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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
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@caseynewton, New York Times, Press Gazette, CNBC, Ad Age, Nieman Lab, Mashable, What's New in Publishing, @nicnewman, @benmullin, @pat_garofalo, @benmullin, @benmullin, @perlberg, @rafat, @dskok, @bradesposito, @mathewi, @mattyglesias, Engadget, @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 …
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@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
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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

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:
@dabeard, @foe_us, @kimseverson, @careygillam, @careygillam, @colinlecher, @gmwatch, @peterhimler, @dangillmor, @janeferguson5, @davidlwindt and Boing Boing

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

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 »

Strategy Analytics: Roku, through partnership with TCL and others, crossed Samsung to become the top-selling smart-TV platform in the US with a 33% market share — The Los Gatos, Calif., firm has carved out a lucrative niche in the world of streaming video despite competing against tech giants
Discussion:
Fast Company, 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

NYT is examining deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman's “poor judgment on social media and in responding to criticism”, after his responses to Roxane Gay — The New York Times is “closely examining” the social-media habits of its deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman …