Mediagazer: Guardian Media Group takes 15% stake in digital training company (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

8:35 AM ET, February 14, 2014

Top News:

Edward Wyatt / DealBook:

Industry Shifts May Aid Comcast in Takeover Bid — On the face of it, the merger of the country's two largest cable companies would seem like a nonstarter, given its steep regulatory hurdles and skepticism from consumer watchdogs. — But Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable comes …

Discussion: DealBook, Los Angeles Times, Mashable, Reuters and DealBook

Michael J. Copps / Columbia Journalism Review:

Journalists need to generate a national discussion on the future of the internet — Journalists need to generate a national discussion on the future of the internet — Dear Journalists: — You may wonder why a long-time regulator like me is writing to you.

Discussion: @edwardericsonjr, @cjr, @mparekh and Boing Boing

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Comcast deal could put NY1 in FiOS homes — Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner Cable could be a boon for NY1, TWC's beloved local cable news channel. — According to an open letter from Comcast executive V.P. David L. Cohen, cable channels owned by Time Warner Cable would be subject …

Discussion: Gigaom, Variety, PandoDaily, Home Media Magazine, New York Magazine and Gothamist

Amy Schatz / Re/code:
Peering could replace net neutrality as one of the key issues in Comcast-Time Warner review

Discussion: @waltmossberg and Deadline.com

Susan Crawford / Bloomberg:
Comcast's Time Warner Deal Is Bad for America

Discussion: Slate, Digiday, Mediaite, TVNewser, DealBook, Guardian, ReadWrite, Wired, @dankennedy_nu, @themightychris, @stevenlevy, @stevenlevy, @scottros, @harvard_law, Mashable, The New York Observer, BuzzFeed, @froomkin, Consumerist, Los Angeles Times, @agolis, @kpkelleher, Gigaom, The Verge, Gawker and @byronkoay

Heidi Moore / Guardian:
The Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is not a marriage made to last

Discussion: Fortune, Corporate Intelligence, @moorehn, @rwc356, @moorehn, AlterNet.org, Business Wire, MoneyBeat, Digits and Variety

Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Charter Likely to Pursue Other Acquisitions

Discussion: Capital New York, MoneyBeat and Law Blog

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Local stations ‘have reason to sweat’ over Comcast-Time Warner deal

Discussion: AdAge, Latest News & Headlines, USA Today, bizjournals, Businessweek, BusinessJournalism.org …, PC Magazine, Business Insider and The Newspaper Guild

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

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

Discussion: Comcast Voices Blog and Fast Company

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Piers Morgan questioned ‘under caution’ by Scotland Yard's hacking squad — Piers Morgan, the CNN presenter who used to edit the Daily Mirror, has been interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard detectives investigating phone-hacking. — In a statement to The Guardian through his spokesperson …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, BBC and @arse2mouse

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

The Guardian's Unusual Take on Native Ads — The Guardian is jumping on the native ad trend—but, in character for the British newspaper, it's doing so in its own way. Today it announced the first client, Unilever, of Guardian Labs, its in-house branded content unit.

Discussion: GNM press office, MediaPost, Flashes & Flames, InPublishing, thedrum.com and The Dish

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
The Guardian signs seven-figure deal to build on ‘shared values’ and provide branded content for Unilever

Discussion: @jerometaylor, The Dish, @tweetsintheme, Guardian, @whatthebit, @niemanlab, @raju and @loismcewan

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Guardian Media Group takes 15% stake in digital training company — Decoded, based in London's Silicon Roundabout, has trained more than 7,000 people to ‘Code in a Day’ — The parent company of the Guardian has taken a minority stake in Decoded, the London-based digital training company …

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Wall Street Journal:

Pandora to let advertisers target listeners based on its sense of their political leanings — Internet Radio Service Builds Profiles of Its Audience — Pandora Hopes to Build Ad Revenue by Pinpointing Likely Voting Preferences — Next time you listen to a Bob Marley channel on Pandora Media Inc. …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, @reformedbroker, @wsjpersonaltech, @zeynep, @peteskomoroch, @a_grossman and @cschweitz

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

Twitter Photos Blocked In Venezuela, Users Say — A social media crackdown as protests threaten the government. — WASHINGTON — Twitter photos and videos appear to be blocked in Venezuela as the government there attempts to reassert control amid widespread public protests.

Discussion: Softpedia News, Committee to Protect …, The Next Web, @romustgo and BBC

Peter Travers / Rolling Stone:

De La Soul to Make Entire Catalog Available for Free — Pioneering hip-hop group also releasing flood of new music — In honor of next month's 25th anniversary of their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul are making their entire catalog available for free download for 25 hours on the group's website.

Discussion: BetaNews, The Verge, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, All, Gizmodo, Engadget and NME

Rodney E. Lever / Independent Australia:

The Murdoch trials and the Australian media airbrush — The mainstream media in Australia has given little attention to the Murdoch trials in London. Rodney E Lever says this is an astonishing abuse of power. — What is now usually referred to in British media as “the hacking trials” …

Discussion: @colskinner

Pankaj Mishra / TechCrunch:

Indian Music Streaming Startup Dhingana Shuts Down — Dhingana, the Indian music streaming startup battling to stay alive for past few months, has finally shutdown. — We have been trying to speak with Dhingana CEO Rohit Bhatia for past few weeks, but he's been requesting more time for bringing clarity on the startup's future.

Discussion: MediaNama and The Next Web

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Pandora Suit May Upend Century-Old Royalty Plan — As the music industry races toward a future of digital streams and smartphone apps, its latest crisis centers on a regulatory plan that has been in place since “Chattanooga Choo Choo” was a hit. — Since 1941, Ascap and BMI …

Associated Press:

Greek judge bans investigative TV show — You are here — Home » Greece » Greek judge bans investigative TV show — ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A Greek judge on Thursday banned a leading private TV station from airing an investigative report into a deadly migrant boat accident …

BBC:

NME sales dip below 20,000 copies — Sales of music magazine NME have hit their lowest yet, falling below 20,000 copies a month during the second half of 2013 despite last year's relaunch. — New ABC circulation figures show that the 62-year-old publication sold an average of just 18,184 a week.

Discussion: Guardian and Guardian

Matt Sheehan / The Huffington Post:

The Chinese Press Battles For Hearts And Minds Abroad — SAN FRANCISCO — At 9:25 p.m. on New Year's Day, Feng Yan parked his minivan outside the Chinese consulate here, doused the front door of the building with gasoline, and lit the place on fire. The blaze engulfed the front entrance …

Alan Jacobs / Text Patterns:

Today's email newsletters follow Grimm's precedent, who aimed for a “fit audience, though few” — Grimm's heirs — The last year or so has seen an intriguing renewal of a genre from the early years of the internet: the email newsletter. A couple of months ago Alexis Madrigal described …

Discussion: American Press Institute