Top News:

In her final column, Liz Spayd says NYT's elimination of public editor position sends “ambiguous signal” and wonders if the paper is growing weary of criticism — There probably hasn't been a time in recent American history when the role of the media was more important than now.
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The New York Times erred by ending its public editor position because the job adds credibility in the face of wide efforts to discredit the media — No, New York Times! Not the public editor! Why, with trust in news organizations at an all-time low, would you cut the one position dedicated …
Discussion:
iMediaEthics, Politico and Media Matters for America

The $5.7B defamation lawsuit brought by Beef Products Inc. against ABC over “pink slime” reports goes to trial in South Dakota on Monday — A journey to South Dakota to hear arguments whether preconceived negative spin in the media should result in massive punishments.
Discussion:
@alexweprin, @michaelstjames, @taylorjwofford, @jo_tovey, @hadas_gold, @emily_cohn, @eriqgardner, @eriqgardner and @eriqgardner

Google's Contributor services now let some publishers ask ad-block users to whitelist sites or pay a small fee per page view to make up for lost ad revenue — Group to launch ‘funding choices’ and charge people through new Contributor service — Read next
Discussion:
@matthewstoller and @jason_kint, more at Techmeme »
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Google says it will preinstall an ad filter in Chrome starting early 2018 aimed at ads deemed “annoying” by the Coalition for Better Ads
Discussion:
@mathewi, DoubleClick, Financial Times, Marketing Week, AdExchanger, 24/7 Wall St., BetaNews, Silicon UK, MacRumors, The Guardian, Pocket-lint, Neowin, Inside AdWords, VentureBeat, Editor & Publisher, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Adweek, Engadget, Chromium Blog and Variety, more at Techmeme »
Jack Marshall / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Google will give publishers at least 6 months to prepare for a Chrome-based ad filter coming next year, offering a self-service tool for analyzing ads
Sources: Google will give publishers at least 6 months to prepare for a Chrome-based ad filter coming next year, offering a self-service tool for analyzing ads
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, Consumerist, MSPoweruser, Fortune, the Econsultancy blog, BGR, Softpedia News, Ars Technica UK, Axios, ZDNet, Recode, @reneritchie, @film_girl, Business Insider, TechCrunch and The Verge

Q&A with Megyn Kelly, whose new Sunday night NBC show debuts June 4, on forthcoming interviews, the future of Fox News, and more — Megyn Kelly in 90 seconds — Megyn Kelly is managing expectations for her move to NBC — up to a point. — “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly,” …
Discussion:
Real Stories

Music publisher Concord Bicycle Music acquires Imagem, paying what sources say is close to $600M and making Concord sixth largest music publisher in the world — Justin Timberlake during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 11, 2016 in Cannes, France.
Discussion:
New York Times

Tax experts question relationship between DailyCaller.com and nonprofit Daily Caller News Foundation, which produces most of the content for the site — The Daily Caller is a media success story, a conservative news site that in seven years of existence has become one of the most called-upon outlets …
Discussion:
EXPOSEDbyCMD, Observer, @johnbonazzo, @byamberphillips, @byamberphillips, @callumborchers, @sue_sullivan and Wonkette

Interview with Nader Sobhan of iflix, which recently raised $90M to take on Netflix in emerging markets, on producing an original show in Arabic and censorship — After launching in Asia in 2015, streaming service iflix is positioning itself as a low-cost alternative to Netflix in emerging markets.

Lifehacker makes new hires and launches parenting site Offspring, the second vertical launched in 2017 by Gizmodo Media Group — The first big content stamp applied by new EIC Melissa Kirsch — A couple of weeks before the Memorial Day weekend holiday, Lifehacker editor in chief Melissa Kirsch sent out the following email to staff.
Discussion:
Offspring and @jmrivera02

Refinery29 gets a 63% click-to-open rate on its biggest newsletter, Refinery29 Everywhere, higher than the average rate of 15% for media newsletters — Refinery29 knows how to stand out in its readers' inboxes. Its biggest newsletter, Refinery29 Everywhere, boasts a click-to-open rate of 63 percent …
Discussion:
@digiday and @meena_thiru

New Jersey lawmakers introduce the Civic Information Consortium bill that would allocate $20M from the sale of NJ's public TV licenses to fund local journalism — TRENTON - A bill was introduced in the state Legislature on Thursday that would create a fund to promote innovative journalism and support local journalism in New Jersey.
Discussion:
@sstirling, @nmuscavage, @mathewi, @freepressaction, @njassemblydems and Current
Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:
Facebook shareholders call on the company to publish a report examining its guidelines around fake news — Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg faced sharp criticism Thursday during the company's annual shareholders meeting about how the company operates, deals with violence and handles fake news.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, The Daily Caller, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Business Insider and Observer