Mediagazer: Italy's artists line up to support the piracy tax: How much should you pay for the right to copy? (Federico Guerrini/ZDNet)

9:10 AM ET, March 26, 2014

Top News:

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Pew finds embattled newspaper industry still pulls in more than half of all news revenue — Pew's 11th annual State of the News Media report, out this morning, offers fresh measures of news media revenue and news staffing at digital-only start-ups. Both findings are arresting for those of us …

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser, LinkedIn Pulse, Columbia Journalism Review, Mediashift, @poynter and Poynter's News University

Amy Mitchell / Pew Research Journalism Project:

State of the News Media 2014 — Overview — In many ways, 2013 and early 2014 brought a level of energy to the news industry not seen for a long time. Even as challenges of the past several years continue and new ones emerge, the activities this year have created a new sense of optimism …

Discussion: Pew Research Journalism …, Nieman Journalism Lab, CNN Money, AJR.org, Journalism.org, Journalism.org, Journalism.org, USA Today, Digiday, @mathieuvonrohr, @pewresearch, Journalism.org, The Raw Story, @ejnetwork, Hollywood Reporter, @bob_grip, @danalpage and @orskov

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:
State of the media: Not out of the woods by any means, but some reasons for cautious optimism

Discussion: Knight Foundation and Journalism.org, Thanks:@mathewi

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

The New York Times Bets On Its Own Reputation With Its New Mobile App — NYT Now is sleek and ambitious. But will anybody actually buy it? — NYT Now, the New York Times' soon-to-be-released mobile app is ambitious, sleek, and, for the most part, quite useful. More importantly, though, it's a wager.

Discussion: TechCrunch, @abeaujon, @cwarzel and @derekwillis

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:
The Times to launch NYT Now at $8/month and Times Premier at $45/month on April 2

Discussion: Poynter, Guardian, The New York Times Company, Gigaom, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, @periodistas21, The Next Web and App Advice

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Oculus Rift Just Put Facebook in the Movie Business — Commentary: Virtual reality headsets pose (very) long-term threat to the theatrical business — Just as the movie industry gathered this week at CinemaCon to discuss its future, Facebook came along and changed it without even bothering to show up in Las Vegas.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Forbes, Forbes, Business Insider, The New Yorker Blog, Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, New York Times, New York Times, @besvinick, TIME and The Next Web

News Corp:

Lachlan Murdoch Named Non-Executive Co-Chairman of News Corp — Lachlan Murdoch has been named Non-Executive Co-Chairman of News Corp by the Board of Directors, the company announced today. — “This appointment is a sign of confidence in the growth potential of News Corp and a recognition …

Discussion: Bloomberg, mUmBRELLA, The Age, Guardian, Financial Times, TheAustralian, The New Daily, Reuters, ABC, @bernardkeane, @therealpbarry, @nikkifinke and @nicilind

Hollywood Reporter:
21st Century Fox Promotes James Murdoch to Co-COO, Names Lachlan Murdoch Non-Executive Co-Chairman

Discussion: Deadline.com, @neilchenoweth and Wall Street Journal

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

Ben Richardson shares more details about why he resigned from Bloomberg over China coverage — Another Bloomberg Editor Explains Why He Has Resigned, Over Its China Coverage — Four months ago, the New York Times ran a big story contending that Bloomberg editors had quashed an investigative report …

Discussion: Poynter, @davidfolkenflik, @comradewong, @emilydparker, Kirk LaPointe's …, @theatlantic, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @marklittlenews, Talking Biz News, @mlcalderone, @mcgregorrichard, @brianstelter and @jayrosen_nyu

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Bloomberg gets a taste of transparency

Discussion: The Independent

Alexandra Steigrad / WWD:

Scaling Capital New York's Paywall — It's been about six weeks since Capital New York started charging for access to about 80 percent of its content, which focuses on New York-centric news on City Hall, state politics and media. Called CapitalPro, the paywall was erected in February …

Discussion: @edgecliffe and @alexsteigrad

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

Why an Apple-Comcast Deal Stirs Net Neutrality Concerns — Four years ago, Netflix executives painted a bleak picture for regulators struggling to reach an agreement on new rules for Internet lines. — Unless Federal Communications Commission officials closed a loophole sought …

Discussion: Fortune, Bloomberg View, Quartz, Free Press Blog and Washington Post

Paul Carsten / Reuters:

Alibaba launches entertainment investment fund — (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the world's biggest e-commerce company, will launch a fund that allows customers to invest in entertainment products, the company said on Wednesday, as it expands its financial services platform.

