Mediagazer: Netflix says ‘no rules’ would be better than FCC's net neutrality proposal (Jacob Kastrenakes/The Verge)

10:35 PM ET, July 16, 2014

Top News:

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 …

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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: Latest News & Headlines, Variety, Variety, BuzzFeed, USA Today, @dellcam, Media & Entertainment and @themarkberman

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

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

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 Hill, BGR, FierceOnlineVideo News, Techdirt, Gigaom, The Slanted and Variety

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.”

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: Comcast Voices Blog and The Huffington Post

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

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and stream.aljazeera.com

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

Discussion: @panasonic_mea

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, AppleInsider, Publishers Lunch, New York Times, The Next Phase, The Verge, Electronista and Patently Apple

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, Music Times, NME, Gigwise, AllHipHop.com, Stereoboard.com Music …, Tone Deaf, Paste, Exclaim!, Stereogum, hypebot, Music Week, Digital Music News and Voxy.co.nz

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, French Tribune, NBC News, PC Magazine, Tech Times, redOrbit, Cinema Blend, Lost Remote, Tech Times and AllFacebook

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, @pragmaticobot, @craignewmark, @owillis, @mlcalderone, @jaredbkeller, @markcoddington, @craigsilverman and The Huffington Post

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.

Simon Parkin / Eurogamer.net:

YouTubers are running advertorials, paid promotions, and product placement without disclosures — Blurred lines: Are YouTubers breaking the law? — From unmarked advertorial to paid social promotion, Simon Parkin investigates the ethics and legality of YouTube.

Discussion: Forbes

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

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A change in the IRS process for granting tax-exempt status could be a boon to nonprofit news — It took almost a year and a half for nonprofit news site Eye on Ohio to get its tax-exempt status approved by the IRS this spring. Launched in the fall of 2012 by former business reporter Lori Ashyk …

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

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

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 …

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.

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, WallStreet Scope and Quartz

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