Mediagazer: The Super Mario Bros. Movie crosses $1B globally at the box office, becoming the first to do so in 2023 and the most financially successful video game movie yet (Rebecca Rubin/Variety)

1:00 PM ET, May 1, 2023

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John Eggerton / Next TV:

FCC judge suspends her review of the deal between Standard General and TV broadcaster Tegna, likely dooming the acquisition as financing expires May 22 — Says, in effect, why start the process if deal may crater anyway — There will now definitely not be any action from the Federal …

Discussion: The Desk, Adweek, Fierce Video, NAB Blog, Tv Technology, FTVLive and Inside Radio

Dominic Patten / Deadline:

At the WHCD, President Biden called for the release of Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice, offered support to their families, and said “journalism is not a crime” — “I believe in the First Amendment, and not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it,” …

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:

The Super Mario Bros. Movie crosses $1B globally at the box office, becoming the first to do so in 2023 and the most financially successful video game movie yet — “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is officially the first film of the year to cross the coveted $1 billion milestone.

Discussion: Nerdist, The Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, IGN, Associated Press, The Wrap, Comic Book, TMZ.com, @starryeyedwho, The Week, Media Play News, Forbes, Screen Rant, SlashFilm, Vanity Fair, Collider and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Jason Zengerle / New York Times:

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Discussion: The Daily Beast, Next TV, Mediaite, Poynter, @jayrosen_nyu, @kausmickey, @nandoodles, @andrew_levidis, @curtishebert, @notjessewalker, The Desk and The Hill

Elon Musk / @elonmusk:

Elon Musk claims that Twitter plans to let media publishers charge users on a per-article basis, with one click, starting in May 2023 — Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click. This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.... https://twitter.com/...

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mediaite, The Verge, Engadget, The Guardian, @josephpolitano, @ryanatdust2, @jakehaleee, @idvck, @strobist, @jsblokland, @arctechinc, @panopticonomy, @deanrosario, @ashkan, @catale7a, @icodrops, @sharonodea, 9to5Mac, @aphelelejody, @beirutspring, @apagut, @whereisdaz, @givenality, @apagut, Variety, @electroniceggs, @jt_mag_os, @hacksultan, @electionlegal, @juddlegum, @mahirzeynalov, Metro.co.uk, @stevanzetti, @mcwm, @benedictevans, @ezralevant, @prestonjbyrne, New York Daily News, @brianmbunde, @mattnavarra, @jamesrbuk, @realtombohn, @iamasarch, @martinsfp, @choisungho, @chaddepue, @taylorlorenz, @philduan, @bmeiselas, @sullycnbc, @royprice, @t0nyyates, @schmmuck, @truedevonthomps, @arrington, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, Deadline, The Information, The Hill, Insider, Fortune, New York Magazine and Bloomberg

Sarah Fielding / Engadget:

Amazon announces plans to make 100+ Prime Video original series available on its free streaming service Freevee gradually throughout the year — Amazon has announced it's making over 100 Prime Video original series and movies available on Freevee, its free streaming service.

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Wrap, Deadline, TVLine and The Hollywood Reporter

David Pierce / The Verge:

How 24/7 free ad-supported TV channels like Tubi, Pluto, and The Roku Channel, which offer big content libraries, became the fastest-growing streaming segment — Call it FAST, call it AVOD, call it whatever you want. Free ad-supported streaming is having a moment, and it's only going to get bigger from here.

Discussion: Variety, Digital Content Next, @hshaban, @buzzedition and Adweek

Josef Adalian / Vulture:
How Tubi, a free streaming service dedicated to the notion that no audience niche is too small to fill, won the internet's heart with 50K+ titles and 64M+ MAUs

Discussion: Ad Age, @jamunfer, @paleofuture, @rokhlk, @tvmojoe and @andrewjohnbundy

Davey Alba / Bloomberg:

NewsGuard finds 49 websites with generic names like “News Live 79” using generative AI and posing as news outlets; some feature falsehoods and programmatic ads — The news-rating group NewsGuard has found dozens of news websites generated by AI chatbots proliferating online …

Discussion: Gizmodo, @sarahscire, @daveyalba, @adamsinger, @mattdpearce and @mylesudland, more at Techmeme »

John Herrman / New York Magazine:

The death of BuzzFeed News and the pivots to nowhere by bloated social media giants show the absurdity of the news media marrying a speculative tech industry — The media bet its future on Facebook. Did it learn from that mistake? — BuzzFeed, the archetypal new media company of the 2010s …

Discussion: @semaforben, @rafat, @chr1sa, @lisatozzi, Digiday, CNBC, @amelscript, @brianroemmele, @localmediarocks, @bobbyallyn, @ckrewson, @mattvella, @marcissist, @jwherrman, NPR, BuzzFeed, Wired and Press Gazette

Pesha Magid / Columbia Journalism Review:

A profile of Jeff German, a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter murdered in September 2022 after a career covering the city's mob violence and the men behind it — In 1978, forty-four years before Jeff German was murdered, he left Milwaukee for a job at The Las Vegas Sun.

Discussion: Washington Post

Ben Smith / Semafor:

Sources: ABC News is scrambling to replace Nate Silver's election forecasting model, which the network rented from Silver as part of the initial ESPN deal — I've spent my career in digital media, so it was humbling to stand in a corner at the lavish CBS News party at the French Ambassador's …

Discussion: @jbillinson

Tabata Viapiana / Brazil Reports:

Brazil's “fake news bill” to regulate social media is set for a vote next week, as platforms argue for self-regulation and critics raise free speech concerns — São Paulo, Brazil - Backed by the federal government and a majority of Supreme Court judges …

Discussion: Breitbart and Reclaim The Net

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Brian Stelter / Los Angeles Magazine:
A look at the diminished state of late-night TV as James Corden departs; sources: his show cost $60M to $65M per year to produce but brought in less than $45M

BBC:
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@hearstunion:
[Thread] WGA East members at Hearst Magazines announce they have a union contract, subject to a ratification vote starting next week, after years of bargaining

Discussion: @lisacullen, @tracyvwilson, @timesunionguild, @ericfrancisco24, @joshgondelman, @tamara_fuentes, @evanromano, @tylercoates, @laurpuckett, @dominicknero, @sesmith, The Wrap and Deadline

Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:
Advertising Association/WARC: UK ad spend grew 8.8% YoY to £34.8B in 2022 and fell 1% YoY to £1.88B across news and magazines, of which £937M was online, up 2%

Discussion: @pressgazette

Earlier Picks:

Angie Drobnic Holan / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis about RQ1, their newsletter spotlighting academic research about journalism, its audience, fact-checking, and more

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Reuters:
EU lawmakers push forward an AI Act draft, which includes requiring companies deploying generative AI tools to disclose copyrighted material used for training

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Alexandra Bruell / @alexbruell:
The New York Times is using a new format that breaks down some news articles into sections like “Why It Matters” and has told some reporters to shorten stories

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
The NBA's Phoenix Suns sign a broadcast deal with Gray Television and a streaming deal with Kiswe, bringing the games to 2.8M+ households, triple the old RSN

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Sinclair Broadcast Group is replacing local newscasts at Toledo's WNWO and Southern Oregon's KTVL with The National Desk, and laying off their entire newsrooms

Discussion: Adweek, @directorcarey, @mjmckean, @ccolin, @blackamazon, @thedeskdotnet, OPB, WTOL-TV, FTVLive and Cord Cutters News, Thanks:@matthewkeyslive

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Makena Kelly / Wired:
Sources: DOGE is hosting a “hackathon” in Washington DC next week to build a “mega API” for accessing all IRS data, with Palantir as a possible partner

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