Mediagazer: A Minecraft Movie collects $157M at the US box office in its opening weekend, the biggest domestic debut of 2025 and best in history for a video game adaptation (Rebecca Rubin/Variety)

1:55 PM ET, April 7, 2025

Top News:

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Some experts weigh in on how President Trump's trade policy could impact the entertainment industry: ad budgets may shrink, Netflix could be shielded, and more — We asked experts how his trade policy will impact the entertainment business. … The adaptation of the popular video game opened …

Discussion: New York Times

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

Several prominent conservatives in media notably came out against Trump's tariffs, with the most strident criticism coming from WSJ's editorial board — The Wall Street Journal editorial board, the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro and some voices on Fox News have expressed concern about higher prices for Americans.

Discussion: Benzinga, The Hill, The Daily Beast, The Independent, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Media Matters for America, Washington Examiner, CBS News and Wall Street Journal

Fareed Sahloul / Bloomberg:
Sources: connected TV ad platform MNTN, which filed for a US IPO in late February, is among companies pausing listings as Trump's trade war upends the economy

Discussion: City A.M., Fortune, @carnage4life.bsky.social, Wall Street Journal, @scottlincicome.bsky.social and TechCrunch

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Amid the worst stock market sell-off since the 2020 pandemic, Fox News has projected a conspicuous calm and temporarily dropped its onscreen stock ticker

Discussion: @matthewkeyslive, @matthewkeyslive, Times of India, HuffPost, @cynthea@mastodon.social, @davidjroth.bsky.social, The Daily Dot, @ocanannain.bsky.social, @owillis.bsky.social, @owillis.bsky.social, @visiblemusic.bsky.social, @dailydot.com and TVNewsCheck

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Stock declines for major media companies on April 5 included WBD down 11.9%, Roku down 8.3%, Apple down 7.3%, Netflix down 6.7%, Disney down 6%, and Amazon 4.2%

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, NPR, PR Daily, The Wrap and Deadline

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:

A Minecraft Movie collects $157M at the US box office in its opening weekend, the biggest domestic debut of 2025 and best in history for a video game adaptation — “A Minecraft Movie” leveled up at the box office, collecting a blockbuster $157 million in its opening weekend.

Tatiana Siegel / Variety:

Sources: Evan Gershkovich is not cooperating on WSJ's documentary and book about his imprisonment, and plans his own film and book, sparking tensions — It was a dramatic moment. On Aug. 1, 2024, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stepped off a plane in Turkey to freedom, after 16 months spent in a Russian prison.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

RocaNews, which operates via Instagram, a gamified app, two daily newsletters, and YouTube, says it became profitable in October 2024 and has 2M regular readers — An American news start-up says it is proving Gen Z audiences will pay for news if it's done the right way.

Discussion: Forbes

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Nexstar ordered its 160+ local TV stations to air segments during local newscasts that encourage viewers to lobby the FCC for broadcast ownership deregulation — The segments encourage news viewers to visit a Nexstar-owned website that includes pre-written social media posts directed …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @briank.bsky.social and Inside Radio

Siyanda Mthethwa / Reuters:

Spotify's royalty payouts to South African performers grew 54% YoY in 2024 to $21M, while payouts to Nigerian artists more than doubled to $38M — Audio streaming giant Spotify's (SPOT.N) royalty payments to artists from Nigeria and South Africa - its two biggest African markets …

Discussion: Music Ally, Semafor and RouteNote Blog

Michael Savage / The Guardian:

Six Russian BBC journalists labeled “foreign agents” by Putin's regime speak on how it has impacted their lives, effectively banishing them from their homeland — Journalists now effectively banished say Kremlin's aim is to make them ‘toxic’ to anyone thinking of speaking to media

New York Times:

A majority of 300+ WaPo tech workers sign union cards and plan to formally request recognition, WaPo's first public union drive since Bezos' 2013 acquisition — With global markets again in free-fall, the president appeared to be losing support of business leaders, raising questions about his leverage in his trade fight.

