Mediagazer: DirecTV Investor Sues to Block AT&T $48 Billion Takeover (Dawn McCarty/Bloomberg)

7:10 PM ET, May 22, 2014

Top News:

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Newspapers are ‘hollowed out’ and ‘VICE is the savior of news,’ says guy from Facebook — Facebook's Mike Hudack published a rant “about the state of the media” on his page Thursday. Some choice moments: — CNN is “the network of kidnapped white girls.”

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Why A Facebook Employee Just Scared The Hell Out Of The Media — Facebook's director of product, attacked state of today's media landscape. As observers quickly noted, however, it appears lost on him that the company he works for is perhaps most to blame.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Gigaom, Slate, @antderosa, @dannysullivan and @cwarzel

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Time Inc. Starts Selling Ads on Magazine Covers, Breaking Industry Taboo — First Up: Verizon on Time and Sports Illustrated — How to Integrate Social Media Into Your Marketing Strategy — Time Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher, is running Verizon Wireless ads this week …

Discussion: Folio, magazine.org, New York Times, The New York Observer, Mediaite, FishbowlNY, @colinmorrisonuk, Poynter, Mashable, Talking New Media, USA Today, @niemanlab, @rogerblack, MediaWire Daily, Capital New York and New York Magazine

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

Atria and UTA team up to create Keywords Press, a new imprint for books by YouTube stars — Media Companies Join to Extend the Brands of YouTube Stars — LOS ANGELES — Simon & Schuster is making a big bet on YouTube stars, an undertaking that could either open up a blockbuster …

Discussion: GalleyCat, Tubefilter, Publishers Lunch, FishbowlNY, Wall Street Journal, @realjohngreen, @pkafka, The Wrap, @publisherswkly, @peterlattman and Mashable

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Mail Online's soaring revenues offset publisher's print ad decline — Website's revenues up 45% to £28m in six months to end of March, as DMGT highlights reshaping of its media business — Mail Online: revenues up 45% to £28m in six months to end of March

Discussion: TheMediaBriefing, Guardian, Press Gazette and The Drum

Paul Linford / HoldTheFrontPage:
Local World makes £18m half-yearly profit says DMGT

Discussion: Interactive Investor, Life Style Extra, RTTNews and RTTNews

Jon Boone / Guardian:

Pakistan's Geo News becomes latest target in blasphemy accusation trend — Widespread calls for popular TV channel to be shut down after using Sufi song on broadcast of mock celebrity wedding — Young children, religious minorities and people with mental health problems have all been accused of the crime of blasphemy in Pakistan.

Discussion: Khaleej Times, Economist, The News International, The News International, presstv.ir, @rizmokal, @venkatananth, @ketan72, DW.DE, The News International and Eurasia Review

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:
A challenge for free speech: Twitter's “country-withheld content” tool spreads to Pakistan

Discussion: TechCrunch, @jeffjohnroberts, Techdirt, @jilliancyork, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse and @jamesvasile

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Can the New Republic find its digital footing? — It's been two years since Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes acquired the New Republic, the Washington insider mag once described as “the in-flight magazine of Air Force One.” Since then, Hughes has helped march the 100-year-old publication further …

Discussion: @niemanlab, @lmoses, @stkonrath and @jess_goode

Patrick Kingsley / Guardian:

Australian journalist accuses Egyptian prosecutors of unbelievable inefficiency — Peter Geste's outburst follows airing of phone footage, including pop video, in trial of three al-Jazeera journalists — The Australian al-Jazeera journalist on trial in Egypt, Peter Greste …

Discussion: TVNewser, Al Jazeera English, canada.com and The Huffington Post

Dawn McCarty / Bloomberg:

DirecTV Investor Sues to Block AT&T $48 Billion Takeover — A DirecTV investor sued to block AT&T Inc. (T)'s $48 billion takeover of the largest U.S. satellite-television company, calling the offer “inadequate.” — Under the terms of the deal announced this month, AT&T will pay $95 …

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Reuters:

TiVo Q1: revenue up 30% as subscriptions grow with European partners, profit reaches $8.1M — TiVo revenue jumps 30 pct as subscriptions rise — May 22 (Reuters) - Digital video recorder maker TiVo Inc reported a 30 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by strong growth …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Tech Trader Daily

Myles Tanzer / BuzzFeed:

NPR Staffers Worry About Diversity With End Of “Tell Me More” — “They want people of color in a very small box. They don't want to challenge that idea.” — Flickr: bereninga — On Tuesday morning NPR employees gathered in a conference room in front of the company's top brass …

Discussion: @heavenrants, @eddiesayago and @asmaam

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

Readers Say a ‘Net Neutrality’ Vote Was Reported Upside Down and Backward — Should a speedy Internet be available to everyone equally or are some users, in Orwell's terms, “more equal than others”? Should there be “haves” and “have-nots” on the Internet, with the winners being large corporate …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review and Roll Call

Sharif Sakr / Engadget:

Samsung gives up on its homegrown Music and Book Hub services — Just like HTC with its doomed movie service, Samsung is apparently starting to realize that its in-house efforts can't compete with specialist alternatives. While Spotify has been busily publicizing its rapid growth …

Discussion: Gigaom, BGR, CNET and The Verge

Angela Haggerty / The Drum:

Financial Times kicks off trials to sell advertisers ‘blocks of time’ to tackle industry's viewability issue — The Financial Times is set to begin a new method of digital trading, selling blocks of time to advertisers in a bid to tackle the industry's ad viewability problem.

Discussion: @jason_kint, @jburnmurdoch and @chartbeat