Discussion: New York Times and The Next Web

New York Post:

CNN producers busted trying to get into WTC site — Two CNN producers were arrested Tuesday for trying to sneak into the World Trade Center site to test its security — after The Post reported that a teen made it all the way to the spire of the world's top terror target.

Discussion: CBS New York, TVNewser, New York Times, Nation, @jodyavirgan, Reuters, @hollywoodswine, @heytammybruce, NY Daily News, Gawker, Mediaite and New York Magazine

Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:

CinemaCon: Global Box Office Hits Record $35.9 Billion in 2013 Thanks to China — UPDATED: China becomes the first market in history besides North America to cross the $3 billion mark in box office revenue. — LAS VEGAS — Global box office hit a new record of $35.9 billion in 2013, fueled in large part by explosive growth in China.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Tarantino: Gawker Fabricated ‘News Story’ to Enable Script Theft — The director's lawyers compare the “Hateful Eight” leak post to a newspaper that reports on a film piracy ring by instructing how, where and when readers can buy their own pirated copies. — Quentin Tarantino

Discussion: The Wrap, @dangillmor and Variety

Al Jazeera English:

Turkish court orders halt to Twitter ban — Access to Twitter is expected to be restored within hours after court lifts last week's controversial ban. — A Turkish court has issued a temporary injunction ordering the telecommunications authority to restore access to Twitter …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Reuters, BBC, Haaretz, Associated Press, @turkishiranian and Engadget

Federico Guerrini / ZDNet:

Italy's artists line up to support the piracy tax: How much should you pay for the right to copy? — Summary: Italy's artists and creatives are hoping to have the levy charged on all blank storage increased, while consumers groups and hardware companies are opposed to what they see as an unfair tax.

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:

Aereo C.E.O. says it's a Supreme Court win or bust — If the Supreme Court passes a decision in favor of television broadcasters in their case against broadcast-to-stream provider Aereo, the company doesn't have a backup plan, C.E.O. Chet Kanojia told Bloomberg TV's Jon Erlichman.

Discussion: Bloomberg

Steve Gray / INMA:

Media disruption: bad for us, wonderful for humanity — The smartphone is the most radical revolutionary technology ever devised, because it is enabling huge segments of humanity to go from near-zero access to near-full access to information. That temporarily spells trouble for the news industry …

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

People Cuts Out the Middleman — Its Own Editors — Letting Celebrities Post Directly to Its Site — Celebrity publications and the celebrities they cover have a snug symbiosis: Celebrity publications need celebrities to do things, so they can write about them or print their pictures.

Katie Zezima / Washington Post:

U.S. condemns Saudi Arabia's denial of visa to Jerusalem Post reporter covering Obama — The White House has condemned Saudi Arabia for denying a visa to the Jerusalem Post's Washington bureau chief, who is traveling with President Obama. — Reporter Michael Wilner, an American …

Discussion: Jerusalem Post, USA Today, The Huffington Post, @mawilner, @marieharf, Politico, Jerusalem Post, BuzzFeed, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Jerusalem Post and Reuters

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

What the Oregonian's new web strategy gets right and what it gets wrong about online media — There's been much sound and fury in media circles about a leaked internal presentation from The Oregonian that lays out the newspaper's goals for its web content and sets performance measurements for reporters and editors.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @mathewi, Poynter, @jjeremiahcasey, The Whip and SPLICETODAY.com