Mediagazer: Less than a week before A Minecraft Movie had a $160M+ opening weekend in the US and Canada, experts projected ~$65M, following four high profile misses in 2024 (Lucas Shaw/Bloomberg)

Andrew Trunsky / New York Times:

A profile of Natalie Winters, a Steve Bannon protégée, War Room reporter, and Piers Morgan Uncensored contributor, who now has a White House press pass — Natalie Winters at Butterworth's, a restaurant in Washington popular with President Trump's supporters and associates.Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times

Discussion: @cgblue.bsky.social, @hugolowell and The Independent

Harshita Mary Varghese / Reuters:

Warner Bros. Discovery says John Malone is not seeking re-election to the board of directors and will instead take on the role of chairman emeritus — Cable TV pioneer John Malone is not seeking re-election to the board of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) and will instead take on the role of chairman emeritus …

Discussion: Variety, @mediaevan, @jbflint, @garyheff, @jbflint, Puck, The Desk, The Information, C21Media, Bloomberg, Media Play News, Deadline, TVNewsCheck, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, WORLD SCREEN and Reuters

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Filing: WBD CEO David Zaslav's 2024 pay package was worth $51.9M, up 4% YoY, driven by $23.9M in non-equity incentive plan pay and $23.1M in stock awards — The company disclosed latest annual compensation details for its top executives. — Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav received …

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap, @discussingfilm, Los Angeles Times, @ajmckay.bsky.social, Adweek, Cord Cutters News, Deadline and TVNewsCheck

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Less than a week before A Minecraft Movie had a $160M+ opening weekend in the US and Canada, experts projected ~$65M, following four high profile misses in 2024 — A Minecraft Movie took in more than $500 million in 10 days. Nobody saw that coming — Good evening from New York …

Discussion: Daily Mail, @pkafka, @pkafka, Forbes and The Wrap

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Jack Dorsey says “delete all IP law” in an X post and Musk says “I agree”; Dorsey says current models “take way too much” from creators and “only rent-seek” — Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter (now X) and Square (now Block) …

Discussion: @chrismessina.me, @ednewtonrex.bsky.social, @nicoleshanahan, @jack, @jack, Notes From The Circus, @rabble, @alikgriffin, @krassenstein, Zachary St. Martin on LinkedIn, @timsweeneyepic, @elonmusk, @tombombadeel, @financelancelot, @poordart, @lukeburgis and Christopher A. Suarez on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Tony Maglio / The Hollywood Reporter:

The WGA says TV writer jobs fell 42% YoY, or by 1,319 positions, for the 2023-2024 season, including 642 jobs lost at the co-executive producer or higher level — Of the 1,319 total writing jobs lost from 2022-23, 642 of them were co-executive producers or above.

Discussion: @matjohnson.bsky.social, @tvgrimreaper, The Post Millennial, AV Club, Deadline, The Wrap and IndieWire

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

EchoStar asks the FCC to abolish rules preventing its Dish and Sling TV services from importing distant local TV affiliate signals during carriage disputes — Echostar Communications has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to abolish a rule that prevents …

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, Policyband, Radio & Television …, TV Tech, Cord Cutters News and TVNewsCheck

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Twelve-year-old French policy title Contexte, which had €10.7M in 2024 revenue, plans to launch an EU-focused English-language edition to rival Politico in May — Subscription-based news product expands in Brussels and publishes in English for first time.

Discussion: Talking Biz News and Atlantic Council

New York Times:

Former and current media editors discuss whether Vanity Fair EIC remains an appealing and fun job given the magazine industry's decline and loss of lavish perks — Radhika Jones is stepping down as editor in chief, and the search for her replacement has begun.

Discussion: Australian Financial Review, @rpbradley1, @katie_robertson, @pressgazette.co.uk, @katierobertson.bsky.social and Washington Examiner

Bloomberg:

India's JioHotstar now has 200M+ paid subscribers, driven by multi-language IPL cricket streams, ranking third-largest globally after Netflix and Prime Video — JioHotstar, India's largest streaming platform, has increased its paying subscriber base to over 200 million …

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Streamable and Streaming Better, more at Techmeme »

Julian Clover / Broadband TV News:

A group of current and former BBC World Service journalists warn that cuts to the international service risk fracturing “the core identity of the World Service” — About Julian Clover — Julian Clover is a Media and Technology journalist based in Cambridge, UK. He works in online and printed media.

Discussion: committees.parliament.uk

Natalie Korach / Vanity Fair:

Q&A with Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway on covering Trump's tariffs; their Odd Lots newsletter saw sign-ups jump 142% in April vs. March average — The stalwart financial reporters and podcasters rode Donald Trump's tariff roller coaster with the help of a lot of tweeting and, sure, a little nicotine.

Discussion: @unclegrambo, @nataliekorach, @thestalwart and Bloomberg