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?
John Ourand / SportsBusiness Daily:
An Inside Look At ESPN's Decision To Suspend Bill Simmons For Goodell Comments … It was around 5:00pm ET Wednesday afternoon when Marie Donoghue, one of ESPN's highest-ranking female execs, picked up the phone in the network's Manhattan office to call Bill Simmons.
Discussion:
ESPN, Columbia Journalism Review, The Dish, @ceisenhood and @joshmartinnba
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:
Light Reading, Ars Technica and FierceCable
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, PR Newswire, Re/code, BuzzFeed, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, 24/7 Wall St., TechCrunch and New York Times
Craig Silverman / Tow Center for Digital Journalism:
News in the Grey: Rumors and Debunkings in Online Media — Our new fellow, Craig Silverman, launched his research project at the Online News Association conference in Chicago this week. The timing was perfect: It's been a big week for rumors and debunkings. — On Monday this week there were rumors that:
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and @emilybell
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, Rolling Stone, Music Times, EW.com, Digital Trends, VentureBeat, Paste, The A.V. Club, Vulture, Los Angeles Times, NME, SPIN, BuzzFeed, The Verge, Gizmodo, @epro, @harleyoliverb, USA Today, Gigaom and Mashable
Rafat Ali / rafat.org:
This Vertical Life: The Media Models I Admire — Verticals have a particular attraction for me, which may have something to do with my general obsessiveness. Picking a topic you're willing to spend a good number of years in, going deep into it with everything you have …
Discussion:
rafat.org, @hsherman, @athorsheim, @jasonhirschhorn, @zseward and @rafat
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
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
Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:
Comcast appoints VP to fix customer experience, admits it may take years to improve reputation — Comcast: honestly, ‘it may take years’ to improve our reputation — The company has appointed a new executive in charge of reforming customer service — Comcast, which makes more money …
Discussion:
Comcast Voices Blog, DSLreports, Techdirt, Los Angeles Times, Ars Technica and Deadline
Laurie Oakes / HeraldSun:
Proposed Australian anti-terror law could send journalists to jail for doing their jobs — Our free press is under siege — IN opposition, Tony Abbott and his Coalition colleagues were great defenders of press freedom, fighting off with ferocity Labor's attempts to introduce new media laws.