Discussion: Washingtonian, Deseret News, financialpost, Associated Press, MPR News, @azagata.bsky.social, Politico and @benmullin, more at Techmeme »

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Krea, which helps creators generate AI content using the best available models, raised a $47M Series B and a $33M Series A; sources: Krea is valued at $500M — Overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the different AI models you can use to make content? A startup called Krea is looking …

more at Techmeme »

Charles Martin / AppleInsider:

The BBC complains to the UK CMA that Apple and Google's news aggregators weaken its relationship with the public by downplaying the BBC branding — The British Broadcasting Corporation has complained to a UK antitrust authority that Apple and Google's news services, such as Apple News …

Discussion: TechCrunch and Telegraph

Joseph Bambridge / Politico:

OpenAI and Google reject the UK's proposal to allow training AI on copyrighted work without permission unless rights holders opt out to “reserve their rights” — The U.K. government's AI copyright plans can't seem to please anyone. — LONDON — Leading AI companies OpenAI …

Discussion: Music Ally, Fortune, @hern.bsky.social, @justinleeanderson.com, @blabberlicious@toot.community, @DazzlingDamo@mastodon.ie, @kjcharleswriter.com, Ars Technica, TechCrunch and MEDIANAMA, more at Techmeme »

Ella Creamer / The Guardian:
A judicial panel consolidates 12 copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft in New York, including cases from Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Grisham, and the NYT

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, Bloomberg Law, @davidclinchnews, @owenboswarva, @pressgazette, U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and The Bookseller

Gretel Kahn / Reuters Institute:

A look at the inroads made by China, Russia, and Turkey in Africa's information ecosystem and the void they will fill now that VOA has been silenced — Experts warn that the President's decision to shut down the US international broadcaster is leaving a void that authoritarian regimes are trying to fill

Discussion: Bloomberg, @reutersinstitute.bsky.social, @cdncurmudgeon.bsky.social, Samba Dialimpa Badji on LinkedIn, @newsguy.bsky.social, The Hill and Global Investigative …

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More News:

Katie Campione / Deadline:
WGA members “overwhelmingly” ratify a new three-year deal with CBS News that includes AI protections and is modeled after a recent ABC News contract

Discussion: @wgaeast.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck and The Wrap

Ashton Pittman / Mississippi Free Press:
A judge dismisses former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant's defamation lawsuit against Mississippi Today; Bryant sued in 2023 over reporting about a welfare scandal

Discussion: The Clarion-Ledger, Media Nation, ESPN, Washington Post, Awful Announcing and @ashtonpittman.bsky.social

Axios:
Sources: G/O Media sold business news brand Quartz and commerce site The Inventory to software firm Redbrick, the fourth Quartz ownership change in seven years

Discussion: Talking Biz News, The Wrap, @kerrymflynn, Adweek, @joshsternberg.com, @shepardcdr.bsky.social and @carolynmichelle.bsky.social

Earlier Picks:

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Joel Kaplan says Meta's US fact-checking program will be over by April 7, and Community Notes will start appearing on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram

Discussion: Metro.co.uk, @joel_kaplan, @mikeisaac, @cernovich, @bennyjohnson, mrcfreespeechamerica.org, Daily Caller News Foundation, Engadget, BGR, The Hill, RedState, Blaze Media, Fox Business, @muwxguy.bsky.social, The Verge, Global Investigative … and Poynter

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Trump says he signed an executive order to keep TikTok running for 75 more days, as “the deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed”

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Vimeo launches Vimeo Streaming, letting creators launch subscription streaming services without any coding experience and offering features like AI translations

Discussion: Fadi Ismail on LinkedIn, Frank Filiatrault on LinkedIn, TVNewsCheck, Engadget, Benzinga and Vimeo.com, Inc.

From Techmeme:

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
Trump announces a 90-day tariff pause for some countries and a “lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%”, but raises tariffs on China to 125%

Alexey Shabanov / TestingCatalog:
Google announces Agent2Agent, an open interoperability protocol to enable seamless collaboration between AI agents across diverse frameworks and vendors

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
The US Senate confirms former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins as SEC chair, succeeding Gary Gensler; Atkins is widely expected to support crypto-friendly policies

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