Mediagazer: YouTube promoting Vice News in an effort to draw more ad revenue to video (Erin Griffith/Fortune)

1:50 AM ET, June 25, 2014

Top News:

Nick Davies / Guardian:

Scotland Yard want to interview Rupert Murdoch about crime at his UK papers — Exclusive: Detectives contacted media mogul last year but agreed with lawyers to wait until end of phone-hacking trial — Rupert Murdoch has been officially informed by Scotland Yard that detectives want to interview …

Discussion: BBC, @carr2n, Digital Spy, @wildwalkerwoman, @themurdochtimes, UK - The Huffington Post, @arusbridger, Bloomberg, TIME, @bynickdavies, The Huffington Post, @richardjmurphy and @pete_sinclair

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Hacking Trial: Rebekah Brooks Found Not Guilty on All Counts, Andy Coulson Found Guilty on One

Gautham Nagesh / Wall Street Journal:

AT&T, DirecTV tell congressional subcommittees they must merge to compete with TWC, Comcast — AT&T and DirecTV Try to Sell Congress on Benefits of Proposed Merger — Companies Say They Must Join Forces to Compete Against Comcast and Time Warner Cable

Discussion: Deadline.com, NationalJournal.com, Re/code, Washington Post, VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, Broadcasting & Cable, Bloomberg, Advanced Television, Businessweek and Reuters

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/TWC mergers could put small ISPs “out of business” — If AT&T isn't big enough to compete, how can tiny cable companies survive? — A trade group that represents 850 small cable companies across the United States argues that AT&T's purchase of DirecTV and the Comcast …

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Ex-Hulu CEO Jason Kilar teases video startup Vessel, raises $75M from Benchmark, Greylock, and Bezos — Amazon's Jeff Bezos backs ex-Hulu CEO Jason Kilar's startup Vessel — Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar still doesn't want to say much about the startup he has been working on since last fall.

Discussion: Variety, @pkafka, Gigaom, @jbruin and TechCrunch

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Technorati quietly killed its once-authoritative blog ranking system in May — There was once a time when Technorati.com meant something to online publishers. It was their professional reputation, and featuring on it was the goal of many. — Technorati hosts its own ranking system …

Discussion: @loic, @thestalwart, Businessweek, @mathewi, @sarahw and @themediaisdying

Michael Cader / Publishers Lunch:

Hachette agrees to buy Perseus in three-way deal; Ingram to acquire Perseus distribution and client units — Perseus Imprints to be Sold to Hachette Book Group; Distribution Units to Ingram Content — The owners of the Perseus Books Group have agreed to a sale of the company …

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters, Publishers Lunch, PR Newswire, Publishers Weekly, @publisherslunch, @porter_anderson, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, @staciemichelle, @carlzimmer, @laurahazardowen, @publisherslunch, @msatris, Media & Entertainment, Forbes and Gigaom

Erin Griffith / Fortune:

YouTube promoting Vice News in an effort to draw more ad revenue to video — Why YouTube is spending mega ad dollars to promote Vice News — With a billion people tuning in each month, YouTube's audience is almost as big as Facebook's. And yet, the network lags Facebook in monetization …

Discussion: @mccollumashley

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

TV station swap: Fox gets KTVU, KICU in San Francisco; Cox gets Boston's WFXT, WHBQ in Memphis — Fox Acquires San Francisco TV Stations in Swap with Cox — Fox is acquiring two San Francisco TV stations in a station-swap agreement with Cox Media Group.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, @dankennedy_nu, @506sports, The Wrap, Radio & Television … and Media Nation

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

Apple TV's walled garden gets new channel: AOL — With the arrival of an AOL video channel on the Apple TV set-top box Tuesday, Apple is now bringing a wide array of free, ad-supported video across the deep moat it has built around its $99 streaming-media device.

Discussion: 9to5Mac, Cult of Mac, The Verge, TIME, Mashable, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, @aol_inc, @sharonprofis and The Next Web

Todd Spangler / Variety:
ABC News launches Apple TV channel, no pay TV subscription required

Discussion: Capital New York, ABC News, Gigaom, Lost Remote, Mediaite and Business Insider

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Advance digital makeover of its newspapers — five years in and no turning back — It seems like only yesterday, but we are closing in on five years since Advance Publications shook up the newspaper business by stopping daily publication of the Ann Arbor News, dissolving the company and reincorporating as a web-dominant enterprise.

Discussion: @poynter

Sarah Sloat / Wall Street Journal:

German Publishing Group Files Complaint Against Amazon — Online Retailer Accused of Strong-arm Tactics Over Pricing — FRANKFURT—The association of German publishers said Tuesday it filed a complaint against Amazon.com Inc., accusing the online retailer of trying to strong-arm a publisher into more favorable pricing.

Discussion: PandoDaily, New York Times, Bloomberg and Gigaom

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

National Geographic explores new frontiers with Gary Knell at the helm — The sea otter story didn't make that night's network news or hit newspaper front pages when it broke this month, but it was kind of a big deal for the Web site that reported it. NGNews.com, the digital home …

Discussion: @ampress, @jimrichardsonng and @postbaron

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Yahoo hires Daily News digital editor to build breaking news desk — Yahoo has been poaching talent from legacy media outlets for much of the past year, and in its latest landgrab, the massive online portal turned content producer took a dip into New York's tabloid pool.

Discussion: Politico, @jayrosen_nyu, @anjalimullany, @carr2n and MediaWire Daily

Associated Press:

Egyptian president refuses calls that he pardon or commute the sentences of jailed Al Jazeera journalists — Egypt president won't interfere in courts verdicts — CAIRO (AP) — Egypt President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi says he will not interfere in court rulings, a day after three Al-Jazeera journalists …