Mediagazer: MoviePass parent to sell 10.5M shares at $2.75, 28.2% below Wednesday's $3.83 closing price, as auditor has “substantial doubt” about MoviePass' future (Todd Spangler/Variety)

10:25 AM ET, April 20, 2018

Top News:

Investigation: 300+ organizations' ads ran on extremist YouTube channels despite many advertisers saying they use YouTube's sensitive subject exclusion filter — Advocates say YouTube is collecting kids' data — Ads from over 300 companies and organizations — including tech giants …

Discussion: Variety, Bloomberg, Fortune, MarketWatch, The Wrap, The Next Web, @derekwillis, The Hill, Mediaite, @donie, @gelles and @donie, more at Techmeme »

CNNMoney:

At antitrust trial, AT&T's Randall Stephenson announced AT&T Watch, a $15/month bundle with no sports; spokesman says it will debut in “next several weeks” — Here's a different way to announce a new product — during your testimony in a federal court case.

Discussion: MediaPost, The Wrap, @b_fung, Engadget, Multichannel News, @eriqgardner, FierceCable and BGR

CNNMoney:

In court, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says Time Warner deal would help AT&T keep up with tech giants, sending content directly to viewers and improving ad sales — Why the AT&T-Time Warner trial matters — After weeks of testimony from economists, survey experts and rival executives …

Discussion: Variety, @hadas_gold, @b_fung, @hadas_gold, @dallasnews, Multichannel News, New York Times, Axios, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, CNBC, Los Angeles Times, Variety and CNNMoney

Pew Research Center:

Pew: 58% in US prefer to protect the freedom to publish rather than letting government restrict false info; 56% favor tech firms restricting false information — But 56% support steps from technology companies, even if it means some limits on publishing and accessing information

Discussion: The Guardian, Poynter, Fast Company, MediaPost, @pewjournalism, @yeyoza, @pewresearch, @pewresearch, @michaelbarthel and Pew Research Center, more at Techmeme »

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Michael Cohen drops libel lawsuits against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS over publication of Steele dossier, which alleges he met with Russian operatives for Trump — Embattled attorney Michael Cohen has dropped a pair of much-touted libel suits against BuzzFeed and the private investigation firm Fusion GPS …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Cheddar and Hulu make a deal to bring Cheddar's live linear content to Hulu Live TV, with daily news briefs and other content coming to Hulu on-demand — Cheddar isn't done making deals with the over-the-top streaming TV providers. Only yesterday, news came out that Cheddar was the first digital …

Discussion: Cheddar, Engadget, The Wrap, MediaPost, Deadline and Variety

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Jen Wong, former Time Inc. president of digital and COO, joins Reddit as COO and will focus on business strategy and growth, both of revenue and users — Wong departed Time Inc. after it was acquired by Meredith Corp. in January — Digital media veteran Jen Wong has been named Reddit's …

Discussion: Recode, Upvoted, Variety, New York Post, Mediawire, Business Insider and @onewong, more at Techmeme »

Tony Maglio / The Wrap:

SEC filing on Murdoch earnings from Disney-21st Century Fox deal: Rupert Murdoch, $66.7M; Lachlan Murdoch, $69.1M; and James Murdoch, $70.6M — The Murdochs have a lot of money, and once Disney's $52.4 billion acquisition of the bulk of 21st Century Fox goes through, Fox's top executives …

Discussion: Variety, Business Insider, Deadline and Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal:
Regulatory filing confirms 21st Century Fox rejected Comcast offer largely due to antitrust risks, even though bid was 16% higher per share than Disney's offer

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, FierceCable, Variety, New York Times, @shalini, @shalini and @pkafka

Daniel Funke / Poynter:

A look at Facebook's month-long rollout of its fact-checking tool and its partners in Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, and Colombia — What started as a pilot project 16 months ago is now one of Facebook's primary weapons against fake news. — During his testimony to Congress last week …

Discussion: Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Todd Spangler / Variety:

