Mediagazer: FCC Backs Off Study of Newsroom Editorial Practices (Katy Bachman/Adweek)

3:50 PM ET, February 13, 2014

Top News:

Time Warner Cable To Merge With Comcast Corporation To Create A World-Class Technology And Media Company — Strategic Combination Will Accelerate Delivery of Comcast's Technologically Advanced Products and Services to Time Warner Cable's Customers — Transaction Creates Multiple Pro-Consumer …

Om Malik / Gigaom:

Comcast and Time Warner Cable: Forget TV, it is all about broadband — If it is allowed to gobble up its number two rival, Time Warner Cable, Philadelphia-based Comcast will become the largest broadband provider in the United States, and perhaps the largest outside China.

Susan Crawford / Bloomberg:

Comcast's Time Warner Deal Is Bad for America — David Cohen, Comcast Corp.'s executive vice president and the mastermind behind its deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc., sounded pugnacious and confident on a recent conference call with investors. Regulatory and antitrust approval of the deal …

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian, The New York Observer, @dankennedy_nu, @stevenlevy, @stevenlevy, @kpkelleher and Consumerist

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Local stations ‘have reason to sweat’ over Comcast-Time Warner deal — Comcast announced Tuesday it intends to purchase Time Warner Cable for about $45 billion. — Such a merger “may have little impact on consumers,” David Gelles writes in The New York Times.

Discussion: Gigaom, NewsBusters blogs, BuzzFeed and The Newspaper Guild

Bloomberg:

Comcast Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 Billion — Comcast Corp. agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45.2 billion, combining the two largest U.S. cable companies in an all-stock transaction. — Investors of New York-based Time Warner Cable will receive 2.875 new Comcast stock …

Lance Ulanoff / Mashable: The National Domination of Comcast and Time Warner in 1 Map

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:
Comcast claims competition from Google Fiber, Netflix & Hulu are reasons to approve merger

Discussion: Republic Report, Vanity Fair, @notsalome, @gigaom, The Verge and @agolis

Wall Street Journal:
Comcast, Time Warner Deal to Spark Regulatory Debate, Outcome Uncertain

Discussion: Re/code, @brkend and @wsjd

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:
Time Warner Cable CEO Sells Company a Month Into Term: ‘This Transaction Seems Very Natural to Me’

Discussion: @edmundlee

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Comcast lists all the ways a merger with Time Warner is “pro-consumer”

Discussion: Fast Company and Gigaom

Peter Weber / The Week:
There's no way Comcast will buy Time Warner Cable

Discussion: Gigaom, Capital New York, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Business Insider, @tthornb and DealBook

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

NBC executives tout Oympics gains, acknowledge critiques, study for 2016 — The chairman of NBC Sports, Mark Lazarus, remains adamant that timeshifting and subsequently cutting down the Sochi Olympic opening ceremonies was a good idea. — “I continue to believe, having now been in the stadium …

Discussion: Latest News & Headlines, Mediaite, The Wrap, Forbes, @mikenizza and The Huffington Post

Chris Gayomali / Fast Company:

The Death Of The Spoiler Alert? — ESPN, TWITTER, AND A HOST OF OTHER COMPANIES SEEM INCREASINGLY UNCONCERNED WITH RUINING THE OUTCOME OF THE GAMES FOR VIEWERS—AND THEY SEE IT AS A GOOD THING. — Sochi, Russia's largest resort city, sits in the shadow of the Caucasus Mountains, 5,178 miles away from New York.

Discussion: TVNewser, @kpfallon, Variety, @niemanlab and USA Today

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

The Guardian signs seven-figure deal to build on ‘shared values’ and provide branded content for Unilever — Guardian News and Media has signed a seven-figure deal to provide branded content for household goods giant Unilever. — It is the first deal for the new Guardian Labs division …

Discussion: GNM press office, The Dish, @raju, @whatthebit, @niemanlab, @loismcewan and Guardian

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

FCC Backs Off Study of Newsroom Editorial Practices — The Federal Communications Commission is quietly changing course on a controversial study after parts of the methodology were roundly criticized by GOP lawmakers and commissioner Ajit Pai for encroaching into editorial decisions and content at TV stations.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review

Hu Shuli / Nieman Reports:

Notes toward an independent, commercially viable news organization — Notes toward an independent, commercially viable news organization — Technology development has been reshaping the media industry worldwide. In developed countries like the United States, traditional media companies felt …

Discussion: @davidbarboza2

Hu Yong / Nieman Reports: China's market-oriented media face a precarious future

Kim Willsher / Guardian:

Libération editor resigns after journalists go on strike — Nicolas Demorand was embroiled in row with newsroom staff over shareholders' vision for future of French leftwing paper — The editor of France's Libération daily newspaper has resigned, saying after journalists went on strike …

Discussion: Guardian and @jayrosen_nyu

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

New York Times Magazine editor search nears end — The hunt for the next editor of The New York Times Magazine is entering the home stretch, Capital has learned. — Sources familiar with the process said the search has been narrowed down to a handful of internal and external candidates …

Associated Press:

Negatives Aside, AOL CEO Posts Positive Results — NEW YORK (AP) — You've got gaffes. — AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong isn't one to mince words. Over the weekend, he apologized for insensitive comments and backtracked from an unpopular plan to pay matching 401(k) retirement contributions in a lump sum at the end of the year.

Discussion: Mediawire Daily

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Buzzfeed Getting 100 Million Monthly Views on YouTube, Steinberg — PALM SPRINGS, CA - Buzzfeed has quickly established a big video footprint and is getting 100 million monthly views on YouTube, says Jon Steinberg, President and COO, in this video interview with Beet.TV

Thanks:@beet_tv

Wall Street Journal:

Apple TV's scaled-back plans would rely on cable providers to acquire programming rights — Apple in Talks to Revamp Set-Top Box — Scaled-Back Plans Would Rely on Cable Providers to Acquire Programming Rights — Apple Inc. appears to be scaling back its lofty TV industry plans.

Discussion: @wsjd, Law Blog and Bloomberg

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Here's What the New Apple TV Could Look Like (Hint: Check Your iPad)

Discussion: Fortune, VideoNuze Analysis, The Switch, GeekWire, ParisLemon and @fmanjoo

Adam Samson / Fox Business:

Man Charged in Scheme to Fraudulently Buy Maxim Magazine — Calvin Darden, Jr. was charged by federal prosecutors Thursday for allegedly crafting an intricate scheme to defraud banks and impersonate his prominent father in an attempt to buy men's magazine Maxim.

Discussion: Associated Press

Joel Simon / Committee to Protect Journalists:

How the United States' Spying Strengthens China's Hand — In its typically fulminating style, the English language edition of China's People's Daily proclaimed in an August 2012 editorial that the U.S. must cede control of the Internet. “The Internet has become one of the most important resources …

Discussion: @trevortimm, @pressfreedom and Guardian

Lee Siegel / New Yorker:

Is the News Replacing Literature? — In the postwar period, a generation of critics, inspired by Lionel Trilling, encapsulated the difference between high art and popular art in a single word: “complexity.” “Literature,” Trilling wrote, “is the human activity that takes the fullest …

Discussion: @raju

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Discovery's 4Q Net Rises 29% On Overseas Growth — Discovery Communications said its fourth-quarter profit rose 29% on improved performance, largely at its overseas TV operations. — The Silver Spring, Md., owner of cable networks like TLC, Discovery Network and Destination America …