Mediagazer: Machinima Hires Cable Exec Chad Gutstein as CEO (Todd Spangler/Variety)

6:45 PM ET, March 31, 2014

Top News:

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

Former MSNBC anchor Carlos Watson's media startup Ozy receives investment from Axel Springer — Start-Up Ozy Media Adds Axel Springer as a Backer — Like many news start-ups, Ozy Media is trying to be heard. And investors, at least, are listening. — Though it has yet to attract …

Discussion: @peterlattman, @lsemediapolicy, @nicktheandersen and @carr2n

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo in early talks to acquire online video service News Distribution Network for $300M — Yahoo in Talks to Buy Online-Video Service NDN — Sources — Deal Would Help Yahoo Compete With Google's YouTube — Yahoo Inc. is in preliminary talks to acquire online-video service News …

Discussion: Deadline.com, Beet.TV, Reuters, @xpangler, @jasonabbruzzese, @karaswisher and @pkafka

Ben Dooley / Mother Jones:

Who's Behind Newsweek? — TWO DAYS AFTER BARACK OBAMA won reelection, I met a young Chinese woman, whom I will call Anne, in the basement café at the San Francisco Public Library. Anne worked part time and gave a large portion of her earnings to a group she called “the Community,” …

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Like newspapers, Facebook determines who gets included editorially and who needs to buy ads — This is what happens when Facebook controls the signal, and it defines you as noise — A food-delivery startup called Eat24 touched off a minor frenzy of anti-Facebook sentiment recently …

Discussion: Bacon Sriracha Unicorn Diaries, metamedia, Re/code, @mathewi, Business Insider, AllFacebook and What's Next Blog

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Buys France's Mesagraph And UK's SecondSync To Ramp Up Social TV Efforts In Europe — Twitter is adding more global firepower to its ambitions to cosy up to broadcasters and TV advertisers: it is buying France's Mesagraph, and it is also acquiring the UK's SecondSync (a key partner of Facebook's).

Discussion: Mesagraph, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Forbes, The Twitter Blog, Wall Street Journal, VatorNews, @maymann, Business 2 Community, Mashable and @donal_cahalane

Jay Caspian Kang / New Yorker:

The Campaign to “Cancel” Colbert — On Thursday night, the official Twitter account for “The Colbert Report” committed the comedic sin of delivering a punchline without its setup. The offending tweet, “I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation …

Discussion: @slate, @hcheadle, @atossaaraxia, @salesses, @treybarrineau, @jeffchu, @timothypmurphy, @theyoungist, @swerdlick and @zentronix

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Advance defends bonuses for reporters who post frequently and join comment chains — Advance's quota and bonus system at The Oregonian came in for heavy criticism last week, prompting a rejoinder from the typically close-mouthed private company. — In a note to senior executives shared with Poynter …

Discussion: @poynter

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

Paula Froelich Named Editor of Yahoo Travel, Joining New Entertainment Chief Josh Wolk — Former “Page Six” editor Paula Froelich will oversee Yahoo's travel section, the internet platform said Monday, joining Josh Wolk, who was officially named executive editor of Yahoo Entertainment.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @andywangnyla and @joepompeo

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Machinima Hires Cable Exec Chad Gutstein as CEO — Machinima announced that it has hired Chad Gutstein, previously chief operating officer of arts cable network Ovation, as its new CEO. Announcement comes after the YouTube mulitchannel network announced an $18 million investment led by Warner Bros. earlier this month.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Re/code and The Wrap

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:

‘This American Life’ Considers Self-Distribution on Radio — The announcement two weeks ago that “This American Life” will part ways on July 1 from its distributor, Public Radio International, has set off a scramble among rivals for rights to the program, one of the most popular on public radio.

Discussion: @janeholley48, @lachlanfharris, @fagstein and @nprmonkeysee

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Can Mashable pull a BuzzFeed? — Mashable is growing up. — Started as a social media blog by a 19-year-old Scot, the news site is now flush with $14 million in venture capital that it's using to bankroll an ambitious plan to become the CNN for the mobile- and social-addicted generation.

Discussion: @maymann, @jonathanellis, @10000words and The New York Observer

Patrick Kingsley / Guardian:

Three al-Jazeera journalists denied bail in Egyptian court once more — The trio are accused of aiding terrorists and include a former BBC journalist, Peter Greste, and a Canadian ex-CNN journalist — Three al-Jazeera journalists who have been jailed in Egypt were again denied bail on Monday …

Discussion: TVNewser, @patrickkingsley and @felicitybarrtv

Ishbel Macleod / The Drum:

IPC Media in consultation to close Nuts — Nuts, the men's weekly magazine and website, could be set to close as IPC Media has announced that it has entered into a 30-day consultation with staff. — IPC Inspire managing director Paul Williams said: “After 10 years at the top of its market …

Discussion: IPC Media and Guardian

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Pandora competitor Raditaz reemerges as CÜR Media, raises $9.6 million — Remember Raditaz, the personalized radio service that tried to compete with Pandora by building stations for each and every neighborhood of your city? The service abruptly went offline in November …

Discussion: @daualset and hypebot

Jordan Zakarin / The Wrap:

Why Net Neutrality Matters So Much to Indie Filmmakers — Consumer groups and tech advocates have been voicing concern about the growing threats to net neutrality, but Hollywood — especially independent filmmakers and distributors — have plenty of reason to worry about the walls and toll booths …

Discussion: Softpedia News and @jmmandel

Michael Depp / NetNewsCheck Latest:

The Future's Newspaper Rack Is Here — Next week, about a dozen retailers in South Bend, Ind., will see the traditional, single-copy sales racks for The South Bend Tribune replaced by a kiosk that's endlessly updating in real time, promoting content elements from inside the paper along …

Discussion: Poynter and The Newspaper Guild

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Music Startup Spawnsong Wants To Be Kickstarter For Single Tracks — Holy incremental music startup, Batman! Spawnsong is a (very) new music platform startup with a strategy to elbow into the crowded digital music space by focusing on a very thin wedge: individual songs.

Discussion: hypebot

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Rusbridger on how no journalist's sources are now safe, joining IPSO and why he would have kept the News of the World open — Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger warned today that is almost impossible for journalists to maintain the confidentiality of their sources because of threat of surveillance.

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A club that will have me as a member: Voice of San Diego and MinnPost are building out their membership models — About 300 people filled an event space in San Diego a couple weeks ago to take part in a discussion sponsored by Voice of San Diego on innovations with origins in the area.

Discussion: @vosdscott, @niemanlab, MinnPost, Voice of San Diego and @dangillmor