Top News:
Tina Daunt / Hollywood Reporter:
ObamaCare Website Traffic Spikes After President's ‘Funny or Die’ Interview — Obama's comic turn on Zach Galifianakis' “Between Two Ferns” becomes big driver to HealthCare.gov site, according to White House aides. — Within hours of President Barack Obama's appearance with comedian Zach Galifianakis …
Discussion:
Fox News and FishbowlNY
RELATED:
Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Obama bypasses traditional media again in interview with Zach Galifianakis, showing how to take advantage of fractured landscape
Obama bypasses traditional media again in interview with Zach Galifianakis, showing how to take advantage of fractured landscape
Discussion:
Betabeat, Variety, Latest News & Headlines, @poynter, The Fix, Forbes, VatorNews, NPR, Erik Wemple, TechCrunch and Talking Points Memo
Jemima Kiss / Guardian:
An online Magna Carta: Berners-Lee calls for bill of rights for web — Exclusive: web's inventor warns neutrality under sustained attack from governments and corporations — The inventor of the world wide web believes an online “Magna Carta” is needed to protect and enshrine the independence …
Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:
CNN ex-president Jon Klein talks about TAPP, the new online network he's starting with Jeff Gaspin — Jon Klein on His New Online Venture: 'We've Created the Company That I Feared Would Come Along' — Former CNN President Jon Klein and former NBC Universal Chairman Jeff Gaspin announced …
Discussion:
Bloomberg and @jayrosen_nyu
RELATED:
Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:
CNN, NBCU Alums Jon Klein, Jeff Gaspin Team Up for Online Video Venture
CNN, NBCU Alums Jon Klein, Jeff Gaspin Team Up for Online Video Venture
Discussion:
Capital New York, TVNewser and The Wrap
Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
News International ‘wanted Lord Mandelson to coach Rebekah Brooks’ — Phone-hacking trial hears News of the World publisher proposed ‘preparation session’ for chief's planned appearance before MPs — News International wanted Lord Mandelson to “coach” Rebekah Brooks for an appearance …
Discussion:
Press Gazette, @lisaocarroll and @courtnewsuk
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Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Rebekah Brooks: no one told me about lead on Milly Dowler's whereabouts
Rebekah Brooks: no one told me about lead on Milly Dowler's whereabouts
Discussion:
Hacked Off and Guardian
John Reynolds / Guardian:
60% of UK's video, video games and music sales now come from the internet — Netflix and Spotify help drive UK home entertainment revenues to £5.3bn — New figures show that three-fifths of Britain's video, video games and music sales are now derived from the internet
Discussion:
Variety
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Disney TV Shakeup: Anne Sweeney Leaving to Pursue Directing Career — Disney's longtime TV chief Anne Sweeney will leave her post in January 2015 to pursue a career as a television director. — “The past 18 years at Disney have been the highlight of my executive career.
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, TVNewser, @peterlauria3, Broadcasting & Cable, Forbes, Mediaite, Reuters, @kerrywashington and TVSpy
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Jethro Nededog / The Wrap:
Anne Sweeney Exiting Disney-ABC to Become TV Director
Anne Sweeney Exiting Disney-ABC to Become TV Director
Discussion:
Variety
Bloomberg:
Beats Music raises $60M-$100M to fund new music and features in challenge to Spotify — Jimmy Iovine's Beats Music Is Said to Raise Up to $100 Million — Beats Music LLC, the subscription streaming service from rapper Dr. Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine, raised a second round …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Billboard, VentureBeat, hypebot and Mashable
Bloomberg:
Berkshire to Buy Graham TV Station in $1.1 Billion Swap — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) agreed to buy WPLG, a Miami-based television station, from Graham Holdings Co., the former publisher of the Washington Post, paying with stock that Warren Buffett has held for more than four decades.
Discussion:
NASDAQ.com and Benzinga
Grace Li / Reuters:
Nine arrested over stabbing of Hong Kong newspaper editor — (Reuters) - Police in Hong Kong and China have arrested nine men with suspected links to organised crime for the stabbing of a prominent Hong Kong journalist, the territory's chief of police said on Wednesday, an attack that was seen by many as an assault on press freedom.
Michael Sebastian / AdAge:
Gawker's Nick Denton Says BuzzFeed is ‘Pointless.’ Also a ‘Perfect Competitor.’ — Convenes a Company Meeting on Kinja Platform — Gawker Media founder Nick Denton used his company's own commenting platform to field a virtual company meeting on Tuesday, taking questions on the company's competition …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, FishbowlNY and Poynter
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Appeal Court victory for Guardian in fight to see Prince Charles minister letters - Govt takes fight to Supreme Court — The Guardian today won a major legal victory for press freedom over Government secrecy as it won the right to see a number of letters to ministers written by Prince Charles.
Discussion:
The Lawyer and Daily Mail
David Meyer / Gigaom:
Web firms face a strict new set of privacy rules in Europe — here's what to expect — The European Parliament has overwhelmingly passed a large package of laws intended to strengthen data protection - that's “privacy” in non-legalese - across the European Union.
Discussion:
@openrightsgroup and @superglaze
Tim Peterson / AdAge:
News App Circa Looks to Native Ads for First Revenue Stream — Mobile News Reader Plans to Introduce ‘Native’ Sponsored Posts — How Advertising Performs in a Social Media World … It's time for the mobile news-reader apps to become businesses. — One of the category's earliest players …
Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
Amazon's TV streaming box to ship with Netflix and Hulu Plus apps — Amazon's Roku competitor, which could be unveiled any day now, won't just peddle the company's own video streaming service: The device will also have apps for direct competitors including Netflix and Hulu Plus on board, according to multiple sources.
Discussion:
Electronista, Pocket-lint, Engadget and GeekWire
Myriam Robin / Crikey:
Audits exonerate Australia's ABC from bias claims, but unlikely to satisfy critics — Audits clear ABC of bias, but don't expect critics to listen — The ABC has started conducting regular audits of bias in its news coverage. The first two, released today, posed nothing to worry about.
Michael Rondon / Folio:
New CEO at Reader's Digest — Bonnie Kintzer is 4th top executive in 3 years. — The Reader's Digest Association named its fourth CEO since 2011 Tuesday as Bob Guth, the company's current top exec, announced his intention to step down in early April. — Bonnie Kintzer will replace Guth as CEO, effective April 7.