Mediagazer: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics (Brian X. Chen/New York Times)

7:45 PM ET, May 28, 2014

Top News:

Brian X. Chen / New York Times:

Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics — CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple, the company that turned digital music into a mainstream phenomenon, said on Wednesday that it was buying Beats Electronics, the rising music brand, for $3 billion, in a move that will help it play catch …

Apple:

Apple to acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $2.6B in cash and $400M in stock to vest over time — Apple to Acquire Beats Music & Beats Electronics — Apple® today announced it has agreed to acquire the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music …

Discussion: TechCrunch, AdAge, Gigaom, 9to5Mac, NPR, Ubergizmo, PandoDaily, Fortune, ZDNet, TIME, BGR, MacRumors, Forbes, MacRumors, @billboardbiz, App Advice and Mashable

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Tim Cook Explains Why Apple Is Buying Beats (Q&A) — The Apple Beats deal has already generated lots of debate, and now that it's official, we will see even more. Here's Apple CEO Tim Cook's extended explanation, via an interview he conducted with Re/code this afternoon.

Discussion: Guardian, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, TIME, Fortune and Business Insider

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

Michael Kinsley Responds to Criticism of Greenwald Review — Mr. Kinsley has asked The Times for the opportunity to respond and I am providing it here:

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, @jamisonfoser, @zackbeauchamp, @ethancoxmtl, @jpodhoretz and Pressing Issues

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Print still attracts more advertising than it deserves, Mary Meeker says — Newspapers and magazines attract 19 percent of total advertising spending, Mary Meeker says in her annual Internet trends report. But consumers, she says, spend only 5 percent of their time reading them.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, kpcb.com, Re/code, Business Insider, Forbes, ZDNet, Deadline.com, Quartz and Fortune

Monica Anderson / Pew Research Center:

As the New York Times' first black executive editor, Dean Baquet is in a distinct minority — Just as the May 14 dismissal of New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson sparked a debate about gender roles in journalism, the ascension of Dean Baquet—the first African-American to run the paper's newsroom …

Discussion: Poynter, @edmundlee, @rubinafillion, @niemanlab, @mhugolopez, @monicaranders, @jcstearns, FishbowlNY and The Huffington Post

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

You can add audio and video players inside your tweets, just as WNYC did for a Maya Angelou interview — Interesting tweet an hour or so ago from New York public radio giant WNYC: … That's audio of an interview WNYC's Brian Lehrer did with Angelou in 2013 — playing right in the tweet.

Discussion: @radiodiaries and @niemanlab

Martin Shepard / the cockeyed pessimist:

Independent publisher says Amazon levels the playing field, and Hachette is just greedy — WHO'S AFRAID OF AMAZON.COM — On May 24, The New York Times ran a page one story “As Publishers Fight Amazon, Books Vanish.” In their alarmist zeal reporters David Streitfeld and Melissa Eddy conjure …

Discussion: Business Insider, Mashable, @thestalwart, Bookseller news, @susanwisebauer, @ericuman, @baratunde and @pmarca

Wall Street Journal:
Amazon Doesn't Expect Quick Resolution to Hachette Dispute

WashPostPR / Washington Post:

The Washington Post partner program signs on nearly 100 newspapers — Digital First Media, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Columbus Dispatch among the latest to join pilot program — Nearly 100 newspapers will participate in The Washington Post partner program first announced earlier this year.

Discussion: @jbenton and FishbowlDC

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Comcast's Brian Roberts Defends His Time Warner Deal, and His Company — The New York Times thinks Comcast shouldn't be allowed to buy Time Warner Cable. Guess what Comcast CEO Brian Roberts thinks? — Okay, you don't have to guess. But Roberts made his case for the merger …

Discussion: Deadline.com, Multichannel News, Re/code, @pkafka, CNET, Gigaom, Broadcasting & Cable, DSLreports and Free Press Blog

Aditya Kalra / Reuters:

Twitter to take India election innovations global — (Reuters) - U.S. social networking company Twitter is planning to replicate parts of its India election strategy across countries that go to polls this year, after it emerged as a key tool for politicians and media companies during the world's largest democratic exercise.

Discussion: @sunny_hundal and @elanazak

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Comcast, Verizon and Co. Stop Mass Piracy Lawsuits on Appeal — Two years ago district court Judge Beryl Howell, a former RIAA lobbyist, granted adult movie company AF Holdings the right to obtain the personal details of more than 1,000 Internet users suspected of downloading their works using BitTorrent.

Discussion: Consumerist, Daily Dot, The 1709 Blog and DSLreports

Anne Mortensen / The Independent:

A journalist goes missing nearly every day in Ukraine — It's not just journalists who are being victimised by pro-Russian separatists, but entire newsrooms — The campaign by pro-Russian separatists to muzzle local Ukrainian journalists appears to be succeeding.

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Public Media taking over distribution of ‘This American Life’ … Chicago Public Media will begin self-distribution of its signature program, “This American Life,” on July 1, taking over key business functions for one of public radio's most significant franchises.

Discussion: This American Life Updates, Public Radio Exchange, @currentpubmedia, New York Times and Poynter

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

UK daily newspapers have doubled in price since 2004 and shrunk in size - no wonder sales are down — Every month when the latest set of ABC national newspaper circulation figures are released, journalists across the country heave a collective sigh of despair.

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:

The Hill launches contributors platform — Congressional newspaper The Hill has launched a contributors platform, for which so far more than 100 experts in various policy fields have signed on to write for the site, the company announced today. — Contributors will be selected by editors at The Hill …

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Platform or publisher? Medium keeps blurring the line — The old question for tech platforms like Google and Yahoo was: Are you a platform or a publisher? For upstart Medium, the answer is clearly both. — The blogging platform, founded by Twitter CEO Ev Williams, continues to blur the line between platform and publisher.

Discussion: @digiday

Index on Censorship:

Index launches project to map media freedom violations in Europe — Index on Censorship and Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso are launching mediafreedom.ushahidi.com to track media violations in Europe. — Index on Censorship, (London, United Kingdom) and Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso …

Discussion: @mjrharris

John Plunkett / Guardian:

Netflix beats BBC and ITV to “The Crown,” a £100m series on Queen Elizabeth II — Netflix plans £100m epic on the Queen — The Crown, inspired by Peter Morgan play The Audience, will span Queen Elizabeth II's six decades on the throne

Discussion: Guardian, Daily Mail and The New York Observer