Mediagazer: Muso a friendly way to fight piracy (Helienne Lindvall/Guardian)

8:50 AM ET, April 9, 2014

Top News:

More Than 50 Public Interest Groups Oppose the Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger — On Tuesday, more than 50 public interest groups sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice outlining their case against the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.

Discussion: The Switch, The Switch, @katyonthehill and The Huffington Post

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Comcast: Without Time Warner Cable, we can't compete against Google, Netflix — Comcast says it has “one arm tied behind our back” on eve of Senate hearing. — Comcast today filed a 175-page “public interest statement” with the Federal Communications Commission to explain …

Discussion: CNET, Guardian, USA Today, @dangillmor, VentureBeat, Businessweek, The Wrap, TheHill, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Radio & Television …, Gigaom, PandoDaily, Capital New York and Business Insider

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Comcast, Time Warner Cable Defend Union as Benefiting ‘Millions’ in FCC Filing

Discussion: New York Times, Comcast Voices, TheHill, Politico, Reuters, Re/code, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, The Switch, Forbes, Fast Company, Crain's New York Business, Broadcasting & Cable and The Wrap

Alex DeMarban / Alaska Dispatch:

Digital news organization Alaska Dispatch buys McClatchy's 68-year old newspaper Anchorage Daily News for $34M — Alaska Dispatch to purchase Anchorage Daily News — In what amounts to a stunning media shakeup in the 49th state, the still-young online news organization Alaska Dispatch announced …

John Glenday / The Drum:

Time borrows $1.4bn to buy British sister company — US publishing giant Time has announced its intention to raise $1.4bn of debt in order to purchase the UK operations of the media brand which are currently owned by Time Warner. — Time the publishing arm of Time Warner …

Discussion: International Business Times

Bloomberg:
Time Inc. to Raise $1.4 Billion in Debt for Spinoff

Discussion: New York Post, Talking New Media, Folio, Reuters, NASDAQ.com, TheStreet.com and @edmundlee

Tom Perry / Reuters:

Egypt arrests journalist said to work for Al Jazeera - agency — Egyptian security forces have arrested a man who worked for Qatar's Al Jazeera television network and accused him of inciting and taking part in violence, the state news agency MENA said on Wednesday.

Discussion: @hany2m

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Hibu lays off nearly 200 journalists — Chalk up another flop to another plan to turn a profit with digital hyper-local media. — Hyper-local was the all the rage a few years ago, but there are few success stories in 2014. — Hibu, which was the former Yellow Pages, had an aggressive plan …

Discussion: KCRG-TV, TheGazette and The Times Herald

Laurie Burkitt / Wall Street Journal:

IMAX to Sell 20% Stake in Its Chinese Business — China Media Capital, FountainVest to Help Movie Firm to Expand — BEIJING— IMAX Corp. plans to sell a 20% stake in its Chinese business to two China-focused investor groups in an $80 million deal that the big-movie-screen operator hopes …

Discussion: Variety, Bloomberg, Forbes and Wall Street Journal

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

News of the World boss denies ‘concealing’ payments to phone hacker — Former managing editor Stuart Kuttner denies ‘cooking the books’ to avoid awkward questions, Old Bailey told — The former managing editor of the News of the World has denied “concealing” payments for hacker Glenn Mulcaire …

Press Gazette:

UK minister responsible for the future of press regulation, Maria Miller, resigns over expenses row — Culture secretary Maria Miller quits over expenses row — The government minister responsible for the future of press regulation, Maria Miller, has resigned as Culture Secretary …

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian, Daily Mail, Bloomberg, Mirror.co.uk, Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Star, BBC and Telegraph

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

Why CNN Is Launching A News Show Built For Twitter — As every media company from Yahoo to Microsoft to Crackle looks to up the amount of original Web video it produces, here comes CNN. — The television news network has been in the middle of major overhaul undertaken …

Helienne Lindvall / Guardian:

Muso a friendly way to fight piracy — Finding your music on infringing sites feels like being burgled, but a producer and songwriter has come up with a solution — Imagine if you downloaded a file from an illegal filesharing site or cyberlocker and, when you tried to open it …

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How some journalists are using anonymous secret-sharing apps — Gwyneth Paltrow's divorce from rock star husband Chris Martin is not an event with great civic impact. But it's big news to the many writers whose salaries depend on highly trafficked stories about celebrities, as well as to the massive audience that loves to read them.

Discussion: Mashable and @niemanlab

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Michael Wolff: 'Online journalism can't pay for itself' — When author, Internet entrepreneur and media pundit Michael Wolff surveys the landscape, few are safe from his bleak prognostications. In recent columns for USA Today, the Guardian and GQ, he has skewered Marissa Mayer for wanting …

Discussion: Felix Salmon, @lmoses, @bobtheprguy, FishbowlNY, @mediaczar, @niemanlab, Kirk LaPointe's …, @jason_pontin, @emilybell, @bmorrissey and @mathewi

Jack Shafer:

NYT's Times Premier is mainly a repackaged New York Times subscription, not worth the upgrade — Dressing up the NYT with fins, chrome and glitter — At the beginning of April, the New York Times launched its “Times Premier” digital offering, accessible to Times home delivery subscribers …

Discussion: @kausmickey, @moorehn, @mathewi, @markleibovich, @pkafka, @sulliview, @lmoses and @antderosa

Patrick Brzeski / Hollywood Reporter:

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma Pays $1.05 Billion for Stake in Chinese Internet TV Company — Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Alibaba — The Chinese Internet giant is ramping up a strategic push into the country's booming entertainment sector. — Jack Ma, the billionaire founder …

Discussion: Reuters, Wall Street Journal and VatorNews

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Reddit Execs Ellen Pao and Jena Donlin Get Serious About the Site's Business (Q&A) — Reddit is one of the biggest sites on the Web. Now it just needs to start making it rain. — Since 2005, the online community message board and link-sharing site has risen from an esoteric bulletin board service …

Discussion: @laurahazardowen, @pkafka, @niemanlab and The Switch

Casey Johnston / Ars Technica:

Just having a 4K TV isn't enough to see Netflix's 4K streams — Netflix just added 4K, but it won't work everywhere. — Netflix has added 4K streams to its slate of offerings as of Tuesday, according to a report from CNET. However, the streams only work on TVs that were released this year …

Discussion: Multichannel, HDTV News, CNET, TechRadar.com, TIME and The Verge

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Sesame Street now has its own dedicated video-on-demand service called Sesame GO — Breaking Bad fan? Sign-up to Netflix. Looking to stream more recent theatrical releases? Check out Amazon Instant Video. Kids addicted to Sesame Street? Well, there's a new kid on the VOD block just for that.