Mediagazer: 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 (Financial Times)

1:55 PM ET, May 3, 2024

Top News:

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

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.”

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

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

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, @andrewmarchand, @keshavbhat, @svg_brandon, @tvmojoe, The Desk, Bleacher Report, Barrett Media and Sports Media Watch

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: Next TV and The Streamable

Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:

For weeks, grad students at The Columbia Journalism School have chronicled protests, and professors worked to ensure access and safety as the campus locked down — They've gotten a crash course in breaking news, capturing the Hamilton Hall occupation and the NYPD's crackdown, while surviving on pizza and operating on little sleep.

Discussion: NBC News, Free Press, @charlottetklein, @jordangreennc, @misstessowen, @mathewi, The Intercept, Slate, Poynter, New Yorker, Media Nation, The Hill, Associated Press and Rolling Stone

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Sources: the NBA is close to signing deals that would pay the league ~$76B over 11 years, including $2.6B and $1.8B a year from Disney and Amazon, respectively — The National Basketball Association is close to signing new long-term broadcasting agreements that would pay the league …

Discussion: The Wrap, Sports Media Watch, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @dylanbyers

Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:

A look at 2023 media CEO pay amid industry contraction: Charter CEO Chris Winfrey, $89M; Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, $84M; WBD CEO David Zaslav, $49.7M; and more — It was a year of pain for the entertainment industry and shareholders of (many) media companies with months-long Hollywood strikes and layoffs.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Apple reports Q2 revenue from Services, which includes Apple TV+ and Apple Music, up 14% YoY to $23.9B, vs. $23.12B estimated, an all-time record — 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: New York Post, 9to5Mac, Media Play News, Neowin, CNBC and BGR, more at Techmeme »

Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:

Indonesia's Vidio, a local streaming competitor to Netflix, aims to double its paid subscribers to 8M in the next two to three years ahead of an IPO — - Youthful population of over 270 million a draw for streamers — Low 5G penetration remains an obstacle to increasing customers

Discussion: @lucas_shaw and Sohee Kim on LinkedIn

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Bureau Reporter - Vietnam, HCMC — Bloomberg

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Business Editor, CA — TheWrap

Executive Ed. - Tech & Electronics, AZ — AspenCore

Economy & Industry Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Political Enterprise Editor, DC — Guardian US

Housing & Real Estate Reporter, ME — BDN

Associate Reporter - Yahoo Finance — Yahoo

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More News:

Gannett:
Gannett reports Q1 revenue down 5% YoY to $635.8M, digital revenue up 8.1% to $267.5M, an $84.8M net loss including a ~$46M impairment charge; GCI closes up 27%

Discussion: Inside Radio, Yahoo Finance, Poynter, Gannett, Providence Business News, AdExchanger and MediaPost

Jack Mirkinson / Discourse Blog:
Dana Bash's May 1 CNN monologue about pro-Palestinian student protests included lies, regurgitated others' spin, and repeated lines of pro-Israel propaganda

Discussion: @zachvat, @jeremymbarr, @danablankenhorn, @tosubways, @ijbailey, @taylorlorenz, @peterhamby, @dianaelbasha, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @jackmirkinson, WBUR, New York Times, @themckenziest.gay, Al Jazeera, Los Angeles Times and Mediaite

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

Discussion: @sammykoppelman, @pkafka, @pkafka, @bgrueskin, @claremalone, Business Insider and Talking Biz News

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”

Discussion: The Wrap, WORLD SCREEN, Media Play News, The Desk, Barrett Media, Next TV, The Streamable, Variety, The Verge, Media Play News and ir.fubo.tv

Earlier Picks:

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

Discussion: @jessicalessin, @mediaevan, @nkulw, @davidwtaintor, @willsommer and Columbia Journalism Review

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

Discussion: MediaPost, Nielsen, Eric Steinberg on LinkedIn, Los Angeles Times, Nielsen, Variety, The Wrap, Media Play News, WORLD SCREEN and Deadline

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

Discussion: Al Jazeera, @maxwelltani and Talking Biz News

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

From Techmeme:

Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:
Isomorphic Labs, a DeepMind spinoff focusing on drug discovery, raised $600M led by Thrive to research treatments, including for cancer and immune disorders

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Amazon's AGI Lab unveils Nova Act, a general purpose AI agent to control a web browser and independently perform some simple actions, and a Nova Act SDK

Wall Street Journal:
Sources detail tensions between Apple and Elon Musk's SpaceX over expanding satellite cellphone services; Apple discussed linking iPhones to SpaceX satellites

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