Mediagazer: Apple agrees conditionally to a $450M settlement in e-book price-fixing case; $400M will go to consumers (Reuters)

6:40 PM ET, July 16, 2014

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Time Warner rejected $80B takeover bid by Murdoch's 21st Century Fox last month, no longer in discussions — Rupert Murdoch Said to Have Made Offer for Time Warner — Twenty-First Century Fox, the media empire run by Rupert Murdoch, made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, TimeWarner Blog, Quartz, USA Today, Bloomberg, Business Wire, TVNewser, Forbes, Engadget, Re/code, Quartz, TVNewser, Latest News & Headlines, Business Insider, Mediaite, Multichannel News, Bloomberg, Deadline.com, Business Wire, USA Today, VatorNews, Capital New York, Gawker, Slate, TIME, Mashable, CNNMoney.com, Guardian, Reuters, Variety, Wall Street Journal, cnbc.com, Adweek, TheStreet.com, Yahoo! Finance, US News, New York Post, AM New York, NY Daily News, @atotalmonet, Reuters, Capital New York, Financial Times, Businessweek, The Wrap, The Corsair, Business Insider, Bloomberg, FierceCable, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Variety, ABC News, Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, DW.DE, @karaswisher, @jackshafer, Bloomberg, Capital New York, The Wrap, @nytimesbusiness, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, RTTNews, Politico, @smartfootball, AdAge, Telegraph, Detroit Free Press, Bloomberg, Globe and Mail, The Daily Caller, Associated Press, Top Digital Journal News, Radio & Television …, Mediaite, Guardian, New York Times, @poniewozik, Forbes, Home Media Magazine, Talking Points Memo, Wall Street Journal, @erinade, Comic Book, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, C21Media, @carr2n, euronews, The Huffington Post, @willmckinley, Forbes, Telegraph, International Business Times, CNET, @michaelwolffnyc, The Wire, MediaWire Daily, The New York Observer and Multichannel News

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

What If Rupert Murdoch Really Is Unstoppable — and Immortal? — If the Media Mogul Really Wants to Buy Time Warner, Nothing Can Stop Him — Content Marketing 2014 — Rupert Murdoch appears to be convinced that not only will he live forever, but eventually he'll own every global media company of consequence.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, USA Today, Variety, BuzzFeed, @themarkberman and @dellcam

David Boardman / Poynter:

Essay: Hey, Publishers: Stop fooling us, and yourselves — For an industry built on a foundation of truth-telling, the newspaper business sure has trouble telling the truth about itself. — Last month at the World Newspaper Congress in Turin, Italy, the chief spokesperson for U.S.-based dailies …

Discussion: @albertocairo, @bobstep, @samkirkla, @stevebuttry, @geostanley, @derekmyoung, @samkirkla, @greggriffin, @chadedge and @jillkimball

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

The newspaper crisis, by the numbers — Roughly a decade after the commercial debut of the Internet, America's newspapers posted record high advertising sales of $49.4 billion in 2005, leading many publishers to think their businesses would not be seriously affected by the digital revolution.

Discussion: @grovesprof, @jayrosen_nyu, @ssuttell, @billadairduke, @kevglobal and @niemanlab

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Amazon is testing “Kindle Unlimited,” an ebook subscription service for $9.99/month — Amazon is testing an ebook and audiobook subscription service called “Kindle Unlimited” that offers “unlimited access to over 600,000 titles and thousands of audiobooks on any device for just $9.99 a month.”

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Netflix says ‘no rules’ would be better than FCC's net neutrality proposal — Netflix filed a comment with the FCC yesterday strongly condemning the commission's new net neutrality proposal, which would allow internet service providers to offer so-called “fast lanes” to companies that can afford them.

Discussion: Netflix US & Canada Blog, The Slanted, Variety, FierceOnlineVideo News, Techdirt and Gigaom

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

World Cup Streaming Boosts Comcast's TV Everywhere Push — The 2014 World Cup made millions of soccer fans out of Americans who couldn't have told a winger from a false 9 five weeks ago. In similar numbers, it has also initiated them into the joys of TV Everywhere.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Multichannel News and Comcast Voices Blog

Michelle Castillo / Adweek:
Univision reports 73M World Cup livestreams, WatchESPN cites 43M hours of live viewing

Discussion: stream.aljazeera.com and Hollywood Reporter

Chris Jasper / Bloomberg:
World Cup Final Watched Live by Record 40,000 Airline Passengers

Discussion: @panasonic_mea

Richard Smirke / Billboard:

Global Indie Sector Unites To Launch ‘Fair Digital Deals Declaration’ — Over 700 indie labels have given their backing to a major new initiative promoting fair and transparent accounting to artists and music companies in respect of digital revenues. Representatives of Domino, Cooking Vinyl …

Discussion: SPIN, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Guardian, hypebot, Music Times, NME, Gigwise, Stereogum, AllHipHop.com, Stereoboard.com Music …, Tone Deaf, Paste, Exclaim!, @presanamusic and Music Week