MoviePass parent to sell 10.5M shares at $2.75, 28.2% below Wednesday's $3.83 closing price, as auditor has “substantial doubt” about MoviePass' future — - Vice Inks Netflix, Theatrical Deals for Motherboard's ‘The Most Unknown’ Science Documentary (EXCLUSIVE)

Discussion: TechCrunch, Variety, East Bay Times, TechCrunch, Deadline, Engadget, The A.V. Club, /Film and The Playlist, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

German Supreme Court rules that ad blockers are legal, in favor of Adblock Plus, and throws out a case brought by Axel Springer — KARLSRUHE/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a case brought by Axel Springer seeking to ban a popular application …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, BBC, Engadget and @jason_kint, more at Techmeme »

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:

NBCU joins Fox, Viacom, and Turner in OpenAP consortium with a buy-in that costs $10M, sources say; OpenAP standardizes categories ad buyers can purchase — OpenAP membership can cost up to $10 million over five years — Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal has been reluctant to support OpenAP …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost, FierceCable, Radio & Television …, @awolk, @alexbruell, Adweek, AdExchanger and Ad Age

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More News:

Associated Press:
FBI is offering up to $1M for information leading to Austin Tice, a journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012

Discussion: New York Daily News and CBS News

Douglas Busvine / Reuters:
Researchgate, which lets researchers share papers, reaches deal on copyright with Springer Nature, Cambridge University Press, Thieme; Elsevier, others hold out

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, @superglaze, ResearchGate, @researchgate, @lisalibrarian, @ijadmadisch and @mcdawg

CNNMoney:
In Ireland, Facebook rolls out a new tool that gives users more information about creators of sponsored posts and political ads ahead of abortion referendum

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @transparentref, @cnn, The Irish Times and BBC

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
Source: Meredith rejected a $300M+ offer for Time, Fortune, Money, SI from AMI; interest in the outlets is from wealthy individuals with non-media backgrounds

Discussion: Washington Post

Earlier Picks:

Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:
Sources: Netflix has considered buying movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles; it decided not to pursue LA-based Landmark Theatres due to high price

Discussion: The Verge, Fortune, The Ringer, @truculenttexan, Variety, Gizmodo, /Film, @scottporch, The Playlist, Vanity Fair, IndieWire, @latimes, @andredoesthings, @scott_tobias, UPROXX and The Atlantic, more at Techmeme »

Sara Jerde / Adweek:
HelloGiggles, bought by Time Inc. in 2015 and now part of Meredith, launches a print version, with a 500K-copy initial run sent to People subscribers age 18-39

Discussion: MediaPost, Folio, @ginainterrupted and @hellogiggles

Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times:
Harper's Magazine Editor James Marcus says he was fired after a story by Katie Roiphe was assigned over his objections; he says he refused severance tied to NDA

Discussion: @dalemaharidge, @moorehn and @magiciansbook

David Ingram / Reuters:
Facebook says it will change T&C in May for 1.5B users outside of Europe to be governed by US ToS instead of Ireland ToS, limiting GDPR impact to 400M users

Discussion: The Interface, VentureBeat, Engadget, CNBC, TechCrunch, Politico, Recode, @felixsalmon, @je5perl, Mashable, @mikarv, Gizmodo, @david_ingram, The Hill, @markfollman, @profcarroll, @swiftonsecurity and @profcarroll, more at Techmeme »

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer / Tampa Bay Business Journal:
The Tampa Bay Times is cutting about 50 jobs across departments; spokeswoman says the cuts are a direct response to rising costs from newsprint tariffs

Discussion: Poynter, @davidsirota, @kristenorsborn, @kirbywtweets, HuffPost and @journo_christal

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
Sources: the US FTC plans to investigate allegations that Microsoft is abusing its market power in productivity software to prevent customers from leaving Azure

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI says the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS can now read code from some developer-focused apps, including VS Code, Xcode, TextEdit, Terminal, and iTerm2

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google releases a free Gemini app for iOS, letting users ask questions, chat via text, voice, or their camera, and use the conversational mode Gemini Live

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