Mediagazer: Jill Abramson tells Wake Forest graduates to ‘show what you are made of’ (Manuel Roig-Franzia/Washington Post)

4:25 PM ET, May 19, 2014

Top News:

Editor's Exit at The Times Puts Tensions on Display — Back in 2010, before she became executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson sent me a handwritten attaboy note about a big story. It still hangs in my cubicle: “You wrote a story about the trashing of a once great American institution and people never tire of that.”

Manuel Roig-Franzia / Washington Post:

Jill Abramson tells Wake Forest graduates to ‘show what you are made of’ — WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Ousted New York Times editor Jill Abramson told graduates here to “show what you are made of” when facing adversity. — “I'm talking to anyone who's been dumped,” Abramson said to knowing chuckles from the large crowd.

Discussion: Politico, The Charlotte Observer, Wall Street Journal, The Newspaper Guild, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, USA Today, News-Record.com, @caranyt, @nicoleperlroth, @bobstep, @jkrim and @ktumulty

Poynter:

Jill Abramson says she plans to stay in journalism — Abramson at Wake Forest: ‘honor of my life’ to lead NYT newsroom — Ousted New York Times editor Jill Abramson took the high road in a Wake Forest University commencement speech Monday, saying it “was the honor of my life to lead the newsroom.”

Discussion: Forbes, MediaWire Daily, Mediaite, @poynter, The New York Observer, @rickbbowers, New York Magazine, @moorehn and @nycjim

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg: Times Editor Inherits Business Battles Fought by Abramson

Ken Auletta / New Yorker:
Guardian's Gibson weighs in on NYT and Abramson: “Jill should not have been hung out to dry”

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Hale Global's Patch is pared down to 65 journalists; on track for $21M in revenue this year — Patch Sites Turn Corner After Sale and Big Cuts — In January, when AOL announced that it was handing over the majority stake in Patch, its troubled hyperlocal news division, to an investment firm …

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Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Twitter Is Considering a Deal to Buy SoundCloud — Twitter may try to buy its way out of its growth problem by making another move into music. — The company is considering a deal to acquire SoundCloud, the music and audio-sharing company, according to people familiar with both companies.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Gigaom, Fortune, CNET, @fromedome, Business Insider, @moorehn, App Advice, Mashable, The Verge, Engadget and Tech in Asia

P.J. Bednarski / MediaPost:

Chernin Group's alliance with AT&T for over-the-top video gains significance with DirecTV deal — Connect The Dots: AT&T/DirecTV Merger Leading To Major Over-The-Top Play? — The media world is just now digesting AT&T's proposed $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV but people …

Discussion: VentureBeat, The Wrap, Forbes, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Talking Biz News and Los Angeles Times

Nathan Mattise / Ars Technica:
AT&T and DirecTV vow to follow FCC's 2010 net neutrality guidelines for three years after deal closes

Discussion: Forbes, Top Digital Journal News, BuzzFeed, WGBH News and Re/code

AT&T:
AT&T agrees to acquire DirecTV in stock-and-cash deal for $95 per share

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

Europe's “right to be forgotten” serves as a brake against the ever-growing power of Google — The right to be forgotten by Google — Google is too big, too octopus-like, too invasive, too knowing, too powerful. Anybody disagree that Google offers a creative scenario of a dystopian …

Discussion: @michaelwolffnyc, @ryanchittum, @raju and @securityhumor

Guardian:

Guardian News & Media appoints Aron Pilhofer as executive editor of digital — Hire reflects the Guardian's ongoing commitment to digital transformation — Guardian News & Media (GNM) today announced the appointment of Aron Pilhofer - currently associate managing editor for digital strategy …

Mark Potts / American Journalism Review:

What the New York Times Innovation Report Says About the State (and Future) of Digital News — For those of us who have spent the past decade or two on the front lines of trying to make newspapers and other legacy news organizations more digital, the internal innovation report that leaked …

Discussion: Poynter, @pottsmark and Logic+Emotion

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion: Sources — Deal would be biggest ever for YouTube — Google's YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact.

Wall Street Journal:
Google's acquisition talks with Twitch still at an early stage

Discussion: @wsjd, @bryfitz, @ow, Guardian and @benfritz

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

What the FCC's net neutrality ruling means for journalism — The battle over regulation of the Internet moves to Congress this week. Until now, the question of whether the Federal Communications Commission should have the power to force Internet service providers to treat all customers equally …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, Forbes and @atompkins

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Comcast testing service that allows web content companies to bypass network middlemen, deliver their services directly to Comcast customers — As TV Battles Heat Up, Comcast Launches New Web Delivery Service — As regulatory battles and mega-mergers roil the media business …

Discussion: @theinformation and @jessicalessin

Chris Welch / The Verge:

AT&T can bail on $48.5 billion merger if DirecTV loses NFL Sunday Ticket — If DirecTV somehow fails to lock up NFL Sunday Ticket, AT&T has given itself the right to bail on the colossal $48.5 billion announced yesterday. The out clause contained in the proposal's fine print shows just how valuable of a property the NFL is.

Discussion: Engadget