Top News:

Sources: Facebook offered millions to ABC News, Dow Jones, Washington Post, and Bloomberg to license their content for a Facebook news section to debut in 2019 — Company approached ABC News, Dow Jones, Washington Post and Bloomberg as it plans to launch news section
Discussion:
@caseynewton, New York Times, Press Gazette, CNBC, Ad Age, Nieman Lab, Mashable, What's New in Publishing, @nicnewman, Engadget, @benmullin, @pat_garofalo, @benmullin, @benmullin, @perlberg, @rafat, @dskok, @bradesposito, @mathewi, @mattyglesias, @rdmurphy, @waltmossberg, @jbillinson, @rachelcharlenel, @jeffyoung, @rasmus_kleis, @jayrosen_nyu, Digital Trends, @caseynewton, @mikeisaac, @ow, @samsanders, @bendreyfuss, @niemanlab, @juddlegum, @futterish, @mikeisaac, The Next Web, Reclaim The Net, Deadline, Associated Press, The Verge, Ars Technica, Boing Boing, The Hill and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

New Media Investment Group's shares fell ~33% between Monday and Wednesday, after the cash and stock acquisition of Gannett was announced, endangering the deal — A $1.4 billion deal to buy USA Today owner Gannett Co. has been so poorly received since it was announced on Monday that executives …
Discussion:
@mattdpearce, @mattdpearce, @breakinbriks44, @abbeycrain, @mattdpearce, @lmower3, @conarck, @dekotagregory, @gtoppo, @senyorreporter, @mattkatz00, @cmonstah, @apantazi, @mbayer1248, @ehernandez, Awful Announcing, @sindap, @chrisvannini, @davidfolkenflik, Milwaukee Business Journal and Bloomberg

CBS says it is accelerating its rollout of streaming news service CBSN Local to remaining 11 markets by early 2020, ahead of political primaries and elections — Accelerated rollout means local streaming news products in place before primaries — CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, investors.lionsgate.com, The Wrap, Variety, The Streamable and The Streamable
RELATED:

A Brazil Supreme Court minister bars the Bolsonaro administration from investigating The Intercept Brasil and Glenn Greenwald for their reporting — In a crucial victory for press freedom in Brazil, Minister Gilmar Mendes, a member of Brazil's Supreme Court, has barred the Bolsonaro administration …
Discussion:
@trevortimm and @freedomofpress

An administrator at The Guardian, who was in charge of paying freelance journalists, has been jailed for 20 months for stealing £138K+ from the newspaper — An administrator at The Guardian who stole more than £138,000 from the newspaper to bankroll his wedding has been jailed for 20 months.
Discussion:
@markdistef, @adambanksdotcom, @whatthebit, @markdistef and @imaniamrani

Court docs show Monsanto ran a “fusion center” that monitored a Reuters journalist and encouraged negative reviews of her 2017 book on its Roundup weedkiller — Internal documents show how the company worked to discredit critics and investigated singer Neil Young
Discussion:
@foe_us, @kimseverson, @careygillam, @dabeard, @careygillam, @colinlecher, @gmwatch, @peterhimler, @dangillmor, @janeferguson5, @davidlwindt and Boing Boing

News UK says The Times and The Sunday Times now have combined paid digital-only subscribers of 304K, up 19% YoY, for a total of 539K paid subscribers — The Times and Sunday Times now have more than 300,000 paid digital-only subscribers between them. — The titles, which both publish …
Discussion:
The Drum

Google will start surfacing individual podcast episodes in search results and will soon let users ask Google Assistant to play podcasts about specific topics — Search for what you want to hear — Google is taking the next step in making podcasts easier to find.
Discussion:
Fast Company, The Keyword, TechCrunch, @zkahn, @dzohrob, @mrpaulbae and @ashleyrcarman, more at Techmeme »

Lionsgate reports Q1 revenue of $963.6M and operating income of $67.3M, beating estimates, amid growth in Starz subscribers to 26.5M, up 2.6M YoY — Lionsgate has posted revenues and operating income above Wall Street projections for its first fiscal quarter of 2019, amid growth …
Discussion:
The Wrap

CBS All Access will add children's programming, including more than 1,000 episodes from its library and new original series, will begin rollout this year — Original series include ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ and new ‘Danger Mouse’ — CBS All Access is bringing children's programming …
Discussion:
The Streamable and The Streamable

How Hacker News moderators Daniel Gackle and Scott Bell practice a personal and slow approach, engaging with users in e-mail chains that can last for years — Can a human touch make Silicon Valley's biggest discussion forum a more thoughtful place? — Open-plan offices offer few pleasures …
Discussion:
The Verge, @jesslivingston, @willoremus, @garrytan, @cwarzel and @gustaf, more at Techmeme »
News Corp:
News Corp. posts full year revenue of $10.07B, up 12% YoY, net income of $228M vs. 2018's $1.44B loss, says WSJ digital subs reached 2.6M, 69% of total subs — Fiscal 2019 Full Year Key Financial Highlights — Revenues were $10.07 billion, a 12% increase compared to $9.02 billion in the prior year …
Discussion:
Australian Financial Review, Channel News, AdNews, The Times & The Sunday Times and Mumbrella