Top News:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Yahoo strikes a deal to sell TechCrunch to media investment firm Regent, which acquired PCWorld publisher Foundry earlier this week — Yahoo on Friday said it has struck a deal to sell TechCrunch, the 20-year-old tech journalism site, to Regent, a media investment firm.
Discussion:
@prcarly, @crumbler@threads.net, @sarafischer and @alex
Luc Cohen / Reuters:
A jury convicts two men, whom US prosecutors say are Russian mobsters, of involvement in an Iran-backed plot to kill US-based journalist Masih Alinejad — Two men who U.S. prosecutors say belong to a Russian organized crime group were convicted of involvement in an unsuccessful Iran-backed plot …
Reuters:
UK's CMA fines Sky, BT, IMG, ITV, and the BBC a combined £4M+ after they admitted “to breaking the law” by “colluding” on pay rates for freelancers — Britain's competition regulator fined four sports broadcast and production companies about 4 million pounds …
Discussion:
Advanced Television, Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, The Independent, @cmagovuk, The Standard, GOV.UK, Broadcast, @bectu, Deadline, CMA and RTÉ
Katherine Hamilton / Wall Street Journal:
Activist investor David Hoffmann, who owns ~10% of Lee Enterprises after investing in October, proposes acquiring the company; $LEE rose ~18% on March 20 — Hoffmann says conversations between the companies have been ongoing since October; he declined to comment on an offer price
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, Tulsa World, Arizona Daily Star, St. Louis Business Journal, @benmullin and InsideArbitrage
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Bard College acquires Lapham's Quarterly at no cost from the American Agora Foundation, which had placed the print publication on hiatus in November 2023 — The beloved magazine started by Lewis Lapham, who died last year, is being acquired by Bard College.
Discussion:
Lapham's Quarterly, @rimaanabtawi.bsky.social and @jeffjarvis.bsky.social
Bloomberg:
Good Good Golf, which has 1.75M+ YouTube subscribers, raised $45M led by Creator Sports Capital, with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions and 50+ others joining — The startup's YouTube channel has attracted more than 1.75 million subscribers — Retired quarterback Peyton Manning …
Alex Reisner / The Atlantic:
A look at LibGen, one of the largest online pirate libraries, with 7.5M+ books and 81M+ research papers, allegedly used by Meta and OpenAI to train AI models — Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI. Search through them here. — When employees at meta started developing …
Discussion:
The Atlantic, @mcusolito.bsky.social, Timnit Gebru on LinkedIn, Music Ally, @bradthor, @ajwestauthor.bsky.social, @kelliehailes.bsky.social, @www.johnbleasdale.com, @pattymo.com, Fiona Moore on LinkedIn, @around.com, @annafeatherstone.bsky.social, @joachim123.bsky.social, @karin.kallmaker.com, @jwilker@wandering.shop, @conordougherty.bsky.social, @ipcopyright.bsky.social, @cigitalgem@sigmoid.social, @rr4idic@mastodon.online, @philnel@mastodon.green, Marcus on AI, Lou In Progress, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social, @ethanz@social.coop, @invicticide@mastodon …, @michael_w_busch …, @dorotheabaur.bsky.social, @garymarcus.bsky.social, @thecommongreen@mastodon.scot, @beep@follow.ethanmarcotte.com, @katienotopoulos.bsky.social, ARTnews, south downs founding father …, Music Technology Policy, Twisted Dreams, Ellipsus and The Daddy Complex, more at Techmeme »
Paris Martineau / The Information:
Source: US Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham plan to introduce a bipartisan bill with wide support that would make Section 230 expire on January 1, 2027 — In June 1995, two young congressmen reached across the aisle to introduce legislation that would become the defining legal protection …
Discussion:
AppleInsider, @mjnblack, @tpapres, @pat_hedger, @parismartineau, @abebrown716 and @paris.nyc, more at Techmeme »
Reid Tatoris / The Cloudflare Blog:
Cloudflare announces AI Labyrinth, which uses AI-generated content to confuse and waste the resources of AI Crawlers and bots that ignore “no crawl” directives — Today, we're excited to announce AI Labyrinth, a new mitigation approach that uses AI-generated content to slow down …
Discussion:
The Register, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
Sources: former WaPo executive editor Leonard Downie and ex-managing editor Bob Kaiser emailed Jeff Bezos in February, urging him to cut ties with Will Lewis — An emailed message underscores a divide between the chief executive, Will Lewis, and the people who helped build The Post into a force in American journalism.
Alban Kacher / Reuters:
French media regulator Arcom orders Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Russian channels STS and Channel 5, after finding the channels had ties to a sanctioned entity — French media regulator Arcom has ordered Eutelsat (ETL.PA) to cease broadcasting Russian channels STS and Channel 5 …
Jordan Teicher / Nieman Lab:
A profile of Jake Fischer, a rising NBA insider who operates independently on Substack rather than working for traditional media giants like ESPN — While insiders typically work for established media companies like ESPN, Jake Fischer operates out of his Brooklyn apartment and publishes scoops behind a paywall on Substack.
Discussion:
@scottnover and @sarahscire.com
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