Mediagazer: Pluto.tv Aims to Turn Online Video Into Lean-Back Experience (Alex Pham/Billboard)

9:00 AM ET, April 2, 2014

Top News:

Digital First Media is closing Thunderdome and putting papers up for sale in $100M cost cutting initiative — The newsonomics of Digital First Media's Thunderdome implosion (and coming sale) — Today, we'll hear official word of the demise of Project Thunderdome, one of the news industry's …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Washington Post, Street Fight, Poynter, @maura, @abeaujon, @jweb, @jbenton, @bydanielvictor, @raju, @ckrewson, @mattwaite, @chanders, @rafat, @niemanlab, @nacin, @kchapline and @raju

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

NYT Now, out today, mixes lots of good mobile-centric ideas with moments of caution — If you've got an iPhone or an iPod touch, NYT Now is out now and a free download. The new app from The New York Times promises to offer a subset of the Times' content to a mobile-focused audience that gets …

Discussion: New York Times, @niemanlab and Business Insider

Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:

Comcast Stock Drop Complicates TWC Deal — Takeover Value Falls to $144 a Share, Giving Charter a Possible Opening — Comcast Corp.'s deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. has run into an unexpected source of turbulence: a weak stock price. — In the nearly seven weeks since the deal was announced …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @shaliniwsj, @danacimilluca and @miriamgottfried

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:
Comcast: Business services is sweet spot in Time Warner Cable deal

Discussion: Washington Post, TIME, Washington Post, Zacks Investment Research and 24/7 Wall St.

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

After Fan Complaints, NBCU to Keep Television Without Pity and DailyCandy Archives Public — NBCUniversal will be making the archived content of two high-profile sites that it is closing down — Television Without Pity and DailyCandy — available to the public, the media giant confirmed.

Discussion: @fuggirls, @travelingheidi, @amiewatchestv, @tvwithoutpity, @mrsfridaynext, @monica_msk, @whedonesque, @tvwithoutpity and @dorothysnarker

Alex Pham / Billboard:

Pluto.tv Aims to Turn Online Video Into Lean-Back Experience — The Top 40 Countdown is one of more than a dozen channels on Pluto.tv devoted to music. … Questions? Comments? Let us know: @billboardbiz

Discussion: Re/code, New York Times, Digital Journal and PSFK

Victoria Turk / Motherboard:

UK Police Are Gunning for Pirate Sites' Advertising Revenue — London police today announced their latest step in tackling copyright infringement, and they want to hit pirate sites where it hurts: right in the advertising revenue. — As it stands, websites that make money off pirated content …

Discussion: BBC

Jennifer Bjorhus / Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor makes cash offer to buy Minneapolis Star Tribune — Wolves owner Glen Taylor makes cash offer to buy Star Tribune — The billionaire Minnesota businessman would be the sole owner and operate it as a stand-alone company.

Discussion: Poynter, Hot Air, JIMROMENESKO.COM, bizjournals, The Free Press …, @1500espnjudd, @seth_kaplan, tcbmag.com, Wall Street Journal, MinnPost, Associated Press, NewsCut, TwinCities.com, @megankadlec and NetNewsCheck Latest

James Gill / Radio Times:

Sky launches combined download and postal movie service — Sky is ramping up its On Demand service with plans to sell digital copies of the latest movie releases - and send a DVD in the post, too. — The new ‘Buy & Keep’ service is expected to launch towards the end of April.

Discussion: TorrentFreak, Hollywood Reporter, Inquirer, TechRadar.com, Wired.co.uk, Broadband TV News, Telegraph, Pocket-lint, thedrum.com, Engadget and The Next Web

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Spotify debuts ‘dark’ redesign ahead of competition from iTunes and YouTube — Streaming service has new look and Your Music collections, but bigger beasts are preparing to enter market — Spotify is rolling out a new dark look for its mobile, desktop and web apps.

Discussion: Spotify Blog, TechRadar.com, Wall Street Journal, NEWS.com.au, Gizmodo Australia, CNET, Telegraph, App Advice, Engadget, MacRumors, The Verge and hypebot

Brett Scott / Contributoria:

Crowdfunding critical thought: How alternative finance builds alternative journalism — Greg Palast's approach to investigative journalism can be summed up in one phrase: Stand up for the underdogs, and take on the fatcats. His hard-hitting reports on corporations like ExxonMobil …

Discussion: @lightcoin, @cjenscook and @adamgomolin

Alexander Howard / Tow Center for Digital Journalism:

NPR's news app developer Jeremy Bowers talks skills, processes, and tools for data journalism — Profile of the Data Journalist: Jeremy Bowers — As in 2012, when I published a series of profiles of data journalists at Radar, I've conducted a series of email interviews after the annual conference …

Discussion: @ryanpitts, @beckybowers, @jeremybowers, @digiphile and @angieholan

Tom Bawden / The Independent:

Government accuses BBC of creating ‘false balance’ on climate change with unqualified sceptics — The BBC has been accused of misleading the public about climate change, creating a “false balance” by allowing unqualified climate sceptics too much air time and giving opinion the same weight as fact.

Discussion: Guardian, BBC, @aworldtowin, The Carbon Brief, Financial Times, The Carbon Brief and Associated Press

Jessica Davies / The Drum:

Telegraph uses drones to move “beyond confines” of Fleet Street and create new advertising opportunities, says editor-in-chief Jason Seiken — The Telegraph has hailed drones the “storytelling tool” of the future, and will use new technologies such as this to push the boundaries …

Discussion: campaignlive.co.uk and London News

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

It's Becoming Clear That CNN Boss Jeff Zucker Is, In Fact, Exactly What The Network Needed — Here at Business Insider, we have TVs hanging all over the newsroom, and for the last few days, the one across from me has been showing CNN. — As a result, I can tell you that CNN is, in fact …

Discussion: @owillis, @jayrosen_nyu, @tomgara, @ryanchittum, @hblodget, @dorseyshaw and Inside Cable News

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

News Corp wins dismissal of U.S. lawsuit over phone hacking — (Reuters) - News Corp, its Chairman Rupert Murdoch and other top officials have won the dismissal of a U.S. lawsuit accusing them of defrauding shareholders by concealing widespread, illegal phone hacking at two of its British newspapers.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap and Deadline.com

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comedy Central Launches Mobile App with 200 Episodes, But the Full Load Isn't Available to Everyone — Comedy Central has at last launched its app for Apple iOS devices, which has been years in the works, stocked with nearly 200 episodes and stand-up specials including “South Park,” …

Discussion: Gigaom, Softpedia News, Lost Remote and The Wrap

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:

With help from Twitter's Biz Stone, Colbert kills the @ColbertReport account after tweetstorm — Did Stephen Colbert Bow to Pressure by Deleting @ColbertReport? — The #CancelColbert saga came to a head last night when Stephen Colbert dedicated almost all his show to this past weekend's campaign …