Mediagazer: Piers Morgan was questioned by Scotland Yard's hacking squad (Roy Greenslade/Guardian)

2:35 PM ET, February 14, 2014

Top News:

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: Home Media Magazine, Latest News & Headlines, Variety, Gigaom, @jkealing, @joshrobin, PandoDaily, New York Magazine, CNET, DealBook, The New York Observer and Gothamist

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, @dankennedy_nu, BGR, Los Angeles Times, @ericklinenberg, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Mashable, Los Angeles Times, Broadcasting & Cable, Guardian, cnbc.com, CNBC, Ars Technica and Bloomberg

David Ingram / Reuters: Comcast again turns to Davis Polk for Time Warner antitrust case

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:
What Comcast-Time Warner Cable Means for Advertising

Discussion: Variety, The New Yorker Blog, Capital New York, Business Insider and NY Daily News

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

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Piers Morgan was questioned by Scotland Yard's hacking squad — Former Daily Mirror editor confirms he was interviewed by officers from Operation Weeting in December — Piers Morgan, the CNN presenter who used to edit the Daily Mirror, has been interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard detectives investigating phone-hacking.

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, @noahchestnut, InPublishing, @niemanlab, thedrum.com, The Dish and Press Gazette

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: Wired, BetaNews, Gawker, @mathowie, Gothamist, The New Yorker Blog, ArtsBeat, Gigaom, Electronista, The Verge, hypebot, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Mashable, NME, All and Engadget

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Welcome Words: Why The Times Bucked the Government on a Drone Strike Story — The United States is considering a drone strike to kill an American with alleged terrorist ties. That's a pretty big deal - shocking to those of us who haven't become completely inured to such news.

Discussion: Taking Note, @fstonenyt, @rethink_media and @gregorydjohnsen

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: Radio & Television …, hypebot, Business Insider, @wsjd, @reformedbroker, NetNewsCheck Latest, @wsjpersonaltech, @cschweitz, @peteskomoroch, @a_grossman and @zeynep

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

David Leonhardt adds staff to Times data venture — David Leonhardt has announced a handful of new appointments to the data-driven politics and policy website he's cooking up for The New York Times in the wake of star statistician Nate Silver's departure last fall for ESPN.

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 …

Eric J. Smith / NetNewsCheck:

McClatchy Print Slide Offset By Digital Gains — While ad revenue continued to slide during McClatchy Co.'s fourth quarter, the company said its print declines were partially offset by 2.2% growth in direct marketing and total digital advertising. — The McClatchy Co. today reported total …

Discussion: Poynter, MediaPost, The State, bizjournals, PR Newswire, Merced Sun-Star & …, RTTNews and Talking New Media

Maggie Brown / Guardian:

Ofcom boss: ‘BBC licence fee should be shared with other broadcasters’ — Outgoing chair Colette Bowe says making funding ‘contestable’ would promote competition, dynamism and innovation — The BBC licence fee should be shared with other broadcasters to promote “competition …

Jessica Misener / BuzzFeed:

This American Life and Google team up for a podcast-style Valentine's Day doodle — The Story Behind Today's Super Romantic Google Doodle — This American Life's Ira Glass tells BuzzFeed about the radio-inspired stories gracing today's Google homepage, as well as why social media unnerves him, and his own Valentine's Day plans.

Discussion: @gaguild, All, Gothamist, @gettymuseum, @jessmisener, CNET, @jaredbkeller and Mashable

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Maxim owners grow desperate as latest deal collapses — The troubled auction to sell Maxim is back on. — The owners of Alpha Media and Maxim magazine had already dropped Darden Media Group as a potential buyer even before the arrest Wednesday of convicted stock swindler Calvin Darden Jr …

Discussion: Mediawire Daily, FishbowlNY and Fox Business

Lexy Savvides / CNET:

Fair use provision recommended for Australian copyright law — A report by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has recommended that fair use provisions be added to Australian copyright law. — The ALRC handed down its recommendations in response to a request from the previous federal government …

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, Gizmodo Australia, Lifehacker Australia, Gizmodo Australia, Computerworld News …, ZDNet, ZDNet, Guardian, Advanced Television and infojustice

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 …

Discussion: Business Insider, @newsnv, @jkalifowitz and @activecultures

Angela Washeck / 10,000 Words:

NPR Partners With Quora to Cover Sochi 2014 — Sochi 2014 is well underway now, and news surrounding the event, whether journalist complaints about hotel conditions on social media or traditional Olympics coverage, is pretty easy to find. — But to add another layer of context and value …

Discussion: The Quora Blog

Ellen Barry / New York Times:

Indian Publisher Withdraws Book, Stoking Fears of Nationalist Pressure — NEW DELHI — In a fight with a major company, a frail 84-year-old retired headmaster would seem to be the David to India's publishing Goliath, Penguin Books. — But this week the headmaster, Dinanath Batra …

Discussion: Forbes, Voice of America, New Yorker, @lkrauss1, The Hindu, Books News & Features, Associated Press, Reuters, India Ink, India Real Time, Bookseller news, Guardian and Times of India

Henry Taylor / TheMediaBriefing:

ABC combined circulation: Is it really a ‘new dawn’ for magazine measurement? — Advertising, Consumer Media, Digital Media, Mobile — In what has already been called a “new dawn” for the magazine industry, the ABC has started combining print and digital sales figures into one audited figure …

Discussion: Talking New Media