Top News:
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
Parlement Technologies sells Parler to digital media company Starboard, which plans to temporarily shut down the right-wing social network ahead of a relaunch — Social network popular with conservatives will be sold for an undisclosed amount and overhauled for a relaunch
Discussion:
Reuters, Mediaite, TechCrunch, Fortune, The Verge, Gizmodo, Recurrent and @digiphile, more at Techmeme »
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Substack CEO Chris Best about Notes, asking for investment without sharing financial details, and more, as he evades some content moderation questions — Can Substack handle the wrath of Elon Musk and the pain of content moderation? — It is fair to say that Substack …
Discussion:
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Brian Stelter / Vanity Fair:
Examining the key “reckless disregard” question in the Dominion-Fox trial, set to start next week; a source says Fox pursued settlement talks multiple times — It's time for Dominion Voting Systems to make its case against Fox News in its $1.6 billion defamation suit.
Discussion:
New York Times, New York Times, NPR, Poynter, @gpaddymanning, @dealbook, @jeremymbarr, @davidclinchnews, @brianstelter, @taragolshan, The Atlantic, Techdirt, Mediaite, MediaPost, CNN, CNBC, CBS News, Financial Times, Washington Post, Adweek and Newser
Zac Ntim / Deadline:
French fashion house Saint Laurent is launching a production banner headed by its creative director Anthony Vaccarello, with two short films debuting at Cannes — French fashion house Saint Laurent is moving into the world of cinema with an official production banner headed by house creative director Anthony Vaccarello.
Nicholas Quah / Vulture:
A look at the Economist's aloof and listenable podcasts, which averaged ~25M downloads in March 2023 and have ~5M listeners, as the content gets more ambitious — It's hard to argue that there's much fresh energy among news podcasts of late. The genre's modern generation largely came …
Discussion:
@natashaloder, @codendahl, @tiagodf, @birdyword and @eaterofsun
Philip Oltermann / The Guardian:
Die Zeit publishes texts showing Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner tried to use Bild to influence Germany's last election, attacked climate activism, and more — Mathias Döpfner's reported comments on climate, Muslims and east Germany - and his apparent political manoeuvring - create shock waves
Discussion:
@glynmoody, @steb777, @kniggem, @tiagodf, @ruchirsharma_1, @awinston, @tzeporah, @garethharding, The Wrap and @jaspjackson
Financial Times:
Sources: the European parliament is close to finalizing tough new measures on AI, including forcing chatbot makers to reveal if they use copyrighted material — Proposals include requiring chatbot makers to reveal if they are using copyrighted material — The European parliament …
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Sensor Tower: Twitter's top 50 advertisers spent $83M over the past two months, down from $102M YoY; Mars, AT&T, Volkswagen, and Stellantis haven't returned — Twitter-owner Elon Musk has said advertisers are returning to the social media platform, but statements from several companies …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, more at Techmeme »
Patrick Frater / Variety:
Comcast invests $200M in James Murdoch and Uday Shankar's Bodhi Tree Systems, which will use the money to buy a small stake in India's Viacom18 — Comcast, the conglomerate behind NBCUniversal and the Sky European TV giant, is to invest $200 million in Bodhi Tree Systems …
Discussion:
TechCrunch and Deadline
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify plans to shut down Heardle on May 5, after acquiring the Wordle-inspired music guessing game in July 2022, to focus on other music discovery objectives — Spotify is closing down Heardle, the Wordle-inspired music guessing game it acquired last July for an undisclosed sum.
Amanda Meade / The Guardian:
Screen Australia study: of 361 TV drama programs, 1 in 4 had entirely Anglo-Celtic main casts; First Nations main characters rose from 4.8% to 7.2% in 5 years — There is a lot of work still to be done to reflect Australia's population on television screens, diversity report says
Elsa Keslassy / Variety:
Apple and Canal+ sign a deal to give Canal+ subscribers Apple TV+ in France, French-speaking Switzerland, Czechia, and Slovakia for no extra cost from April 20 — Apple and Canal+ have signed a landmark deal that will bring Apple TV+ to all Canal+ subscribers in France, along with some other European territories.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Broadband TV News, MacRumors, @elsakeslassy, Media Play News, 9to5Mac and Deadline