Top News:
Dwight Garner / New York Times:
Roger Angell, a writer and editor at The New Yorker widely considered among the best baseball writers ever, died Friday at home in Manhattan at 101 — In elegantly winding articles for The New Yorker loaded with inventive imagery, he wrote more like a fan than a sports journalist.
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Dylan Byers / Puck:
Sources: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts approached Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson earlier this year with a plan to merge NBCUniversal with EA; the plan fell apart — For months, the media elite have been wondering what the Comcast impresario might buy to scale up in the content wars.
Discussion:
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Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
After ~30 buyouts, BuzzFeed News will have 70-80 staffers, down from a peak of ~250; the investigations team published five big projects in its last five weeks — The site's prized investigations unit is disbanding and dropping its last bombshells—"a triumphal exit," says the team's editor …
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Nielsen: streaming had a record 30.4% share of US TV viewing in April, with Netflix accounting for 6.6%, YouTube 6.1%, Disney+ 1.7%, and HBO Max 1% — HBO Max previously was included in Nielsen's “other streaming” category. The measurement firm broke it out now that HBO Max hit the 1% share threshold.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Memo: Meredith Artley, editor-in-chief of CNN Digital Worldwide, is leaving the company, where she has worked for more than twelve years — Meredith Artley, the longtime SVP and editor-in-chief of CNN Digital Worldwide, is out at the network, according to a memo obtained by Axios.
Discussion:
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Simon Fraser / BBC:
The Taliban order female Afghan TV presenters and other women on screen to cover their faces while on air starting May 21 — The Taliban have ordered female Afghan TV presenters and other women on screen to cover their faces while on air. — Media outlets were told of the decree on Wednesday …
Discussion:
CNN, Reuters, @risj_oxford, @sarasidnercnn, @zahrasrahimi, @nprkelly, @jodyvance, @cnni, Foreign Policy and Insider
Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
A new bipartisan Senate bill would prohibit companies with $20B+ in annual digital ad transactions from participating in more than one part of the ad ecosystem — The bill, which has some Democratic support, takes aim at conflicts of interest in advertising technology
Discussion:
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Rick Porter / Hollywood Reporter:
The CW pares down its fall TV shows as parent companies Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global look to sell the network; Nexstar is the lead bidder — The network sets a lineup a week after cutting more series than it has in a decade. — A pair of prequels and a handful of acquisitions …
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David Gilbert / VICE:
Organizers of CPAC Hungary, a right-wing event featuring speakers including Tucker Carlson, denied on-site access to the AP, Vice, Rolling Stone, and others — VICE News was barred from the conservative conference, where the star attraction is Hungary's authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
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Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Google agrees to not remove Bandcamp from the Play Store even if it doesn't implement Google's IAP; Epic will keep 10% of Bandcamp's in-app purchases in escrow — Bandcamp's had a rollercoaster couple of months. — In March, the online music store and direct-to-fan platform got both the music …
Discussion:
Billboard, TechCrunch, Protocol, FOSS Patents and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »
Carrie Blazina / Pew Research Center:
Study: student journalists make up 11% of US state capitol reporters; in Nebraska 58% of state reporters are students, in Louisiana 26%, and in Virginia 25% — Student journalists account for around one-in-ten state capitol reporters in the United States (11%), according to a recent Pew Research Center study.
Discussion:
@amyrsisk, @heady_chris, @pewjournalism, @austinamestoy and @johngramlich
Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Collectively, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW averaged 77.4 pilot orders a year over the past decade, but in the 2022 season, the five had only 35 pickups — With media giants emphasizing streaming and overall series orders plummeting, networks are no longer the stars of the annual event.