Mediagazer: Hibu lays off nearly 200 journalists (Keith J. Kelly/New York Post)

12:00 PM ET, April 9, 2014

Top News:

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

Senate Committee Begins Its Review of Comcast Deal — WASHINGTON — Comcast took its case for acquiring Time Warner Cable to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, arguing at a Senate hearing that its proposed $45 billion takeover would benefit consumers by generating greater investment …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

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 …

Palmer Gibbs / Sunlight Foundation Blog:

Comcast and Time Warner Cable give big to some senators reviewing merger — Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., is a vocal critic of the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. Franken is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds a hearing about the merger on Wednesday.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @emilysteel, @sunfoundation, CNNMoney.com, Engadget and The Verge

Free Press Blog:
More Than 50 Public Interest Groups Oppose the Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger

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

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 …

Discussion: @jcstearns, @jennifersaba and @mdornic

Carrie Battan / The New Republic:

Podcasts: The Last Refuge of the C-List Celebrity (and Bret Easton Ellis) — oday we're going to talk about goddamn camera phones, and everybody wanting to take a picture of every goddamn thing," the rapper-turned “Law and Order: SVU” star Ice T said recently. “ This is not gangster. This is not fly.

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: The Times Herald, KCRG-TV and TheGazette

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, Wall Street Journal, Folio, Reuters, Bloomberg, Talking New Media, Telegraph, NASDAQ.com, TheStreet.com and @edmundlee

Stuart Elliott / New York Times:

Oxygen Shifts Focus to Millennial Viewers — In another sign of the growing influence of the millennial generation on Madison Avenue, the Oxygen cable channel will be revamped to appeal to a modern young woman, offering several new series with a multicultural focus.

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Publications aim to make debunking as popular as fake images — Adrienne LaFrance and Matt Novak live in different cities and write for different sites in the Gawker Media network. LaFrance is a freelancer who contributes to several other publications. Novak works full-time on his blog, Paleofuture, which is part of Gizmodo.

Discussion: @poynter, @history1800s and @caitlindewey

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

Paul Sandle / Reuters:

Vice Media targets more mainstream TV deals after Fremantle tie-up — (Reuters) - Vice Media, the New York-based group whose edgy reportage has proved a hit with young people, plans to sell more content to mainstream TV groups after signing such a deal with “American Idol” producer Fremantle Media, it said on Wednesday.

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 …

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Q&A site Quora raises $80M to build the next Wikipedia — Quora believes it has built the best question and answer service on the Internet. Now, it's looking to Wikipedia for inspiration. — With a fresh $80 million in the bank, Quora's head of business operations, Marc Bodnick …

Discussion: Gigaom, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Re/code, Forbes, Reuters, @mathewi, @yoavlurie, Fortune and New York Times

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.

Discussion: Gigaom, Wall Street Journal, Mobile Entertainment Feed, Electronista, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, The Verge, App Advice and VideoNuze Analysis

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: allAfrica.com, Minneapolis Star Tribune and @hany2m

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, Wall Street Journal and Forbes

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, VatorNews 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 …