Top News:
Anne Helen Petersen / BuzzFeed:
Here's Why The New York Times Television Coverage Is So Bad — How did the New York Times, the national paper of record, and the recipient of 114 Pulitzer Prizes, find itself with the worst television criticism section of any mainstream, popular publication?
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Activist investor Starboard buys stake in Yahoo, urges Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to merge with AOL — Activist Shareholders Go After Yahoo, Tell Marissa Mayer To Buy AOL — Activist investor Starboard has sent a letter to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer urging her to combine Yahoo's business with AOL's.
Discussion:
Yahoo, Re/code, BuzzFeed, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and 24/7 Wall St.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Thom Yorke releases album via BitTorrent Bundle with free single and video, $6 album — BitTorrent adds paygate option to its direct-to-fan publishing platform Bundle, will take a 10% cut after fees — BitTorrent today announced it is adding a new paygate feature to BitTorrent Bundle …
Discussion:
bundles.bittorrent.com, The Official BitTorrent Blog, TechCrunch, The Independent, Gigaom, VentureBeat, USA Today, EW.com, Laughing Squid, NME, Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Times, Music Times, Paste, The A.V. Club, Vulture, SPIN, The Verge, Gizmodo, @epro, @harleyoliverb and Mashable
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Vast Majority of Top Films, TV Shows Are Available Legally Online: Study — Hollywood is delivering more movies and TV shows via legal outlets than ever, although most titles are available for purchase or rental rather than subscription VOD. — As of December 2013, 94% of 808 top films analyzed …
Discussion:
SYS-CON MEDIA, IP&TV News and @mpaa
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Comcast's Netflix competitor Streampix no longer stand-alone offering, now part of Xfinity TV — Comcast: Nobody Really Liked Our Netflix Wannabe Streampix — In February of 2012 Comcast unveiled Streampix, their effort at trying to prevent cord cutting by offering a Netflix-esque service of their own.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Light Reading and FierceCable
Press Gazette:
Mirror publisher in £125k hacking payouts to Sven, Doctor Who actor, Beckham nanny and three others — Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson (pictured, Reuters) and actor Christopher Eccleston have settled their phone-hacking damages claims for £30,000 each.
Discussion:
Life Style Extra, Guardian, The Drum, Guardian, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Life Style Extra and BBC
David Meyer / Gigaom:
Russia orders Google, Facebook and Twitter to comply with local storage and censorship laws — The U.S. firms have reportedly been told they must store Russians' local data and metadata on Russian soil, and abide by the same restrictions on free speech to which traditional Russian media must adhere.
Discussion:
The Moscow Times, RT, Bloomberg, PC World, Marketing Land, The Voice of Russia and Silicon Republic
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
Amazon's deal to acquire Twitch for $970M is now complete — Amazon completes acquisition of Twitch — Summary: Amazon has sealed the deal on Twitch, a game-streaming service the company says is an “awesome” cultural fit. — Amazon's acquisition of Twitch is complete …
Discussion:
VentureBeat and gameinformer.com
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Goodreads updates its iOS app with new home feed, streamlined navigation and improved shelving — Amazon's Goodreads App Finally Gets A Makeover — Goodreads, the social network for book lovers, has at last seen its first major update since Amazon bought the company last March.
Discussion:
Engadget, The Province, Goodreads, Good E-Reader and GeekWire
Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:
One secret to the success of Quartz, BuzzFeed and Gawker: They look at news as a service — Most traditional media outlets are used to thinking of journalism or news as something they create and then distribute to a waiting audience — but seeing it as a product or service instead can change …
Craig Silverman / American Press Institute:
The best ways for publishers to build credibility through transparency — As so much in the world of news and information changes, the fundamental bond of trust between journalists and the communities they serve is one of the few things that doesn't. In fact, its importance has grown.
Discussion:
Consequence of Sound, ABC News, Guardian, @ampress, CNET, Stereogum, @jamcnn, Radio.com and @craigsilverman
Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Syrian Activists Report From ISIS-Controlled City News Outlets Can't Reach — NEW YORK — Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi fled Raqqa, a city in north-central Syria, a few weeks ago, yet he remains a go-to source for news coming out of the de facto capital of the Islamic State.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Business Insider and TheBlaze.com
Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:
Dear News Corp & Google: An Open Letter On Their Open Letters To Each Other Over Competition — After media giant News Corp slings accusations at Google, the search & advertising giant pushes back. A close-up on the claims. — Last week, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp sent an open letter …
Discussion:
Re/code, Complete Music Update, Tech Times, Forbes, Beyond Search, smartcompany.com.au and Google Europe Blog