Mediagazer: Spotify nears 10M paying subscribers, sources say; revenue may soon surpass iTunes in Europe (Stuart Dredge/Guardian)

3:15 PM ET, April 25, 2014

Top News:

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Former Tumblr President John Maloney Is Now Circa's New President — What do you do after you help a young CEO build a giant digital property? — Take a couple years off, then try doing it again. — That's what John Maloney is doing. The Web veteran, who spent four years running …

Discussion: Forbes, VentureBeat, @circa and @benjlerer

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

The FCC's new net neutrality rules will kill Aereo, even if the Supreme Court doesn't — This week, we heard a lot about Aereo, the New York-based startup that could upend the television business if it survives a Supreme Court battle with broadcasters. But even if it squeaks past …

Discussion: USA Today, Businessweek, Marco.org, hypebot and @jeffjohnroberts

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
BitTorrent: Netflix should defeat ISPs by switching to peer-to-peer

Discussion: @utorrent

Ryan Singel / Medium:
How The FCC Plans to Save the Internet by Destroying It: An Explainer

Simon Ostrovsky / VICE News:

‘I Had It Pretty Easy, Because I Was Let Go’: Simon Ostrovsky On His Detention in Sloviansk — On Thursday, armed gunmen who held me prisoner for four nights and three days released me into the streets of Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine. My release was as unexplained as my capture.

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker, Guardian, @shanesmith30, Capital New York, @julianborger, @natvasilyevaap, @ilvestoomas, @joshuafoust, @kremlinologist1 and New York Magazine

BBC:

Coulson ‘may not have read’ all of Milly Dowler story — Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson has told the phone-hacking trial he may not have read all of a key story about missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler published in April 2002. — Under cross-examination, he said he thought the story …

Discussion: Hacked Off, ABC, Guardian, Guardian and @robindbrant

ITV:
Coulson ‘received £600,000 pay-off’ on quitting NotW

Discussion: Financial Times

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

More than a social network: Facebook aims to be the source for breaking news — Facebook has always been filled with “news,” just not the kind you'd find in a daily newspaper. — Recently, however, Facebook had made several moves to shift the content of your News Feed towards hard news …

Discussion: Capital New York, Nieman Journalism Lab, PSFK, Poynter, @startupljackson, @niallharbison, Storyful Blog, @mikeisaac, Gigaom, VentureBeat, AllFacebook and NewscastStudio

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Storyful's Verification Tech Could Stop Fake News From Spreading On Facebook

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Techie News, PandoDaily and Facebook

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Microsoft, AOL Strike Web Video Distribution Deal — AOL and Microsoft compete for advertisers' dollars. But they've figured out a way to cooperate, too: The two rivals have struck a deal which lets Microsoft distribute AOL's videos on some of its properties.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Paul Farrell / Guardian:

Journalists' sources are no longer safe in Australia — Can government agencies instantaneously track down journalists' sources? It's looking more and more likely, and it's a dangerous state of affairs — The idea of living in a world where government agencies could almost instantaneously track …

Discussion: @wendy_bacon, ZDNet, @colvinius, @ms_em_, @farrellpf and Guardian

Kenneth Olmstead / Pew Research Center:

As digital ad sales grow, news outlets get a smaller share — Digital advertising in the U.S. accounted for $42.6 billion in revenue in 2013, an increase of 16% over 2012, according to the financial analysis firm eMarketer. But while that digital ad pie is growing, the numbers show …

Reporters Without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders and Torservers.net, partners against online surveillance and censorship — Reporters Without Borders and Torservers.net have joined forces to create and maintain 250 additional relays for the Tor network. — “In doing this, our two organizations are thumbing …

Discussion: Poynter and @runasand

Michael Foley / The Irish Times:

Opinion: Time to redefine the regulatory system for journalism in Ireland — Opinion: Time to redefine the regulatory system for journalism in Ireland — The media regulatory system in Ireland has a decidedly old-fashioned feel. On the one hand, there is the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland …

Discussion: @tupp_ed, @faduda and Kirk LaPointe's …

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Hulu Blocks VPN Users Over Piracy Concerns — Free and legal streaming services such as Hulu have been proven to slow down piracy rates in the United States. — At the same time, however, they also created a new problem. With a relatively cheap VPN subscription, people from all over the world …

Discussion: @awallenstein, Techie News, Computerworld, Mobile & Apps and @deejayqf

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Pandora's success hinges on eating terrestrial radio's lunch, company says — Pandora is now much more attractive to advertisers who typically buy ads on terrestrial (aka traditional) radio, the company said during an earnings call today. — While terrestrial radio might be boring and filled …

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
Pandora reports Q1 loss, guidance hits sour note again

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Pandora, Wall Street Journal and Hollywood Reporter

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

You Kids Are Still Watching — And Paying for — TV, Says Pay TV Giant — The TV Industrial Complex is worried about cord-cutters — people who are bailing on their pay-TV subscriptions and turning to the Web instead. — And the TV Industrial Complex is even more worried about cord-nevers …

Discussion: @pkafka

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Amplify helps Twitter grab a piece of the multi-billion dollar TV ad market — Twitter Wants to Be Your TV — Profitability doesn't appear to be in Twitter's (TWTR) future anytime soon. Losses are increasing, membership growth has slowed, and the company's stock price is down 28 percent since …

Discussion: @caaagency

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

Cosmopolitan.com hires Jill Filipovic, burnishes feminist cred — Betting that articles about restrictions on women's reproductive rights are just as shareable as slideshows of cleavage at its best, Cosmopolitan.com has hired feminist writer Jill Filipovic to cover politics, particularly the impact of policy on women's rights.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Comcast Says Netflix Slowed Down Its Own Streams (Updated) — A couple days after Netflix and Comcast fought in public, the two companies, who are supposed to be partners, are at it again. — Three days after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings publicly opposed Comcast's planned acquisition of/merger …

Discussion: Computerworld, Washington Post, VatorNews, Capital New York, @dangillmor, Daring Fireball, @jyarow, @botnet_hunter and ZDNet

Jennifer Khoury / Comcast Voices Blog:
Comcast: Neflix degraded its Comcast streams, seeks to shift its costs onto all Internet users

Discussion: Digiday, Dan Rayburn, PandoDaily, Gigaom, CNN, Softpedia News, WebProNews, Mashable, Talking New Media, @michaelpryor, @samgustin, Business Insider, @davezatz, @om, @jyarow, @pkafka and Engadget

Ken Florance / Netflix US & Canada Blog:
Netflix says it opposes Comcast/TWC merger because Comcast charges both Netflix and its customers to connect to each other