Mediagazer: About.com plots its digital comeback (Ricardo Bilton/Digiday)

10:15 PM ET, April 18, 2014

Top News:

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Newspaper industry narrowed revenue loss in 2013 as paywall plans increased — The newspaper industry narrowed its total revenue loss in 2013 to 2.6 percent, the best performance since the mid-2000s, according to figures released today by the Newspaper Association of America.

Discussion: Mashable

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Print ads fell 8.6% at papers in 2013: NAA — In the eighth consecutive year of decline, print advertising at the nation's newspapers fell 8.6% to $17.3 billion in 2013, according to statistics released today by the Newspaper Association of America. — This means the primary revenue stream …

Discussion: Newspaper Association …

Financial Times:

Comcast and Time Warner in talks to sell subscribers to Charter — Comcast and Time Warner Cable have entered negotiations to sell cable assets worth up $20bn to Charter Communications in a deal aimed to allay Washington?s concerns about their proposed merger.

Discussion: The Verge, @zseward and VentureBeat

Todd Spangler / Variety:

British Pathé Uploads Entire 85,000-Film Archive to YouTube in HD — British Pathé, the U.K. newsreel archive company, has uploaded its entire 100-year collection of 85,000 historic films in high resolution to YouTube. — The collection, which spans 1896 to 1976 …

Discussion: New York Times, Motherboard, Telegraph, Guardian, The Verge and kottke.org

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

About.com plots its digital comeback — When About.com was launched in 1997, Google didn't exist, most Internet users were on dial-up, and the Web browser of choice was Netscape Navigator. A once-iconic Internet brand that, back in 2005, was sold to The New York Times for $410 million …

Megan Geuss / Ars Technica:

Digital Public Library of America to add millions of records to its archive — At one year old, DPLA makes some big partnerships and looks back on its growth. — Today marks the Digital Public Library of America's one-year anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, the non-profit library …

Discussion: Melville House Books

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Comcast: Binge watching actually helps live TV ratings (exclusive) — The best way to hook someone into an existing series of stories is to make sure they can start from the beginning. The same is also true of TV shows, and Comcast has the data to back it up.

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Smaller Barnes & Noble Stores? 'Yes, It's Possible,' Says Leonard Riggio … Several weeks before Chairman Leonard Riggio sold his latest tranche of shares in Barnes & Noble, he sat down for a chat at the retailer's corporate offices in Manhattan. Here, an edited Q&A:

Discussion: Consumerist and Melville House Books

Martin Beck / Marketing Land:

Facebook Paper 1.1 Rewards Publishers With New Cover Treatments — Facebook's iOS-only news reader app, Paper, got an upgrade today. Paper 1.1 has added features from Facebook's main stable of offerings, including birthday and event notifications and the ability to insert photos from the iPhone camera or camera roll into comments.

Discussion: Mashable, facebook.com, MacRumors, VentureBeat, AllFacebook, The Verge, @sdrak, TechCrunch and CNET

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

Regulators Propose Limited Set-Aside of TV Airwaves for Unlicensed Use — Federal regulators will propose setting aside a limited amount of spectrum for use by unlicensed devices in an auction of TV airwaves next year. — “With the increased use of Wi-Fi, this spectrum has also become congested.

Discussion: multichannel.com, Engadget, Ars Technica, Adweek, Deadline.com, Broadcasting & Cable, FCC.gov and BGR

Reuters:

Weibo debut highlights complicated dance with Chinese censors — (Reuters) - Weibo Corp executives on Thursday toasted the Chinese social media firm's debut at Nasdaq's New York headquarters. Hours earlier in Beijing, Charles Xue, a Chinese-American venture capitalist and prominent Weibo user …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Mashable

Alexandra Topping / Guardian:

Eric Pickles: I'll shut council freesheets that publish ‘propaganda on the rates’ — Communities secretary targets five Labour-led London boroughs, where he says free press is being put out of business — An advertising board for a London newspaper. Eric Pickles says the capital's local press …