Mediagazer: EXCLUSIVE-Disney to buy YouTube network Maker Studios for $500 million (Ronald Grover/Reuters)

6:00 PM ET, March 24, 2014

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Discussion: Mediaite, Politico, The Huffington Post, @edbott, @sanammkhi, Talking Biz News, @jimsciutto, @ryanchittum and @eisingerj

Ronald Grover / Reuters:

EXCLUSIVE-Disney to buy YouTube network Maker Studios for $500 million — The Walt Disney Co has agreed to buy Maker Studios for $500 million, becoming a major online video distributor through the purchase of one of YouTube's largest networks, according to a person familiar with the deal.

Discussion: The Wrap and Re/code

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

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Wall Street Journal:
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Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:

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Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

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Discussion: TVNewser, Radio & Television …, The Wrap, Forbes and Mediaite

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:
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Discussion: Business Wire, AdAge, MediaPost, The Wrap, Variety, New York Times, Capital New York, Los Angeles Times, @rosslevinsohn, @piersmorgan and The Awl

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

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Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

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Discussion: @raju

Nitsuh Abebe / New York Magazine:

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Discussion: @mischa, @mattyglesias, @thewayoftheid, @dgardner, @erikmal, @codybrown, @amy_lombard, @kevinroose, @raju, @pkafka, @kyliesobel, @agolis, @keder, @jayrosen_nyu, @ezraklein, @elipariser, @timoreilly, The Hairpin, @defcon_5, @megsokay, @asmantz, @elanazak and @gabestein

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

The Verge hires Matthew Schnipper as deputy Managing Editor to oversee longform and culture — Don't call it a tech blog. Vox Media's The Verge may be best known for its Apple event liveblogs and product design deep-dives, but the site has also reviewed films like “Divergent” and reported on the U.S. military's toxic burn pits.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @mattschnipper and @joshuatopolsky

Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Nilay Patel, No Longer Managing Editor of The Verge, Moves to Vox.com

Discussion: @reckless and @mathewi

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Slate to Introduce a Variation on the Paywall — In the hunt for revenue in the digital era, news publications have tried everything from putting up paywalls to soliciting donations. — The digital magazine Slate, nearly two decades old, plans to experiment with a strategy somewhere in between.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, @felixsalmon, @jacobwe, @jayrosen_nyu, FishbowlNY, @raju, Poynter and New York Magazine

New York Times:

Journalists Group and Internet Lawyers Challenge Turkey's Ban on Twitter — ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's leading press organization and two experts in Internet law took legal action Monday to try to overturn a government ban on Twitter, even as the government intensified its efforts to block access to the social media site.

Discussion: ExtremeTech, WorldViews, Mashable and SlashGear

Bloomberg:

Murdoch-Backed Vice Media Weighs IPO With Gonzo Reports — Vice Media Inc., the company that combines punk culture with online journalism, is poised to double revenue to $1 billion by 2016 and may pursue an initial public offering, co-founder Shane Smith said.

Discussion: @abeaujon, @buzzfeedben, @jacobwe, @rafat and @rorybrown

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

iTunes Radio Gets News Radio, Via NPR — When iTunes Radio launched last fall, the service was designed for music fans (and music labels). Now it is branching out: National Public Radio is adding the first news station to Apple's audio streaming service, with more on the way.

Discussion: NPR, VentureBeat, VatorNews, TechCrunch, Knight Foundation, Pocket-lint, @nprrussell, The Next Web, The Verge, App Advice, @waltmossberg, 9to5Mac, MacStories, @btrpkc, MacRumors and Electronista

David Carr / New York Times:

Risks Abound as Reporters Play in Traffic — It is a dirty secret of the journalism profession that many reporters are bad at math. Many of us ended up typing our way to a living because we had an easier time making words dance than numbers. — But now that everything can be measured, we have to keep an eye on both.