Reuters:

Apple agrees conditionally to a $450M settlement in e-book price-fixing case; $400M will go to consumers — Apple agrees to conditional $450 million e-books antitrust accord — (Reuters) - Apple Inc has agreed to pay $450 million to resolve U.S. state and consumer claims …

Discussion: Gigaom, ag.ny.gov, Hollywood Reporter, Business Wire, New York Times, AppleInsider, Publishers Lunch, The Next Phase, The Verge and Electronista

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Netflix already stopped mailing DVDs on Saturdays, but you probably didn't notice — The USPS may not have gone forward with its plans to kill Saturday mail delivery, but Netflix isn't waiting. A few customers have noticed it's no longer processing shipments on Saturdays, opting for a five day schedule instead.

Discussion: Re/code, Cinema Blend, Business Insider, Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post and fox59.com

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Study: Political journalists opt for stenography over fact checking during presidential debates — During the 2012 U.S. presidential debates, political journalists on Twitter primarily repeated candidate claims without providing fact checks or other contest, according to new research published …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @jaredbkeller, @markcoddington, @pragmaticobot, @mlcalderone, @craigsilverman, @owillis and @craignewmark

Andy / TorrentFreak:

RIAA Copyright Pressure Silences Historical Radio Archive — When sites like The Pirate Bay come under copyright holder pressure, there is often a big backlash from users who see such action as unfair. That being said, it's generally accepted by both sides that The Pirate Bay courts trouble by …

Discussion: @dangillmor, AllAccess.com, Techdirt, Plagiarism Today and Airchecks:Radio:REELRADIO …

Melissa Hellmann / TIME:

Nielsen Partners Up With Facebook to Track Television-Viewing Habits — Nielsen Media Research, the television-ratings company, will be partnering with Facebook to ascertain what television viewers are watching on their tablets and other mobile devices. — In the past, Nielsen solely tracked meters …

Discussion: Washington Post, Lost Remote, PC Magazine, French Tribune, Cinema Blend, NBC News, Tech Times, redOrbit and Tech Times

David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:

Sony, Universal Said Facing Probe Over Songwriter Fees — The music-publishing arms of Sony Corp. (6758) and Universal Music Group are being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for alleged price coordination, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Billboard, RTTNews, Complete Music Update, @dangillmor, SeekingAlpha, Radio Ink Magazine, Wall Street Journal, AllAccess.com, CNBC and WallStreet Scope

Ian S. Port / SF Weekly:

Alt-Weekly Awards Snub Music Writing of the Nation's Largest Alt-Weeklies — This week, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the professional group representing papers like SF Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, LA Weekly, and Village Voice, announced the winners of its annual awards.

Discussion: @iport and @earmeat

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Publishers have an updated evergreen strategy: Make the old new again — Here's an irony about the rise of the real-time Web: Sometimes what's new isn't always what performs best. — Publishers are doing all they can to wring out more value from their existing body of content.

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Tumblr, Blogger, and WordPress have larger audiences on mobile than desktop, only WordPress has seen overall traffic growth — Why Online Audiences' Mobile Migration Isn't All Bad News for Blogs — Mobile Hasn't Made Up for Desktop Declines, but It Is Growing — Online audiences are migrating to mobile.

Discussion: @elanazak

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Setting the record straight: how a critique of tech media's flaws came back to bite an editor — There's No Crying In Inside Baseball — Many of you have likely read the latest in a series of profiles of Kara Swisher, the grizzled WSJ reporter who struck out with Walt Mossberg to found Recode.

Discussion: @jeffkoyen, @scepticgeek, @mulligan, @horwitzjosh, @triketora, @drew, @paulcarr, @paulcarr, @stkonrath, @techcrunch, @codybrown and @jelliot

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Media reporter's advice for her replacement: ‘Turn your computer off once in a while’ — Until the end of the month, Johana Bhuiyan is a digital media reporter for Capital New York. Bhuiyan's headed next to cover tech for BuzzFeed's FWD. Before she leaves our tribe of media reporters …

Andrianes Pinantoan / Pocketbook:

27% of Australians using TV and movie subscription services use Netflix despite geo-blocking — How Netflix Is Doing In Australia: 2 Stats That Should Scare Foxtel and Quickflix … Andrianes Pinantoan — Andre is heads up marketing at Pocketbook. He's an accounting graduate …

Discussion: @getpocketbook and CHOICE

Anne Voigt / INMA:

Bild.de brainstorms new revenue ideas, finds long-term success in product partnership campaigns — The print + digital “Volks-Produkt” campaigns, which started with a discount computer retailer partnership, continue to bring in revenue. Bild.de shares some lessons learned from 12 years of partnership success.

Dave Lee / Medium:

Technology journalists are facing extinction — Very soon I won't be needed. — One of the first ever online journalists for the BBC is a close colleague of mine. These days, you'd say he was the most experienced member of the team. — But back in the 90s, when the BBC …

Discussion: @annfriedman, @adders and @jayrosen_nyu