Mediagazer: RSF publishes its World Press Freedom Index and places Norway, Denmark, and Sweden in the top three, the US down 10 spots at 55, and Eritrea in last place (Tom McArthur/BBC)

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Sources: the expectation at Paramount Global is that neither of the two offers in play, Skydance-RedBird and Sony Pictures-Apollo, will come to fruition — After months of M&A talks, Paramount Global and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone might be going it alone after all.

Discussion: Quartz, Financial Times, @willsun_1, Rich Greenfield on LinkedIn, CNBC, Variety, Reuters and The Wrap

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.”

Tom McArthur / BBC:

RSF publishes its World Press Freedom Index and places Norway, Denmark, and Sweden in the top three, the US down 10 spots at 55, and Eritrea in last place — Gaza is one of the deadliest places in the world to be a journalist, according to Reporters Without Borders

Discussion: The Guardian, Voice of America, Al Jazeera, Reporters Without Borders, Press Gazette, @voanews, Euractiv, Journalism.co.uk, @emilybell, Newslaundry, @michellemanafy@journa.host and @farhip

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

X launches Stories on X, with news curated and summarized by Grok AI, available for Premium subscribers in the Explore tab on iOS and on the web — X, formerly Twitter, is now using Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok to power a feature that summarizes the personalized trending stories in the app's Explore section.

more at Techmeme »

Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:

Elon Musk says he wants Grok to create news summaries by relying solely on X posts, without looking at article text, and improved story citations are coming — Musk emails with details on AI-powered news inside X. An AI bot will summarize news and commentary, sometimes looking through tens of thousands of posts per story.

Discussion: Business Insider, @xeng, @nxthompson, @chrismoranuk, @hshaban, @hshaban, @firerock31@threads.net, @hshaban, @reneeleegreco@threads.net and @iethics, more at Techmeme »

Christina A. Cassidy / Associated Press:

In a letter, several Democrats serving as their state's top election officials ask Meta to repeal a policy allowing ads that claim the 2020 election was stolen — Several Democrats serving as their state's top election officials have sent a letter to the parent company of Facebook …

Financial Times:

An interview with UK culture secretary Lucy Frazer on blocking RedBird IMI's Telegraph takeover bid, plans to cap foreign state ownership at 5%, and more — Culture secretary says UK ‘not stopping’ foreign investment as she defends blocking sale to Abu Dhabi-backed company

Discussion: City A.M.

Sara Fischer / Axios:

A look at news publishers' conflicting approaches toward AI companies, and how the lack of a data marketplace makes it hard for buyers and sellers to set rates — - The new suits add heft to the Times' claims. … Several other large news publishers, including the Financial Times …

Discussion: @sarafischer and New Republic

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

The Guardian outlines plans for a “small number of voluntary redundancies”, says it is 60% funded by readers, and had a £39m loss in the year to March 2024 — Editor Katharine Viner said the business foresees revenue pressures continuing into the next year at least.

Discussion: Telegraph and The Drum

Steven Levy / Wired:

Jeff Lawson's Global Tetrahedron plans membership tiers for the Onion and doesn't plan to put up a hard paywall as it moves away from G/O's ad-focused approach — Entrepreneur Jeff Lawson's plan to revive venerable satirical outlet The Onion involves borrowing from the playbook of the founders of WhatsApp.

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:

Fubo reports 1.51M FuboTV subscribers at the end of Q1, down from 1.61M in Q4, revenue up 24% YoY to $394M, and a $56.1M loss, down from $83.6M a year ago — The streaming platform shrunk its losses on higher subscription and advertising revenue. — Sports streaming platform FuboTV …

Discussion: The Desk, StreamTV Insider, MediaPost, The Streamable and Next TV

Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:

Sources: MLB is in advanced talks to make Roku the new home for Sunday morning baseball this season, in what would be Roku's first major live rights deal — Major League Baseball and Roku are in advanced talks to make the service the new home for Sunday morning baseball this season …

Discussion: The Streamable, Awful Announcing, @keshavbhat, @svg_brandon, @andrewmarchand, @tvmojoe, The Desk, Bleacher Report, Barrett Media and Sports Media Watch