Mediagazer: Movie Piracy Phenom ‘Popcorn Time’ App Yanked by Hosting Provider (Todd Spangler/Variety)

12:55 PM ET, March 12, 2014

Top News:

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks denies giving evidence from ‘prepared script’ — Prosecution suggests that ex-NoW and Sun editor must have been ‘very much aware’ of what her co-defendants were doing — Rebekah Brooks has denied giving evidence from a “carefully presented and prepared script” …

Press Gazette:
Brooks: ‘Climate of paranoia’ during last days of News of the World amid ‘police leaks to Guardian’

Discussion: @gazthejourno

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Hacking trial hears details of Blair's offer to help Brooks prepare for committee appearance

Discussion: Guardian and Guy Fawkes' blog

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
News International ‘wanted Lord Mandelson to coach Rebekah Brooks’

Discussion: @lisaocarroll and @courtnewsuk

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Time Inc. spinoff probably won't mean name change for Time Warner — Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes. — Although Time Inc. won't be part of Time Warner much longer, don't expect the media giant to change its name to better reflect its assets. — “We haven't decided to change the name …

Art Brodsky / Wired:

Here's How Comcast Plans to Rule American Cable and Internet — It's been a little more than 100 years since this country witnessed an accumulation of economic power to rival what Comcast is assembling. Like the Gilded Age magnates who controlled oil and refining and leveraged their product with railroads …

Wall Street Journal: Media Industry Worries About Comcast-TWC

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 …

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

Cadie Thompson / CNBC:

Rdio drops Echo Nest after Spotify acquisition, aims for global growth via mobile — Streaming music service Rdio aims for global, and mobile — Streaming music: More noise than competition? — CNBC.com Technology Reporter Cadie Thompson and Rdio CEO Anthony Bay discuss the trends …

Discussion: Business Insider, TechCrunch, Gigaom, The Next Web, Electronista, The Verge and hypebot

Wall Street Journal:
Amazon hopes to boost MP3 sales with limited music streaming service for Prime members

Discussion: CNET and The Verge

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: Benzinga and NASDAQ.com

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

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Obama bypasses traditional media again in interview with Zach Galifianakis, showing how to take advantage of fractured landscape

Discussion: Variety, Betabeat, Business 2 Community, Mashable, Latest News & Headlines, @poynter, Forbes, The Fix, VatorNews, TechCrunch, NPR and Erik Wemple

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: @piratenpartij, @superglaze, Re/code, @openrightsgroup and @mslods

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 …

Discussion: @miamabanta and @mhess4

The Moscow Times:

Chief Editor of Lenta.ru News Website Steps Down — The chief editor of Lenta.ru stepped down on Wednesday, just hours after Russia's media regulating body sent the news website a warning letter about an interview it published earlier this week featuring a member of a Ukrainian nationalist group.

Discussion: ITAR-TASS, kyivpost.com, The Malay Mail Online, @emilydparker and @jbenton, Thanks:@nickkyit

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Movie Piracy Phenom ‘Popcorn Time’ App Yanked by Hosting Provider — Popcorn Time, an application described as a sort of Netflix for streaming pirated content via torrent-sharing sites, has been removed by its hosting provider for apparent violations of terms of service.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

RT posts, mocks questions from BuzzFeed reporter — RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan posted a list of questions from BuzzFeed reporter Rosie Gray with...less than sincere answers. A sample:

Discussion: RT, @bencjacobs 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: Daily Mail, The Lawyer, @pressgazette and @robevansgdn

Henry Taylor / TheMediaBriefing:

VICE News: 'We don't treat the internet like a low-rent version of other media' — “There's always been this view that this generation of young people aren't interested in the stories of the world,” says Al Brown, head of video for VICE UK, “Through our work you can see that young people …

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

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:
CNN, NBCU Alums Jon Klein, Jeff Gaspin Team Up for Online Video Venture

Discussion: TVNewser, Capital New York and The Wrap

Jethro Nededog / The Wrap:

Anne Sweeney Exiting Disney-ABC to Become TV Director — Anne Sweeney, the co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group, is exiting the company in January 2015 to pursue a career in television directing. — Calling the past 18 years at Disney the highlight …

Discussion: Variety