Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
AT&T considering acquisition of DirectTV, in deal likely worth at least $40B — AT&T Has Approached DirecTV About Possible Acquisition — AT&T has approached DirecTV about a possible acquisition of the satellite TV firm, say people familiar with the situation, the latest sign of a possible shakeup in the television industry.
Discussion:
multichannel.com, Rapid TV News, Deadline.com, Engadget, The Next Web, Mashable, Variety and The Verge
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Viacom to Acquire U.K.'s Channel 5 for $760 Million — Entrepreneur Richard Desmond had bought the broadcaster for $171 million a few years ago. — LONDON - After Discovery Communications and British pay TV giant BSkyB dropped out of the auction, Viacom is set to announce a deal …
Hillel Italie / Associated Press:
“To Kill a Mockingbird” finally going digital … NEW YORK (AP) — Harper Lee has signed on for Scout, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch to enter the electronic age. — Filling one of the biggest gaps in the e-library, “To Kill a Mockingbird” will become available as an e-book and digital audiobook on July 8 …
Discussion:
CNN
Ellyn Angelotti / Poynter:
Legal issues surrounding ownership of Twitter followers unclear — Who owns your Twitter followers? — This is the latest in a series of articles by The Poynter Institute and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on legal issues affecting journalists.
Mark Sweney / Guardian:
BSkyB's TV customers rise by 74,000, but broadband growth slows — Company says focus on investment in Now TV is starting to pay off as revenues rise 6.6% in nine months to end of March — BSkyB added more than 70,000 TV customers in the three months to the end of March …
Discussion:
Reuters, Bloomberg, Life Style Extra, Press Association, Telegraph, @skynewsbreak, Broadband TV News and thedrum.com
Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Does having native advertising make a news site less credible? This study, at least, suggests no — Native advertising is providing an ever-larger chunk of digital revenue for publishers these days. But despite (or perhaps because of) the money, lots of journalists are still squeamish about the topic.
Ron Nixon / New York Times:
Paywast, an Afghan social media network with 1.6M users was backed by the US govt until 2011 — Social Media in Afghanistan Takes On Life of Its Own — WASHINGTON — Afghans have long been resistant to central authority — as the United States has found to its frustration …
Discussion:
@nytimesbits and Daily Dot
Henry Taylor / TheMediaBriefing:
Ofcom study: fewer people reading newspapers regularly, apps preferred over browsers for news — 5 charts showing the rapidly changing face of UK content consumption — The ways in which people access and consume media are changing incredibly rapidly, and one of the most comprehensive studies …
Discussion:
@henryctaylor
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Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Audience Network Mobile Ad Network Launches At f8 — Facebook today launched its mobile ad network called Facebook Audience Network so developers can make money without having to sell their own ads, do their own targeting, handle measurement, or route payments. Facebook will take care of it all.
Discussion:
Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, AdAge, MoPub, Softpedia News, @joshconstine, Forbes and Globe and Mail
Kurt Badenhausen / Forbes:
The Value of ESPN Surpasses $50 Billion — The National Football League announced last week that ESPN would host the first playoff game in its 35-year history in January 2015. The Wild Card playoff game is a carrot for the $15.2 billion ESPN committed over eight years in its latest NFL TV rights deal, which kicks off next season.
Discussion:
@springer, @richarddeitsch and MediaWire Daily
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Rob Tannenbaum / Rolling Stone:
Bill Simmons' Big Score: How a failed newspaper writer built a new kind of media empire at ESPN
Discussion:
@prestonjscott, @reformedbroker, @pang and Deadspin
Mike Hopkins / Hulu Blog:
Hulu will allow free viewing of select full TV episodes on mobile devices starting this summer — Today at the Hulu Upfront in New York City, joined by Peter Naylor, SVP of Sales, Craig Erwich, SVP Head of Content, and many of our talented stars and creators from Hulu Originals …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, VentureBeat, The Wrap, Washington Post, Forbes, Business Insider, The Verge, AppleInsider, CNET, CNNMoney.com, Electronista, Ars Technica, Consumerist, Gigaom, TechCrunch, TIME, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, Engadget, App Advice, The Next Web, WebProNews, Deadline.com and Softpedia News
Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
Rdio will launch free, ad-supported service later this year, add traditional radio content — Music subscription service Rdio will launch a free, ad-supported service later this year, according to Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey. Cumulus, which is better known for its terrestrial radio stations …
Discussion:
@jank0, Radio Ink Magazine and Digital Media Wire
Jon Boone / Guardian:
Pakistan's spy agency ISI accused of kidnapping and killing journalists — Amnesty International details journalists' claims of harassment, intimidation and attacks at the hands of military intelligence — Amnesty International says it has “credible concerns” that Pakistan's powerful …
Discussion:
Radio Free Europe/Radio …, The Huffington Post, @georgeprof and @samirashackle
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David Kravets / Ars Technica:
US State Department adopting social media to counter Al-Qaeda propaganda — US says violent extremists increasingly taking to social media. — The State Department unveiled Wednesday that it is widely employing social media as a method to counter online violent extremism from Al-Qaeda and others.
Steven Waldman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Columbia Spec's smart switch to digital — As some trustees cry foul over Spec being the first Ivy-League daily to cut print, one says the students could teach their elders a thing or two — When the alumni advisory board of the Columbia Daily Spectator gathered recently to consider …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, College Media Matters, @nymag and @megreenwell
Alex Rogers / TIME:
Comcast Has About 76 Lobbyists Working Washington On The Time Warner Cable Merger. This is Why. — The company has registered at least 76 lobbyists across 24 firms to work on its impending $45 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable, making for a special ops squad with high-priced relationships to the most powerful members of Congress
Discussion:
@timkarr
Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:
Music app Bloom.fm shuts down after investor yanks funding — Update 12:31 p.m.: We spoke with Bloom.fm founder Oleg Fomenko by phone. — Music streaming startup Bloom.fm announced today that it is shutting down immediately following a highly publicized ban from Apple's iAds advertising network.
Discussion:
hypebot, MacRumors, The Next Web, Pocket-lint and @frank_meehan
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Attkisson: CBS News wasn't willing to fight for Benghazi documents — Ever since her separation from CBS News, Sharyl Attkisson has been doing a series of media interviews in which she drops vague and uncorroborable charges against her former bosses, such as this one, which she gave …
Discussion:
Politico
Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:
HBO brings back movie-making reality show ‘Project Greenlight’ — Was Project Greenlight, the show that attempted to discover the next brilliant film director via the internet, about a decade too early? That's what HBO thinks. The network announced it is bringing the reality show …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, Deadline.com, @pmarca, Boston Globe, Daily Mail, The Wire, Rolling Stone, /Film, The Week Magazine, Inside TV, multichannel.com and Chicago Tribune
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