Top News:
Megan Lebowitz / NBC News:
The White House Correspondents' Association announces that Saturday Night Live's Colin Jost will be the featured entertainer at its annual dinner on April 27 — The “Saturday Night Live” comedian has co-anchored “Weekend Update” since 2014. — WASHINGTON — “Saturday Night Live” …
Discussion:
White House Correspondents …, Variety, TVLine, The Wrap, Politico, The Hill, Axios, Deadline, Rolling Stone, @whca, @kellyo, @dannyctkemp, TODAY.com and The Hollywood Reporter
Josh Dickey / The Wrap:
Tucker Carlson releases his two-hour interview with the Russian president Vladimir Putin for free on his website and on X — The former Fox News host sat with the Russian president in Moscow — Tucker Carlson released his two-hour interview with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president whose military …
Discussion:
Next TV, @tuckercarlson, Byline Times, The Guardian, Metro.co.uk, The Daily Cartoonist, @sarafischer, @elonmusk, NPR, Washington Post, @corbinbolies, @robertkennedyjr, HuffPost, Politico, @hitsdiffcap, Mediaite, Variety, CBS News, New York Times, The Kyiv Independent, Forbes, The Hill, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Voice of America and Semafor
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Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Putin says he would “not rule out” releasing Evan Gershkovich, but maintains claims the WSJ reporter committed espionage — “At the end of the day, it does not make any sense to keep him in prison in Russia,” Putin told Tucker Carlson during their two-hour interview.
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
A profile of OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap, tasked by Sam Altman with striking a deal with Axel Springer, which may offer a road map for additional media deals — Brad Lightcap helped seal the startup's deal with publisher Axel Springer. Now he's experimenting with the company's business model.
Discussion:
MIT Technology Review and @shiringhaffary
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Thomas Barrabi / New York Post:
News Corp CEO says it is in advanced talks with major AI companies to license its content and that Sam Altman understands “the social importance of journalism”
News Corp CEO says it is in advanced talks with major AI companies to license its content and that Sam Altman understands “the social importance of journalism”
Discussion:
@edmundlee@threads.net, @edmundlee@threads.net, @johnbuckley_, @katie_robertson, The Guardian and The Wrap
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
AMC Networks reports Q4 revenue down 30% YoY to $679M, vs. $676M est., streaming subscribers up 1% to 11.4M, and US ad sales down 23% YoY to $158M — AMC Networks saw its streaming subscribers increase by 1% and its U.S. ad sales drop by 23% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Discussion:
Next TV, The Wrap, AMC Networks Inc., MarketWatch, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter
Reuters:
Prince Harry settles the remainder of his phone-hacking lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers after MGN agreed to pay substantial damages and his legal costs — Prince Harry has settled the remainder of his lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers over phone-hacking and other unlawful acts …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
X signs a two-year deal with the WWE for a new exclusive weekly video series called WWE Speed featuring timed matches of 5 minutes or less, coming spring 2024 — ‘WWE Speed’ will stream timed matches meant to end in five minutes or less on the Elon Musk-owned platform.
Discussion:
Forbes, Engadget, @wwe, @lindayax, @xbusiness, Awful Announcing and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Mike Tanier / Defector:
A journalist who covered the NFL for Football Outsiders, The Messenger, and The NYT talks about his experience working for them and the state of sports media — I covered the NFL for three media outlets in the last calendar year: Football Outsiders, The Messenger, and The New York Times.
Discussion:
Poynter, @nfl_dougfarrar, @miketanier, @seamoosi, @lemieuxlgm and Awful Announcing
Dino Grandoni / Washington Post:
A US jury awards climate scientist Michael Mann damages of $1M+ in his defamation suit against two right-wing bloggers claiming he manipulated his research data — The verdict comes amid heightened attacks on scientists working on climate change, vaccines and other issues
Ben Smith / Semafor:
An interview with Piers Morgan on ending his live broadcast show Piers Morgan Uncensored on News UK's TalkTV to focus on YouTube — The Scoop — The British broadcaster Piers Morgan is giving up his live, daily, hour-long evening news show for a YouTube-first, digitally native …
Kevin Lind / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with Slate's Dahlia Lithwick on the necessity and the difficulty of writing about structural issues like dark money, the change in SCOTUS coverage, and more — In 1999, Dahlia Lithwick happened to be in Washington, DC, when the federal government was suing Microsoft over antitrust violations.
Discussion:
KEYT-TV, Vox, The Colorado Sun, The Hill, NPR, Associated Press and Financial Times
Eric Fisher / Front Office Sports:
Sources: Sinclair is exploring strategic alternatives for the Tennis Channel, including bringing in an equity partner; Sinclair purchased it in 2016 for $350M — Sinclair Inc. is exploring bringing in an equity partner for the Tennis Channel as well as other strategic alternatives for the network …
Discussion:
@fos, @aericfisher, Awful Announcing, The Streamable, Bloomberg, Bloomberg and Cord Cutters News