Mediagazer: A look at Luminary Media, a year after its launch as “the Netflix of podcasting”: company says subscriber base grew by 14% in the past six weeks amid lockdown (Gerry Smith/Bloomberg)

4:05 PM ET, April 24, 2020

Top News:

NYT, WaPo, NBC have once again opted for a both sides approach in their coverage of Trump's suggestion of ingesting disinfectant as coronavirus treatment — Last night, an increasingly desperate President went on live TV and advised that people might try ingesting disinfectant to cure COVID-19.

Discussion: @nytimes, @jasonpatinkin, New York Times, The Wrap, Vanity Fair, @drvox, Press Watch, @juliancastro, @ggreeneva, @davidlaz, Raw Story, @ashleyfeinberg, @doctorow, @mattgoldberg, @dankennedy_nu and @tusk81

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to step down, President and COO John Stankey will take over the position on July 1 — Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. — AT&T announced CEO Randall Stephenson will step down. President and COO John Stankey will take over the position on July 1.

Discussion: CNBC, The Wrap, Variety, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Light Reading, Axios, AT&T, Politico, The Verge, @davidschawel and @felixsalmon, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

In Q1, revenue for Verizon Media came in at $1.7B, down 4% YoY, due to decline in ad rates; FiOS TV lost 84K subscribers — Verizon posted first-quarter 2020 revenue of $31.6 billion, down 1.6%, citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic for the miss on Wall Street expectations.

Discussion: Verizon, Multichannel News, Light Reading, ZDNet, The Verge and Protocol

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

A group of 75+ scholars and non-profits urges social media companies to preserve data on content removal during the pandemic and make it available for research — The data provides an ‘unprecedented opportunity’ — A group of scholars and nonprofit organizations have asked web platforms …

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, @epirkova, @accessnow, Center for Democracy …, @mollyjongfast, @holden and @aaronmiller

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:

A look at Luminary Media, a year after its launch as “the Netflix of podcasting”: company says subscriber base grew by 14% in the past six weeks amid lockdown — No ads. No Axelrod. No problem. New CEO is gung-ho on subscription model — When Luminary Media launched in April 2019 …

Greg Dool / Folio:

Executive Media launches MagBox, a subscription-based bundle of five niche magazines from different independent publishers, mailed every two months for $40/year — Unlike most mass-market magazine publishers, whose print books generally depend far more on subscriptions and advertising revenue …

Discussion: @foliomag and @glecharles

Jeremy Klaszus / @klaszus:

[Thread] Spruce founder details how the digital outlet was excluded from Canada's Local Journalism Initiative, which he says is crafted by and for legacy papers — Soooo the newspaper lobby group administering the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) for the Canadian government explicitly barred @sprawlcalgary from eligibility for federal funds. Don't know whether to laugh or cry. THREAD

Discussion: @farhanmohamed, @achurrell, @erinmillar and @jessebrown

Adam Uren / Bring Me The News:

Minnesota's Eden Prairie News and Lakeshore Weekly News close; they were among the 11 papers Alden's MNG acquired in February when it bought Red Wind Publishing — The two papers cover the Lake Minnetonka and Eden Prairie areas. — Two west metro newspapers are the latest victims …

Discussion: SWNewsMedia.com

Hollywood Reporter:

Q&A with Pradeep Dwivedi, CEO of Eros International's India division, about its STX Entertainment merger, accusations of accounting irregularities, and more — Pradeep Dwivedi says the two companies can complement each other in a bid to expand in India, appeal to Chinese sensibilities and compete with the streamers.

Megan Graham / CNBC:

Google to require all advertisers to verify their identities, starting in the US; existing advertisers will have 30 days to complete the verification process — - Google began requiring political advertisers wanting to run election ads on its platform to verify their identity back in 2018.

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Leaked images from 2019 show Google considered a feature that let users tip money to websites like Wired or NYT as part of its Contributor program — Leaked images obtained by TechCrunch reveal that Google considered and designed a feature that would let people donate money to websites …

Discussion: @joshconstine, @brianroemmele, Android Central, @jonrussell, @jason_kint, @tedgioia, @joshconstine and @joshconstine, more at Techmeme »

Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:

NBCU launches Checkout, which allows users to buy featured products on its articles and videos without being redirected to other sites — Comcast's NBCUniversal Thursday unveiled a new digital commerce storefront that streamlines consumers' ability to purchase items advertised on linear TV and online …

Discussion: @retailprophet, @scottmonty, Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, TechCrunch and Ad Age

Sam Kille / Report for America:

Report for America announces its 2020 corps, which comprises 225 journalists vs. 59 in 2019, to be placed in 162 outlets, and $2.5M in funding from Facebook — Report for America today announced the selection of 225 journalists for its 2020 reporting corps.

Mike Fleming Jr / Deadline:

Universal Pictures seals a 5-year exclusive deal with LEGO Group for film development, production, and theatrical distribution — EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has completed a five-year exclusive deal with the LEGO Group that will lead to the development, production and theatrical distribution …