Mediagazer: Viacom Q3 Profit Falls 5% Due to Film Revenue Declines (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

11:00 AM ET, August 7, 2014

Top News:

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:

Google partners with Barnes & Noble for same-day book deliveries from stores in West LA, SF Bay Area, and Manhattan — Google and Barnes & Noble Unite to Take On Amazon — Google and Barnes & Noble are joining forces to tackle their mutual rival Amazon, zeroing in on a service …

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, TechCrunch, Gigaom, The Verge, Engadget, @levie, GeekWire, @robneyer, Bookseller news, The Next Web and Re/code

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

Netflix now has more subscription revenue than HBO — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings humble-bragged on Facebook today: + Reed Hastings on Facebook He's right. (About the financials, at least—Silicon Valley, an HBO sitcom about tech startups, was really bad.) Here's how HBO's subscription revenue compares …

Discussion: Business Insider and Reed Hastings

Adam Epstein / Quartz:
HBO Go is poised to become more like Netflix

Discussion: Deadline.com, @qz and @zseward

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

The New York Times explores cheaper digital subscriptions — The New York Times is considering a cheaper version of its digital subscription as it continues to look for ways to get more revenue out of consumers. — According to a survey sent to readers this week, the new offering …

John Plunkett / Guardian:

Ex-BBC Chief Technology Officer John Linwood wins unfair dismissal case against corporation — Sacked BBC technology chief wins unfair dismissal case — John Linwood claimed he was made the ‘fall guy’ for the £100m Digital Media Initiative fiasco — The BBC's former chief …

Discussion: The Courier and BBC

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Crowdfunding bid to acquire Rupert Murdoch's Times and Sunday Times — Idealists of the world unite! An organisation calling itself Let's Own The News has launched a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of acquiring the Times and Sunday Times. — It believes £100m would do the job …

Discussion: Let's Own The News and Press Gazette

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Longform templates for web content are outdated, yet publishers still opt for oversized photos — Why article pages are going big on photos — There's a paradox in digital media: Users are bouncing around from site to site, faster than ever, but more publishers are choosing …

Discussion: @dskok, @palewire, @mthomps and @mthomps

David Uberti / Columbia Journalism Review:

How a new Washington stifles a new political press — As political PR machines become more sophisticated and aggressive, journalists need to rethink how they cover government — The video featured all the trappings of a heartwarming human interest piece: uplifting piano music, a hometown angle, and a main character named Earnest.

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Viacom Q3 Profit Falls 5% Due to Film Revenue Declines — Viacom said third-quarter net income fell just over 5% due to revenue shortfalls at its filmed-entertainment business and a gain of just 1% in revenue at its cable-network portfolio. — The owner of the Paramount movie studio …

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Maker Studios Claims Former CEO Owes $325K as Result of Disney Merger (Exclusive) — After a judge refuses the digital video company's bid to kill Danny Zappin's claims, the new Disney subsidiary files a cross-complaint. — Since former Maker Studios CEO Danny Zappin filed a lawsuit alleging …

Michael McWhertor / Polygon:

Twitch implements YouTube-like system for blocking copyrighted audio — Twitch users now need to be more vigilant about the music they play while making gameplay videos. Starting today, Twitch is now scanning videos for unauthorized third-party audio — in-game and ambient music — and automatically muting that content.

Discussion: Forbes, The Official Twitch Blog, The Official Twitch Blog, Wall Street Journal, Techdirt, Ars Technica, GameSpot, Softpedia News, @chicago_lollie, Electronista, Boing Boing, The Next Web and Re/code

Steven Waldman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Why the ad technology revolution that was supposed to help publishers actually devastated so many of them — Why the ad technology revolution that was supposed to help publishers actually devastated so many of them — Back in antiquity (five years ago), when I ran a popular Web 1. content …

Bob Dietz / Committee to Protect Journalists:

Q&A: Pakistan's Hamid Mir speaks about climate for press freedom following attack — In April, Geo News senior anchor Hamid Mir was shot multiple times shortly after a CPJ delegation met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who pledged to take several steps to improve journalist security.