vanity Fair, Financial Times, Gizmodo, Rolling Stone, New York Post, Fortune, @fred_guttenberg, @naveedajamali, @harrylitman, @michaelcohen212, @piersmorgan, @jeffjarvis, @anthony, @jeremynewberger, @brianstelter, @emptywheel, @jamesrbuk, @owillis, @katiephang, @gideonrachman, @newtownaction, @briannawu, @paulbernaluk and Insider
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Report: Microsoft is working on a program to let select brands advertise within free-to-play Xbox games, such as on a billboard, and won't take a revenue cut — The ads supposedly wouldn't disrupt gameplay — Microsoft is reportedly working on a program that will let brands showcase …
Discussion:
Insider, TechCrunch, @patrickcoffee, @seyitaylor, ScreenRant, I have some questions and CNET, more at Techmeme »
Alistair Gray / Financial Times:
Kantar: UK users canceled ~1.5M subscriptions to Disney+, Apple TV+, Now, and others in Q1, due to inflation; 58% of households have at least one subscription — About 1.5mn accounts terminated within three months as inflation squeezes finances — British households have cancelled video subscriptions …
Discussion:
@unloveablesteve, @simonjharris, @john_stepek and @carlquintanilla
Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:
How Barnes & Noble, with book sales up 14% from pre-pandemic, went from a threat to industry anchor by letting store managers choose books to promote and more — To independent booksellers, the enormous chain was once a threat. Now it's vital to their survival. And it's doing well.
Richard J. Tofel / Second Rough Draft:
Legacy local newspapers should eliminate national news and use the freed-up money and space to produce more local content, making themselves more distinctive — Thinking about the problem of local news from the supply side — Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time …
Discussion:
@mike_canan, @jamcnn, @jere_hester and Nieman Lab
Nick Kostov / Wall Street Journal:
French music streaming service Deezer will go public through a SPAC merger at a €1.05B valuation and says it had 9.6M subscribers and €400M in revenue in 2021 — French music streaming service is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, aiming to go public
Mia Sato / The Verge:
The Parcast union shares the details of its new three-year Spotify contract, including 10% to 25% pay raises for the lowest-paid staff, diversity promises, more — Parcast is one of three unions at Spotify — Unionized workers at Parcast, a podcast production company owned by Spotify …
David Hume Kennerly / New York Times:
Photojournalist David Hume Kennerly on the power of graphic war images in Ukraine and other conflicts: “the best photographs might make us want to look away” — The following images depict graphic violence. — A couple of weeks ago I came across the graphic images of bodies littering …
Discussion:
@cliffordlevy, @peterbakernyt, @dabeard, @natashakhanhk, @kennerly and @nickkristof
Ken Doctor / Nieman Lab:
Ken Doctor reflects on the first 18 months of local digital outlet Lookout Santa Cruz, which has 13 employees and a revenue mix of 60% ads and 40% membership — We called it the 3 a.m. Club. — We converged in Denver in mid-October last year, between Covid scares.
Discussion:
American Press Institute, @niemanlab, @jayrosen_nyu, @williamsjed, @larryryckman, @alanmillernlp and @pennyriordan1
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Stem, which offers music rights management software for independent artists, raises $20M from QED Investors and Block, bringing its total funding to nearly $40M — Jordan Higa was waiting for her flight when she stopped to ask her travel companion how much they would spend on tickets to see BTS perform live.
Discussion:
@lucas_shaw
Ian Johnston / Financial Times:
Ukrainian independent media is finding success on Patreon; The Kyiv Independent, which has raised $1.5M on GoFundMe, has ~7,000 patrons, making $73K+/month — Use of funding platform by smaller publications is emblematic of wider trend in media sector — Olga Rudenko, editor of The Kyiv Independent, has had a punishing six weeks.
Discussion:
@w_kononczuk and @shashj
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Most broadcasts on BBC Three, which relaunched as a live TV channel in February to focus on young viewers, are failing to attract more than 100K viewers — Most broadcasts fail to attract more than 100,000 viewers, according to official ratings — When BBC Three relaunched …
Discussion:
@cameronyardejnr, @jamin2g, @back_the_bbc, @thetyronwilson and @statsjamie
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