Top News:
New York Times:
Sources: an Iranian-aligned militia in Iraq is seeking the release of several detained militia members in exchange for freeing journalist Shelly Kittleson — The Iranian-aligned militia, Kataib Hezbollah, is pressing for the release of members detained by the Iraqi government in exchange for freeing the journalist, Shelly Kittleson.
Discussion:
BBC, @marinscott_dpu, ZeroHedge News, Breitbart, The Indian Express, @sewella, Giacomo Zandonini on LinkedIn, Wolfgang Bauer on LinkedIn, @freedomofpress@social …, Reporters Without Borders, Fox News, Newser, FDD's Long War Journal, One America News Network, The Hill, WUSA, WTOP News, Committee to Protect …, Townhall, @sl007@digitalcourage.social, AL-Monitor, Associated Press, The Sun, The US Sun, Bloomberg, Forbes, CBS News, The Guardian, TMZ.com, HotAir, KTVZ, National Enquirer, The Daily Wire, New York Sun, NBC News, Washington Examiner, Metro.co.uk, The National, Daily Mail, Politico and Just Jared
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix averaged 3M viewers for its Opening Night MLB game March 25, a bit short of NBC and Peacock's MLB broadcast the next night, with 3.2M viewers — Netflix and NBC each draw 3 million viewers for their first primetime telecasts under a new deal with MLB.
Discussion:
Sportico, Mediaite, Awful Announcing, Netflix Press Site, Fox News, NBCSports.com, Media Play News and OutKick
Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
Comcast dropped dozens of local TV stations owned by E. W. Scripps from Xfinity TV on Tuesday due to a distribution dispute — It's no April Fool's joke — some Comcast customers woke up to find one or more of their favorite TV stations missing from their Xfinity TV packages early Wednesday morning.
Jem Aswad / Variety:
WMG acquires independent music distributor Revelator, following Universal's Downtown acquisition, as the record industry focuses on serving independent artists — In a move that reflects the record industry's shift toward serving independent artists, Warner Music Group announced Wednesday morning …
Discussion:
Billboard, Benzinga, Digital Music News, Pulse 2.0, The Hollywood Reporter, CTech and Music Business Worldwide
Noor Nanji / BBC:
The BBC says it knew about a UK police investigation into Radio 2's Scott Mills in 2017, but sacked him after “new information” about his conduct came to light — The BBC knew about a police investigation into DJ Scott Mills in 2017, the corporation has confirmed.
Discussion:
NME, The Sun, Daily Star, HuffPost, Daily Mail, GB News, PinkNews, Sky News, FemaleFirst, The Guardian, Mirror, Telegraph, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Mirror, Oh No They Didn't! and Metro.co.uk
Minho Kim / New York Times:
A US appeals court pauses a lower-court order that would have reinstated around 1,000 Voice of America journalists and staff who had been put on paid leave — A panel of three judges halted the lower court order to reinstate all full-time Voice of America reporters and support staff who had been put on paid leave.
Nick El Hajj / Des Moines Register:
Mid-America Publishing, owner of 19 small newspapers and four shopper publications in Iowa, is leaving the industry and has found buyers for most of its papers — Nearly two dozen Iowa newspapers were thrust toward shutdown or sale after the owner of one of the state's largest clusters …
Discussion:
WOC Local And Regional News, Community Newspaper Group and Iowa Public Radio
Will Groff / Wall Street Journal:
Edison Research: female listeners make up 28% of Theo Von's audience and 22% of Joe Rogan's, representing an undertapped market for “manosphere” podcasts — While hosts like Theo Von and Joe Rogan primarily market to men, they've drawn female listeners with a politically adaptable …
Discussion:
@wsj
Heather Bushman / Indianapolis Star:
Circle City Broadcasting lays off what staffers call a significant share of WRTV's staff, after buying the Indianapolis station from Scripps under an FCC waiver — (This story has been updated with new information.) — After completing its acquisition of WRTV, Circle City Broadcasting …
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources: Eater has been central to Vox Media's divestiture talks as interest in food media grows, an uptick that began when Wonder bought Tastemade for $90M — Eater and Tasty are the latest publishers looking to capitalize on a growing appetite for food and dining brands
Bill Adair / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Bryan Jacobs, creator of TomWikiAssist, a NanoClaw Clawbot built to edit and write for Wikipedia, on the mostly negative reactions of human editors — “It's almost like people were really quite disoriented and terrified by it. And to some extent I get it and I'm trying to empathize with how they're feeling."
Discussion:
@richardsever.bsky.social, Security Boulevard, Slate and Digit
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
BBC sources reflect on Tim Davie's DG tenure, mired in impartiality disputes but succeeding in a cultural transformation, as Matt Brittin takes over on May 18 — If Matt Brittin needs a measure of insight about the pressures he's agreed to shoulder, the incoming BBC director general needs …
