Mediagazer: Dish Profit Up as Subscriber Rolls Grow; EchoStar Profit Falls (Michael Calia/Wall Street Journal)

10:30 AM ET, February 21, 2014

Top News:

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Om-Niscient: A Much-Deserved Mash Note to Tech Blogger Om Malik — Of course, I was jammed yesterday with a trip and then the big news of Facebook forking over $19 billion for WhatsApp in the endless hamster-wheel cycle that is sometimes my life, so I missed the news about Om Malik.

Discussion: @mathewi and Talking Biz News

Om Malik / Gigaom:
Om Malik leaves day-to-day operations at Gigaom, becomes full partner at True Ventures, site raises $8M more

Discussion: Om Malik, TechCrunch, @alexia, @kentgoldman, @waltmossberg, @tomkrazit, @om, Pulse 2.0, @nitashatiku, @carr2n, @johnolilly, @pkafka, @hblodget, @thekenyeung, @laurengoode, @satishd, @caseynewton, @pkedrosky, @twittner, @rafat, @msquinn, @mikeisaac, @ashleymayer, @tonysphere, @mims, @jason_pontin, @timoreilly and PE Hub Blog

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Sources say Amazon readying a Web TV box competing with Apple TV and Roku, for March rollout — Amazon Gets Its TV Box Ready, Again — Amazon is gearing up to take on Apple and Roku, again. — Industry sources say Amazon is getting ready to launch a Web TV box that would compete …

Discussion: Forbes, CNET, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, WebProNews, GeekWire, MacRumors, BGR, 9to5Mac, Pocket-lint, App Advice, The Verge and Business Insider

Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks 'not aware of hacker's contract while she was NoW editor' — Ex-editor tells Old Bailey that Glenn Mulcaire deal, which paid him £92,000 in 2001, was arranged without her knowledge — Rebekah Brooks was not aware of the annual contract the News of the World had with Glenn Mulcaire …

Discussion: Digital Spy, Bloomberg, Telegraph, Guardian, BBC and RTÉ

Press Association: Rebekah Brooks paid £1,000,000 for David Beckham's autobiography, court told

BBC:

Venezuela threatens to expel CNN over protest coverage — Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has threatened to expel the US news network CNN from the country over its reporting of recent protests there. — Mr Maduro said he would take action if CNN did not “rectify its coverage”.

Discussion: Politico, FishbowlNY, @fieldproducer, Caracas Chronicles and TIME

Uri Friedman / The Atlantic Online:
Why Venezuela's Revolution Will Be Tweeted

Discussion: @valtmc, @hemlockmartinis and @anupkaphle

Danny O'Brien / Electronic Frontier Foundation: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

Comcast's Web of Lobbying and Philanthropy — WASHINGTON — Only a few hours had passed after the $45 billion merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable was announced last week when an early voice emerged endorsing the giant deal. — “Win-win situation for American businesses,” …

Discussion: @tackettdc and @brianstelter

New York Post:

Maxim owners sue over bungled buyout — Maxim's parent company has sued media mogul Calvin Darden Sr. over the $31 million buyout of the glossy men's mag that was bungled by his alleged scammer son. — In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court, Alpha Media Group …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

‘House of Cards’ Binge-Watching: 2% of U.S. Subs Finished Entire Series Over First Weekend — Binge-watching on the rise compared to drama series' first season — There are some dedicated “House of Cards” fans out there. — Approximately 2% of Netflix subscribers on U.S. broadband networks took …

Discussion: TIME, @awallenstein, Fox Business, @theaafca, @awallenstein and The Verge

Pew Internet:

Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters — Summary of Findings — Polarized Crowds: Political conversations on Twitter — Conversations on Twitter create networks with identifiable contours as people reply to and mention one another in their tweets.

Discussion: @jesseholcomb, Quartz, The Technology Chronicles, Des Moines Register, Washington Post, Al Jazeera America, CNET and PBS

Henry Taylor / TheMediaBriefing:

Contributoria catch up Q&A: how the first month went — Described as “if Kickstarter and Medium had a baby”, crowd-funded journalism community Contributoria is now one month old. — The Guardian Media Group-backed startup has signed up more 650 members - 65 percent of which are writers - and 24 projects have been backed.

Discussion: @mattmcalister

Jeff Bercovici / Playboy:

Nick Denton: Gawker, Crowdsourcing & Kinja — Manti Te'o had a fake girlfriend. Rob Ford smoked crack. Brett Favre texted photos of his junk to a young woman. That these and countless other onetime secrets are now public knowledge is thanks to Nick Denton, the founder and owner …

Discussion: Forbes and Capital New York

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Gannett blog shuts down after almost 7 years — Gannett Blog, a nonprofit site being run by an ex-Gannett editor, has shut down after nearly seven years. — The site was launched by Jim Hopkins, a former reporter and editor at USA Today, and was probably the foremost tracker of the tumult …

Discussion: Gannett Blog and SFist

Lily Kuo / Quartz:

A Chinese tycoon is close to buying a bygone icon of American capitalism — A Chinese conglomerate on a global buying spree is reportedly in talks to buy Forbes Media—although for much less than the Forbes family has been hoping. Fosun International—which most recently bought JP Morgan's …

Discussion: @christinelu and Fortune

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Core Media Teams with PopSugar, in Latest Tie-Up of TV and Web Worlds — TV production company Core Media Group, best known for “American Idol,” inked a pact with celeb website PopSugar to jointly develop and distribute scripted and non-scripted projects. — The deal fits within the trend …

Michael Calia / Wall Street Journal:

Dish Profit Up as Subscriber Rolls Grow; EchoStar Profit Falls — Dish Network Corp. said its fourth-quarter profit jumped 38% as it added subscribers to both its pay-TV and broadband services. — Dish, which has faced tough competition from pay-TV rivals as well as the proliferation …

Discussion: Reuters, Business Wire, Reuters, Bloomberg, WKRB News and NASDAQ.com

Anthony Harrup / Wall Street Journal:

Mexican Broadcasters Voice More Objections to Slim TV — Broadcasters say Telmex has ‘de facto partnership’ with Dish Mexico — MEXICO CITY—Mexico's main television broadcasters turned up the volume Thursday in their dispute with billionaire Carlos Slim, charging that agreements …

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

BitTorrent shuts down its live streaming website to refocus on mobile — BitTorrent Inc. is shutting down its P2P-powered live streaming website by the end of the month, according to an email BitTorrent co-founder Bram Cohen sent out to users late Wednesday.

Maryclaire Dale / Associated Press:

Rivals debate auction rules for Philly newspapers … PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The top investor in Philadelphia's largest newspapers wants the company sold in a quick, closed auction among current partners while a rival wants a slower sale open to all. — The Philadelphia Inquirer …

Discussion: Philadelphia Magazine

Vladimir Kozlov / Hollywood Reporter:

Russian Rights Holders File First-Ever Collective Lawsuit Against Online Video Service — The move is expected to create a new precedent in fighting piracy. — MOSCOW — Several leading Russian movie and TV companies have filed the first ever collective lawsuit against an online video service …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

In UK, Amazon takes on Netflix by combining LoveFilm video-on-demand with Prime for £79 a year — Amazon takes on Netflix with rebrand of LoveFilm video-on-demand service — Online retailer will fold film and TV rental arm into its Prime subscription service for combined price of £79 a year