Top News:
New York Times:
Sources: Sony Pictures and Apollo Global formally express interest in acquiring Paramount for ~$26B; Paramount's negotiating period with Skydance ends May 3 — Paramount has been exploring a potential deal for months, talking to suitors including Skydance, producer of “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Universal Music Group and TikTok strike a new music licensing deal to bring UMG music back to the platform, including “improved remuneration” and AI protections — The months-long standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok over royalty payments and AI policies is finally over …
Discussion:
UMG, Wall Street Journal, Tubefilter, Deadline, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, CBS News, The Hill, The Information, CMU, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Music Business Worldwide, Android Headlines, The Guardian, Digital Music News, Social Media Today, 9to5Mac, WFAA-TV, CNN, New York Times, Music Technology Policy, Neowin, Conrad Withey on LinkedIn, Axios, UPROXX, Engadget, Consequence, The Wrap, Reuters, Billboard, Music Ally, TechCrunch, Rolling Stone, The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter and The A.V. Club, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Apple Q2: revenue from Services, which includes Apple TV+ and Apple Music, rose 14% YoY to $23.9B vs. $23.27B estimated — The Apple Services segment generated $23.87 billion, up 14.2%, for the quarter ended March 30, topping analyst forecasts of $23.12 billion.
Discussion:
CNBC and Deadline, more at Techmeme »
College Media Association:
A coalition of collegiate and professional press freedom groups urges campus administrators to respect the rights of student journalists covering protests — College Media Association, Associated Collegiate Press, Society of Professional Journalists, Student Press Law Center and Foundation …
RELATED:
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Journalists covering protests on college campuses have been denied access and faced assaults and arrest, as some student media websites struggle with outages
Discussion:
Freedom of the Press …, Media Nation, The Boston Globe, @dailybruin, Vanity Fair, @cat__hamilton5, @brizzyc, @jangelooff, @evanhill, @thedartmouth, Los Angeles Times, @hadas_gold, @paulglader, @jangelooff, @davidkaye.bsky.social, @dailybruin, @cat__hamilton5, @cat__hamilton5, @brianstelter@threads.net and The NewsGuild
Jack Mirkinson / Discourse Blog:
Dana Bash's May 1 CNN monologue about pro-Palestinian student protests was indefensible and part of a pattern of using the Holocaust to score political points — This segment from Dana Bash on the Palestine protest movement is one of the most shameful things I have ever seen on cable news.
Clare Malone / New Yorker:
A look at Hunterbrook, whose hedge fund makes trades based on investigations by its newsroom, and well-connected founders Sam Koppelman and Nathaniel Horwitz — The hybrid media-finance company wants to monetize investigative journalism in the public interest. Is it a visionary game changer or a cynical ploy?
Discussion:
Business Insider, Talking Biz News, @pkafka, @pkafka, @bgrueskin and @claremalone
Kyle Chayka / New Yorker:
As social media platforms pivot away from news distribution, a look at news sites like The Verge, which feel more like social media, with aggregation and more — As social networks become less reliable distributors of the news, consumers of digital journalism are seeking out an older form of online real estate.
Justin Miller / New York Magazine:
A look at Joanna Coles' start as the Daily Beast's chief creative and content officer, where her vision is at odds with the outlet's hard-news scoop approach — On her first week on the job as chief creative and content officer, Joanna Coles carried a tip into the newsroom …
Discussion:
@jessicalessin, Columbia Journalism Review, @mediaevan, @davidwtaintor, @willsommer and @nkulw
Jim Edwards / Press Gazette:
A look at 1440, a media brand with a single daily newsletter that aggregates news and has 3.5M subscribers, 15 staff, and ~$15M in annual revenue — 1440 may be the biggest media brand you've never heard of. It has an email subscriber list of 3.5 million, and it is growing at a rate …
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
In a letter, Fubo, DirecTV, and others call on Congress to hold hearings on the Fox, Disney, and WBD's sports streamer, citing “serious competition concerns” — DirecTV, Dish Network and Newsmax also joined the call for hearings in Washington, D.C. into the future of pay TV competition and its impact on consumers.
Discussion:
The Desk, Next TV, The Streamable, Variety, The Verge, ir.fubo.tv, Barrett Media, Media Play News and Light Reading
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen signs a deal to be SAG-AFTRA's third-party provider of streaming content measurement, to help the union cross-check viewership data from streamers — The data will “complement first-party data from streaming platforms.” … The Nielsen data — from its Streaming Content Ratings service …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Nielsen, Eric Steinberg on LinkedIn, Variety, The Wrap, Nielsen, Media Play News, WORLD SCREEN and Deadline
Tom Jones / Poynter:
The Dallas Morning News hires Duke University professor Stephen Buckley as its public editor, an increasingly uncommon role across US media organizations — The news organization hopes to reestablish trust by creating “a bridge between the public and our newsroom,” the publisher says.
Discussion:
@jillgeisler, @poynter, @sarahscire, @amy_hollyfield, @sarahscire, @pmnapoli, @deggans, NewsLab, DallasNews Corporation, Dallas Morning News and Media Nation
Lucia Moses / @lmoses:
WSJ EIC Emma Tucker says the paper is “shifting our center of gravity [in Asia] from Hong Kong to Singapore”, leading to layoffs of “some” staff — More changes at @wsj since I wrote this, with restructuring and layoffs in Asia [image]
Discussion:
Talking Biz News and @maxwelltani
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