Mediagazer: Time Warner Cable Subscriber Figures Called “Dismal” (Wall Street Journal)

5:25 AM ET, January 31, 2014

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

The secret to having a successful paywall around your news is simple — it's about community — Everyone likes to point to the New York Times as the model for a news outlet with a successful paywall or online-subscription model, but as the authors of Columbia University's report on …

Discussion: @marklittlenews, The Dish and Capital New York

Ciara Byrne / Co.Labs:

Inside The Ad-Free, Crowdfunded Publication That Is Upending The Newspaper Business — For two years, Rob Wijnberg was the editor of NRC Next, a Dutch daily newspaper. After he was fired, he decided he would start over by launching his own publication—and using an entirely new business model.

Discussion: @fastcolabs, @mathewi and @mathewi

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook's New “Creative Labs” Lets The 6,000-Employee Giant Move Fast Like A Startup — It's tough to experiment with a billion people watching. At that scale, Facebook's mantras of “move fast and break things” and “Done is better than perfect” don't quite work.

Discussion: The Verge, Facebook, Businessweek, @annepascual, CNET and Business Insider

Lance Ulanoff / Mashable:

Facebook Paper Is Content — But Don't Call Facebook a Media Company — Is Facebook Paper short for Facebook NewsPaper? — Thursday's unveiling of a new standalone content curation app, Facebook Paper, comes after weeks of speculation and rumors about Facebook hiring editors …

Discussion: Re/code, @agolis, @jason, Ars Technica, Kirk LaPointe's …, Wired, Guardian and Gigaom

Donna Tam / CNET:

Amazon considers $40 increase in Prime subscription fee — Amazon may increase its US Amazon Prime membership fee by $40 dollars more, the company's chief financial officer announced Thursday during an earnings call. — CFO Tom Szkutak said growing transportation costs may cause …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, @gregbensinger, @fmanjoo, Home Media Magazine and Digits

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Amazon's Stock Price Stumbles After Hours On Revenue, Earnings Miss And Weak Guidance

Discussion: Amazon.com, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, ZDNet, Forbes, The Verge, Digits, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Business Insider and CNET

Alexandra Wake / Nieman Journalism Lab:

In Australia, an ambitious nonprofit news outlet has its funding pulled out from under it — Editor's note: When I speak to journalists or news executives from other countries, there's one part of the American news ecosystem they're always amazed by: our nonprofit news outlets.

Discussion: @davidc7, The Global Mail, @niemanlab, The Conversation, @wakeinfright, mUmBRELLA and Sydney Morning Herald

Dylan Byers / Politico:

MSNBC president apologizes to RNC — MSNBC President Phil Griffin apologized to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Thursday for a tweet that suggested conservatives “hate” interracial marriages. — “The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable.

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wrap, Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Erik Wemple, @stefanjbecket, @buzzfeedben, @alexweprin, @abumuqawama, @thestalwart, @tvnewslab, BBC, @reince, Poynter, Associated Press, Business Insider and New York Magazine

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Be Careful at the Book Club, the Author Might Be There — The living room in the plush apartment on Central Park West was filled with all the trappings of a traditional book club. — A dozen people, mostly women, perched on sofas and armchairs with paperbacks on their laps.

Discussion: Melville House Books

Beth Healy / Boston Globe:

John Henry appoints Mike Sheehan CEO of the Globe, names himself publisher — Well-known Boston advertising executive Mike Sheehan will become chief executive officer of The Boston Globe, and the newspaper company's new owner, John Henry, will assume the role of publisher …

Discussion: Poynter, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Associated Press

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Fox News once again most and least trusted name in news — PPP's 5th annual poll about trust in TV news continues to find what it does every year: Fox News is both the most trusted and least trusted name in news. — 35% of Americans say they trust Fox News more than any other TV news outlet …

Discussion: TVNewser, @atompkins, @robtr2, The Huffington Post, @bponsot, @umairh, @ppppolls and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

Net neutrality petition gets a million signatures — The advocacy group Free Press, along with a broad coalition of organizations, has delivered the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a petition with a million signatures asking to restore the federal protections for net neutrality that were struck down in court two weeks ago.

Discussion: Free Press Blog

Josh Stearns / Groundswell:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bite-Sized News — Last week the BBC launched Instafax, a short-form video newswire designed for Instagram where videos are limited to 15 seconds. For now, the BBC is describing their project as an experiment, but the move is part of a much larger trend that, at one point, I scoffed at.

Discussion: @jcstearns

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Let's face it: social TV is dead — Okay, video startups, it's time to get real: That social TV thing you've been trying for the last couple years? It's not working. — The evidence is all around us: A few days ago, Yahoo announced that it was shutting down Intonow, the social TV service it had acquired three years ago.

