Mediagazer: How Beats' New Music Service Plans to Crush Spotify (Roberto Baldwin/Wired)

7:15 AM ET, January 18, 2014

Top News:

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:

Bloomberg Refocuses on News — At editorial meetings in Bloomberg L.P.'s headquarters this week, Michael R. Bloomberg gave clear signs that he would not be taking a hands-off approach as he returned to his old company. — Just two week's removed from City Hall, and in his first days …

Discussion: @daschles, @shirleybrady and @nathanielpopper

Katie Roof / Fox Business:

AOL's Patch May Be Dismantled: Source — AOL (AOL) shopped its Patch news service for more than a year to various media companies before reaching a deal with private equity firm Hale Global for what's been described as a low-ball bid for the money-losing venture, the FOX Business Network has learned.

Discussion: @katie_roof

Steven Jacobs / Street Fight:

The Patch Saga, and Its Implications for Local Media — Aol's decision to unload its struggling hyperlocal network Patch earlier this week may not have been unexpected, but the distressed property's fire sale does carry with it some broader implications, even as many local media companies …

Jonathan Stray / The Overview Project:

Algorithms are not enough: lessons bringing computer science to journalism — There are some amazing algorithms coming out the computer science community which promise to revolutionize how journalists deal with large quantities of information. But building a tool that journalists can use …

Discussion: @ganley, @joegermuska, @maxj_k, @ahseeder and @skyedoherty

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Eight Percent of DirecTV Subscribers Would Switch Over Weather Channel Dispute — Fresh data in the ongoing DirecTV, Weather Channel carriage dispute reveals a third of DirecTV subscribers would switch, or consider switching, if The Weather Channel were no longer available on the satellite service.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times:

End of film: Paramount first studio to stop distributing celluloid — Paramount's “The Wolf of Wall Street” is the first major Hollywood movie to be distributed entirely in digital format — without the use of film or film reels on which the industry has depended since it began.

Discussion: Variety

Dan Levine / Reuters:

Blogger gets same speech protections as traditional press-U.S. court — (Reuters) - A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

Discussion: Technology & …, E Pluribus Unum, The Volokh Conspiracy, @monicafoster, The Verge, Law Blog, @mathewi, @mathewi, @mathewi, Politico, Hollywood Reporter, @freedomofpress and @adamclarkestes, Thanks:@jaredbkeller

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Time Inc. CEO Ripp Said to be Uninvolved in Son's Promotion — A company spokesman said Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp wasn't involved in his son Brendan Ripp's promotion to publisher of Sports Illustrated. — “The decision to promote Brendan was made by Todd Larsen in consultation with Mark Ford,” the rep emailed.

Discussion: New York Post

Roberto Baldwin / Wired:

How Beats' New Music Service Plans to Crush Spotify — Beats Music won't be joining the most-tracks arms race when it launches Tuesday. Instead, the new subscription service brought to you by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will win converts through a potent mix of smarter algorithms and human curation.

Discussion: App Advice and The Next Web

Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:

Facebook ‘relationships guy’ courts Hollywood, media in new push — (Reuters) - Beyonce fans got a big surprise at midnight on December 13, when the pop star announced her new album from out of the blue. — Just as surprising was her decision to announce the album by posting a 15-second video …

Associated Press:

Gunmen kill 3 TV station employees in Pakistan — KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Police in Pakistan say gunmen have killed three employees of a television news channel. — Police official Javed Odho said the driver, a technician and a security staffer for the private Express News channel …

Discussion: @faizanlakhani, The Express Tribune, The Express Tribune and Committee to Protect …

Trevor Timm / Freedom of the Press Foundation:

Freedom of the Press Foundation's Response to Obama's NSA Speech — President Obama addressed NSA reform in a forty minute speech this morning in which he proposed a few welcome reforms and many which could normalize some of the NSA's most dangerous practices.

Discussion: Slate, The New Yorker Blog, Guardian, Washington Post, @janinegibson, @trevortimm and Kirk LaPointe's …

Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:

With 60M downloads, BitTorrent's Bundle experiment is paying off — The Internet has created a world where value is determined by virality. — BitTorrent is contributing to the evolution of how content gets shared. The creator of file-sharing technology revealed today that people …

Discussion: Techdirt, TechHive and TechCrunch