Mediagazer: March Madness Dunks Record Digital Views in Early Play — with Apparently No Glitches (Todd Spangler/Variety)

6:40 PM ET, March 21, 2014

Top News:

Ed Christman / Billboard:

Apple explores Spotify-like streaming service, iTunes app for Android as downloads decline — Apple Mulls Launching Spotify Rival, Android App as Downloads Decline (Sources) — Apple has opened exploratory talks with senior label executives about the possibility of launching …

Discussion: Gigaom, AppleInsider, @rosa, Cult of Mac, @pkafka, SlashGear, 9to5Mac, @stevekovach, @yinkawrites, Wall St. Cheat Sheet, App Advice, Business Insider, Engadget and The Verge

Ed Christman / Billboard:
Why Publishers Lost Big Against Pandora (Analysis)

Discussion: @dalebobo

Jim Cicconi / AT&T Public Policy Blog:

AT&T: costs caused by Netflix's growth should not be borne by all broadband subscribers — Who Should Pay for Netflix? — I saw Reed Hasting's blog yesterday from Netflix asserting in rather dramatic fashion (with diagrams) that ISPs should build facilities (he said provide …

Quartz:
How the internet works, and why it's impossible to know what makes your Netflix slow

Discussion: Slate and Business Insider

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
What if Netflix switched to P2P for video streaming?

Discussion: Electronista and @indexzero

Wall Street Journal:

Google Refuses Turkey's Requests to Yank YouTube Videos — Move is Latest Sign of Resistance to a Crackdown Against Social Media led by the Prime Minister — Google Inc. has declined Turkish government requests to remove YouTube videos alleging government corruption, people familiar with the matter said …

Zeynep Tufekci / Medium:
The Day the Turkish Government Banned Itself From Twitter

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:
Turkish citizens use Google to fight Twitter ban

Discussion: Forbes, Guardian, Washington Post, VentureBeat, The Switch, Re/code, 9to5Google, ThinkProgress, @johnpaczkowski, Gigaom and Mashable

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

F.T. staffers discuss reporting in China — At a Thursday night panel discussion of China's economy as seen by Financial Times correspondents, Geoff Dyer, the paper's Beijing bureau chief from 2008 to 2011, explained some of the best practices the paper has developed while reporting in the country's restrictive media environment.

Discussion: Forbes and @jackshafer

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Bloomberg News's deepening China problem

Discussion: Prof Chris Daly's Blog and New York Times

Raju Narisetti / Poynter:

In defense of ‘vanity’ metrics: why page views are still important — Editor's note: On Monday, Poynter's Rick Edmonds argued for new ways to measure digital audiences that would replace the widely used unique visitors and page views. In this post, New Corp's Raju Narisetti takes a contrary view.

Discussion: @ownlocal, @newswhip and @nickkristof

Charles V. Bagli / New York Times:

Time Inc. May Join Media Exodus to Lower Manhattan — Time Inc., with its stable of magazines, lavish offices and steady profits, has been a fixture in Midtown Manhattan for more than 75 years and the nation's premier magazine publisher. — But the company is now close to a deal to move …

Discussion: @editorialiste, @loisweiss, FishbowlNY, @readdanwrite and Capital New York

Ira Glass / This American Life Updates:

This American Life looks toward digital future in split with PRI — Leaving PRI — Ira writes: — We're leaving our distributor Public Radio International. What this means for listeners is ... nothing! We'll continue to make our radio show and podcast. The same public radio stations will continue to broadcast it.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Guardian, @ejacqui, @jessethorn, @wordofmouth, @johnlmyers, @niemanlab, @bnewnam and Variety

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

NBC News ‘Doubling Down’ On David Gregory As ‘Meet The Press’ Expands Online — NEW YORK — David Gregory has heard the rumors, too. — “This comes with the territory. I understand it,” Gregory told The Huffington Post on Wednesday night. “I see speculation out there.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, TVNewser and The New York Observer

Willy Staley / New York Times:

Vice's Shane Smith: ‘Have We Unleashed a Monster?’ — You recently began something called Vice News. How is it different from what Vice already does? Through YouTube, we learned that our audience wants more news. So news is going to be its own offering.

Discussion: Gawker, @nytmag, @tikroot and Talking Points Memo

Tanveer Ali / Columbia Journalism Review:

FiveThirtyEight won't have broad appeal without narrative — FiveThirtyEight won't have broad appeal without narrative — The power in data journalism comes from the ability for numbers and statistics to examine a subject in a measurable way. Sometimes the numbers in play provide the answer to a question.

Discussion: Pressthink and Talking Biz News

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Al Jazeera America C.E.O.: 'We're here for the long haul' — The C.E.O. of Al Jazeera America, Ehab Al-Shihabi, reassured staff that the company was invested in the long-term for the channel, and argued that the U.S. was moving towards “a golden age of global news.”

Hillel Aron / LA Weekly:

Left-Wing Darling Pacifica Radio Is Sliding Into the Abyss — On March 13, after weeks of rumors, Pacifica Radio's board of directors voted to fire its executive director, Summer Reese, during what was essentially a conference call. But nothing is as simple as all that in the oldest and oddest public radio network in the country.

Discussion: @carr2n, @jpodhoretz, @iowahawkblog and Hit & Run

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

The colossal arrogance of Newsweek's Bitcoin “scoop” — WIthout more evidence, it's time for a retraction. — On March 6, the 81-year-old magazine Newsweek returned to print with a splashy cover story. Writer Leah McGrath Goodman said she had discovered the elusive creator of Bitcoin, hiding in plain sight.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, Gigaom, @jason_pontin and @johnmcquaid

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

TV Station Mega Merger: Media General, LIN Set $1.6 Billion Deal — Station groups Media General and LIN are poised to merge in a $1.6 billion cash and stock deal that will create the nation's second-largest pure-play broadcast group. — The combination will bring together 74 network affiliate stations …

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Radio & Television …, Hollywood Reporter, Poynter and The Wrap

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

One-shining-moment alert: Two news developers built a Twitter bot to tell you when the game is getting good … Found yourself sitting at your desk this week, furtively checking the score to see if anything exciting is happening? Toggle no more: Two members of the WNYC Data News Team have a bot for that.

Discussion: @danshanoff, @yahootech, @niemanlab and BuzzFeed

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

The Stages of Newspapers' Decline — The second-most common objection to FiveThirtyEight and the End of Average was along these lines: … That's very true; those same people - and there are a lot of them - didn't read the news in a newspaper either. Instead they read the Style section, or Sports, the comics or Dear Abby.

Discussion: @davisshaver