Mediagazer: Blockbuster Sells Mexican Subsidiary (Erik Gruenwedel/Home Media Magazine)

12:05 AM ET, January 15, 2014

Top News:

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Court strikes down FCC's net neutrality rules, agency may appeal — An appeals court in Washington on Tuesday ruled that the FCC's “net neutrality” rules, which prevent companies like Verizon from favoring some types of internet traffic over others, are invalid.

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

What you need to know about the court decision that just struck down net neutrality — The principle behind the phrase “net neutrality” is that internet service providers of all kinds should treat data flowing over the open internet equally, without giving preferential treatment to data from one provider or platform.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Switch, The Technology Chronicles, The Verge, BuzzFeed, @dankennedy_nu and TIME

Tom Wheeler / Official FCC Blog:
Ensuring an Open Internet Now and for the Future

Discussion: @tomwheelerfcc and Gigaom

Brent Kendall / Digits:
Net Neutrality Ruling: What the Key Passages Mean

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, PandoDaily and Free Press Blog

Erik Wemple:

Politico's Mike Allen gives flattering coverage to Roger Ailes and Fox News — Politico's Mike Allen and Fox News PR — In Sunday's edition of “Playbook,” Politico's Mike Allen included a massive excerpt of the new biography of Fox News chief Roger Ailes by journalist Gabriel Sherman …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post and Crikey

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Washington Post, Politico Editors To Meet After Bombshell Mike Allen Reports (UPDATE: Allen Speaks Out) — NEW YORK — Politico editor-in-chief John Harris and chief executive Jim VandeHei are expected to visit The Washington Post on Wednesday to discuss the paper's recent scrutiny …

David Gelles / DealBook:

How Much Time Warner May Be Worth to a Suitor — Charter Communications says it is offering a full price for Time Warner Cable. At $132.50 a share, its proposal amounts to a 40 percent premium above where Time Warner Cable's stock was trading in June, before rumors of a deal surfaced.

Discussion: ZDNet

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:
Charter touts benefits of offer for Time Warner Cable

Discussion: @alexrubalcava, @deborahyao, @richbtig, @jbflint and @claireatki

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

With Knight funding, Solutions Journalism Network wants to grow reporting on positive results in health reporting — The Solutions Journalism Network wants to help newsrooms change how they report on problems in the community. As its name would imply, it wants to outlets find ways to report on solutions …

Discussion: Knight Foundation, @jsb, Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter and The Clinton Foundation

Desiree Everts / Idea Lab:
Knight News Challenge Winners: Health Care Meets Big Data

Discussion: 10,000 Words and Solutions Journalism Network

J.K. Trotter / Gawker:

Howard Kurtz Lied About Business Ties To Fox News Contributor — Fox News anchor Howard Kurtz has repeatedly claimed, most famously during a live interrogation on CNN, that his relationship with Fox News contributor Lauren Ashburn amounted to a “limited venture” for which the MediaBuzz host …

Discussion: Politico, @gabrielsherman, @timothypmurphy, @franklinh3000, @aburnspolitico, @buzzfeedandrew, @mikemadden, @daveweigel, @mlcalderone, @jktrotter and New York Magazine

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Study shows decline in news quality at Times-Picayune since shift to digital, cut in print schedule — Tracking digital-era news quality declines — A Tulane student project tracks the Times-Picayune before and after a digital overhaul — When the New Orleans Times-Picayune announced …

Discussion: Poynter

Michael J. De La Merced / DealBook:

Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million — With Netflix soaring, investors are betting that a start-up based on the same business model — but for e-books — will succeed as well. — Oyster, which gives customers access to more than 100,000 books for $10 a month, has raised $14 million in a new round of financing.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Forbes, Fast Company, Gigaom, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, @ataussig, @bobdavishcp, Bookseller news and Capital New York

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Snowden to Join Board of Press Freedom Foundation — Washington — Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor whose leaks of secret documents set off a national and global debate about government spying, is joining the board of a nonprofit organization co-founded by Daniel Ellsberg …

Discussion: Freedom of the Press …, The Switch, Guardian, @ggreenwald, @danielellsberg, @charlie_savage, @sullduggery, The Huffington Post and Boing Boing

Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:

Viacom to launch customizable kids' TV channel, My Nick Jr., on Verizon FiOS — Viacom to Launch Customized Kids' TV Channel — My Nickelodeon Junior to Combine Elements of Streaming Services Pandora and Netflix — Viacom Inc. plans to launch a children's TV channel in the U.S …

Michael Berkens / TheDomains.com:

Chicago Sun-Times to test Bitcoin and Twitter paywall with startup BitWall — The Chicago Sun-Times, the 9th largest newspaper in the USA, is testing a social paywall that will accept both Tweets and Bitcoin in partnership with the content monetization startup BitWall.

Discussion: Poynter, Fast Company, Business Insider, The Technology Chronicles, Daily Dot, Mediaite, @dylanbyers and @holmesdm

Erik Gruenwedel / Home Media Magazine:

Blockbuster Sells Mexican Subsidiary — Blockbuster LLC Jan. 14 said it has completed the sale of Blockbuster Mexico to Grupo Elektra, a company owned by Grupo Salinas, which itself owns businesses in the television industry, telecommunications, banking and financial markets.

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Time Inc. hires CTO from Amazon, and in 2013 made offer of less than $200m for Forbes — As It Preps for Spinoff, Time Inc. Hires CTO from Amazon — As it gets ready to say goodbye to Time Warner, Time Inc. has brought in someone with digital chops to the top of the company's org chart …

Discussion: Capital New York, WWD Media Headlines and FishbowlNY

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Fox Taps the Lonely Island to Develop TV Shows Via Digital Platforms — Andy Samberg comedy troupe joins ADHD, Wigs in Kevin Reilly's stable of online incubators — Fox is extending its efforts to mine the next generation of TV hits on digital platforms, inking comedy troupe the Lonely Island to an “alternative” development deal.

Discussion: Splitsider and The Wrap

Mitch Stoltz / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

To Safeguard the Public Domain (and the Public Interest), Fix Copyright's Crazy Penalties — What if a single parking ticket carried a fine of up to a year's salary? What if there were no way to know consistently how much the fine would be before you got it?