Mediagazer: Al Jazeera is staffing up for the launch of its AJ+ online video news network (Janko Roettgers/Gigaom)

2:25 PM ET, February 28, 2014

Top News:

Darren Boyle / Press Gazette:

FT Group boosts profits to £55 million as business daily's digital subs rise to 415,000 — The FT Group made a profit of £55 million last year despite plunging print circulation figures for the FT according to results reported this morning. — Profit was said to be up 17 per cent year on year, on an underlying basis.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review and Guardian

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:
Pearson Plunges as Earnings Drop on Education in North America

Discussion: Financial Times, RTTNews, Reuters, @tcarmody, London News, City A.M., Bookseller news, Life Style Extra and Wall Street Journal

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:

A new consensus on the future of news — The future isn't what it used to be, and that's a good thing — Just a couple of years ago, although it feels like a lot longer, the media world was embroiled in something like a gigantic family argument over the idea of whether it was good idea to charge readers for news online.

Discussion: @myersnews, @jayrosen_nyu, @davewiner, @mterenzio and @mathewi

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Business Insider launching in UK this year, first outside US with no franchisee content licensing deals and its own staff — Business Insider prepares to take the UK — For Business Insider, the next move in its bid for global domination is to colonize the U.K.

Discussion: @hblodget

Michael Holden / Reuters:

Ex-Murdoch British CEO Brooks paid official for Saddam anthrax story — (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, the ex-chief executive of News Corp.'s British newspaper arm, told a London court on Friday she had paid a public official for a story about former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein planning to attack Britain with the poison anthrax.

Discussion: BBC, The Evening Telegraph and The Drum

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Rebekah Brooks ‘embarrassed’ at not buying MPs' expenses scoop

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

TheWeek.com Launches ‘Speed Reads’ Vertical — In the past couple of years, the “longread” has been one of the most popular buzzwords among online publications, with outlets from BuzzFeed to The Atlantic touting investments in more deep-dive, longform journalism.

Discussion: theweek.com

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

Comcast deal is beneficial for Netflix but not for true net neutrality — e Netflix and Net Neutrality — This article is by definition very US-centric, but the general principles apply broadly — For anyone remotely connected to technology, the idea that net neutrality is an unabashed …

Discussion: Marco.org, Wired and @lorcand

Dan Rayburn / StreamingMediaBlog.com:
Here's How The Comcast & Netflix Deal Is Structured, With Data & Numbers

Discussion: @patricknorton, @numonkeys, @samschwartz, @pkafka and Daring Fireball

Margaret Simons / Guardian:

The Saturday Paper: who on earth would launch a newspaper today? — Meet publisher Morry Schwartz and his 25-year-old editor, Erik Jensen, who over Darjeeling tea dreamed up an audacious plan to buck the rampant trend towards digital — Print enthusiasts Schwartz and Jensen.

Discussion: @niemanlab, @mathewi and @themurdochtimes

Jasmine Wang / Bloomberg:

Hong Kong Paper Raises Reward to Find Lau's Attackers — Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News tripled its cash reward to HK$3 million ($387,000) for catching the assailants who critically injured its former chief editor Kevin Lau, the newspaper said today. — Media Chinese International Ltd. …

Discussion: Reuters, The Irish Times, Here & Now, New York Times and Wall Street Journal

Agence France-Presse:
Hong Kong journalists vow not to be intimidated by savage attack on Kevin Lau

Discussion: Poynter and Wall Street Journal

Ken Kurson / The New York Observer:

The Process of Reporting The Observer's Story on Eric Schneiderman — The Process of Reporting The Observer's Story on Eric Schneiderman — It has mostly been The Observer's policy to let our stories do the talking and not get caught up in the ensuing discussion we hope to create.

Discussion: Jack Shafer, @hunterw, @oliverburkeman, @edzitron, @fmanjoo, @joepompeo, @hamiltonnolan, @matt_levine, @pkafka, @davidfrum and @michaelroston

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Al Jazeera is staffing up for the launch of its AJ+ online video news network — Al Jazeera is hiring dozens of producers, correspondents and other staffers around the world to get ready for the launch of its AJ+ online video news network. The AJ+ project, which is run by a team based …

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Hollywood Rallies Support for Republicans After Piracy Defeat — Bruised by the defeat of an anti-piracy bill two years ago, Hollywood's chief lobbying organization is giving more money to outside political groups that support Republican lawmakers. — During the 2012 election cycle …

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, CREW and TheHill

David Sirota / PandoDaily:
MPAA response to Pando investigation confirms strength of visual-effects workers case against Big Hollywood

Discussion: Variety and @mcarney

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Reddit is having the same problem as traditional media: Defining what the news is — I'm not sure if it qualifies as ironic or not, but just a day after I wrote a post about how Reddit's new “live reporting” feature could contribute to the opening up or crowdsourcing of journalism …

Discussion: @lheron, @jayrosen_nyu, @jaspjackson, Daily Dot and Washington's Blog

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Reddit will donate 10% of its advertising revenue in 2014 to the top 10 non-profits chosen by its community — Reddit today announced plans to donate 10 percent of its advertising revenue receipts in 2014 to 10 non-profits chosen by its own community. The company says no ad revenue will go excluded …

Discussion: reddit

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

Liberty Media says Charter would look at buying Comcast divestitures — Charter Communications would consider buying subscribers that Comcast could divest as part of its proposed Time Warner Cable takeover, Greg Maffei, CEO of the largest Charter stakeholder, Liberty Media, said on Friday.

Discussion: Deadline.com, Wall Street Journal, Business Wire, Hollywood Reporter and Fox Business

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC and BSkyB reach agreement over retransmission payments — Corporation will no longer pay to have channels on satellite broadcaster's platform, saving £4.5m a year — The BBC and BSkyB have resolved their long-running row over retransmission fees with the corporation no longer having …

Discussion: bbc.co.uk and broadcastnow.co.uk

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Someone Outranking You With Your Own Content? Use The New Google Scraper Report — One of the most frustrating experiences for any publisher is discovering that someone not only has copied your content but outranks you on Google for searches related to that content.

Discussion: Mashable, Internet Marketing Blog, @mathewi, Softpedia News and MarketingVox News & Trends