Discussion: @jenali, @sashaboersma, AdAge and Yahoo! Finance

Adam L. Penenberg / PandoDaily:

Inside the mind of Jason Calacanis — Not long after Jason Calacanis raised $20 million in venture capital for Mahalo, his startup that was initially predicated on human-powered search, I flew to Los Angeles to profile him for a magazine. I'm a native New Yorker who earlier in life …

Discussion: @sarahcuda and @pkafka

Reed Albergotti / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Uses Data to Charm Advertisers — Facebook Refined its Tools that Allow Advertisers to Target Users Based on Spending Habits in Brick and Mortar Stores — To make the journey from underachiever to advertising juggernaut, Facebook Inc. had to do some advertising of its own.

Discussion: @reedalbergotti

Sydney Morning Herald:

Australia's prime minister ready to pull the plug on public broadcaster's foreign service — Tony Abbott ready to pull the plug on ABC's foreign service — Prime Minister Tony Abbott has given a clear indication the government is moving towards stripping the ABC of its foreign broadcast service, the Australia Network.

Discussion: The Stream and Guardian

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

N.F.L. creating digital channel: ‘NFL Now’ — The National Football League is creating a new HD digital video channel called “N.F.L. Now.” The channel, which launches this summer, will be available on any device, though apps for iOS, Android and Windows systems, and on web browsers through NFL.com/Now.

Discussion: Business Insider, Latest News & Headlines, Home Media Magazine and Los Angeles Times

Jennifer Silber / Folio:

La Presse+ Sees Significant Gains in First 9 Months — New digital edition installed on more than 400,000 iPads. — The free digital edition of Montreal-based daily newspaper La Presse has seen tremendous increases in the last nine months. Since its launch in April last year …

P.J. Bednarski / MediaPost:

Machinima COO Reeves Leaves to Rejoin Start-Up — Nanea Reeves, Machinima's chief operating officer since March 2012, left the company at the beginning of the year, is no longer with the company, VideoInk is reporting. — VideoInk said multiple sources confirmed that Reeves left the online gamer network …

Discussion: VideoInk

Sarah Laskow / Columbia Journalism Review:

Pacific Standard is upping its Web game to “get the magazine in front of more eyeballs” — Pacific Standard is upping its Web game to “get the magazine in front of more eyeballs” — Pacific Standard has had an exciting January. It's been the magazine's biggest traffic month ever, on track to hit 1.25 million uniques.

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Outside Magazine Gets into the Travel Business — Launches Outside Go to begin booking customized adventure excursions. — Mariah Media's Outside magazine has launched a new division that will begin booking the kind of adventure travel it's long been writing about.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Former Hulu Head Jason Kilar's Stealth Startup Pitches Magazine Publishers — Jason Kilar made a big splash in Web video and TV when he ran Hulu. — Now he's trying do the same thing with Web publishing and magazines. — Kilar has yet to talk publicly about The Fremont Project, the startup he began staffing up last fall.

Discussion: @pkafka, @mathewi and @delrey

Wall Street Journal:

Time Warner Cable Subscriber Figures Called “Dismal” — Company to Up Spending on Technology as It Tries to Fend Off Suitor — Under takeover pressure from Charter Communications Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc. reported weaker subscriber results for the fourth quarter but outlined …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, @wsj, @shaliniwsj, BGR, Reuters, Business Wire and Bloomberg

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

When Super Bowl Advertisers Compete For the Web, Google Wins — Winning the Pre- and Post- Super Bowl Is Increasingly What Counts — The big game isn't until Sunday, but for Super Bowl advertisers the first quarter is already over. That's because increasingly the battle isn't for the game itself …

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Forbes, WWD Media Headlines, Globe and Mail, Speakeasy, VentureBeat, Gigaom, facebook.com, Variety and Latest News & Headlines

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:

NBC Universal to Start Selling Addressable Ads in Video on Demand — ‘NBCU+ Powered By Comcast’ Will Expand VOD Addressability — NBC Universal and parent company Comcast have formed an effort to allow marketers to better target campaigns across NBC Universal's portfolio and expand video on demand addressability.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Tim Franklin is Poynter's new president — The Poynter Institute announced Thursday that its new president will be Tim Franklin, the Washington managing editor for Bloomberg News. Franklin was director of the National Sports Journalism Center at the Indiana University School of Journalism …

Discussion: Poynter, @larraoverton, NetNewsCheck Latest, @poynter, FishbowlNY and @davidfolkenflik

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Times raises paywall a little higher on mobile — The New York Times has tweaked its pay meter for mobile apps. The bottom line is you're likely, depending how you use them, to hit the paywall sooner. — Starting today, users reaching Times content on mobile apps will get free access …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and FishbowlNY