Mediagazer: Reddit raises $50M round led by Y Combinator president Sam Altman, investors plan to allocate 10% of the round's equity to Reddit users (Liz Gannes/Re/code)

11:55 PM ET, September 30, 2014

Top News:

Russian State Media Portray Hong Kong Protests as U.S. Plot — Echoing Kremlin Line on Protests in Moscow and Kiev, State TV Sees U.S. Hand in Pro-Democracy Movement — MOSCOW—Russian state news outlets have begun airing reports casting the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as a U.S.-organized plot …

Discussion: New York Magazine and Guardian

Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:

Chinese Web Censors Struggle With Hong Kong Protest — BEIJING — Can Chinese censors vanquish the umbrella? — As protesters in Hong Kong continue to defy authorities with their demands for greater democracy, mainland China's politically minded web users have been trying to outmaneuver …

Discussion: Forbes, Associated Press, Committee to Protect … and Gawker

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Reddit raises $50M round led by Y Combinator president Sam Altman, investors plan to allocate 10% of the round's equity to Reddit users — Reddit Raises $50 Million, Plans to Share Stock With Community Members — Reddit, the Internet's favorite place to share links, has raised about $50 million in funding.

Discussion: reddit, Sam Altman, Gigaom, VentureBeat, Forbes, @percival, TIME, @mashable, @anjiecast, @anildash, Gawker, VentureBeat, @howardlindzon, ReadWrite, TechCrunch, Mashable, International Business Times and @danielzarick

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

‘Twilight’ Will Be Revived via Short Films on Facebook — LOS ANGELES — Two years after Lions Gate released the fifth and supposedly final installment of its “Twilight” movie series, the studio has devised an unusual franchise-rekindling effort — and it may hold clues about Facebook's future in Hollywood.

Discussion: Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Inside Movies, @genn4dy, @hreins and @michaelroston

Pamela McClintock / Hollywood Reporter:

Regal, Cinemark Slam Imax, Weinstein Co. for ‘Crouching Tiger 2’ Netflix Deal — “We will not participate in an experiment where you can see the same product on screens varying from three stories tall to 3-inches wide on a smart phone” — Regal, the country's largest theater chain …

Discussion: Forbes, The Wrap, TIME, Washington Post, @pkafka and SSN Insider

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

Internet Companies Take Aim at Wireless Net Neutrality As Debate Rages On — Google, Facebook and other large Internet companies are ramping up a lobbying campaign to ensure federal regulators cover wireless networks in its new net neutrality rules. — The Internet Association …

Discussion: The Hill

Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:

Google searches for right note in online music business — (Reuters) - Google Inc is planning new and revamped streaming-music services in coming weeks, searching for a way to stand out in an increasingly crowded field of rivals from Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc to Spotify.

Chris Welch / The Verge:

TiVo now lets Android users stream their recorded TV shows — You can now stream TV shows recorded with TiVo's latest DVRs on Android devices. Today, the company announced that its app for Google's mobile operating system is finally available. You can also find it in the Amazon Appstore to use with the Fire Phone or Fire tablets.

Discussion: Tivo Blog, CNET, Multichannel News and Bloomberg

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

Founder of “Syria Deeply” Lara Setrakian plans to launch “Ebola Deeply” in October — Rieder: A new website totally focused on Ebola — Lara Setrakian, the impresario behind the deeply immersive and critically acclaimed website Syria Deeply, is about to take the same approach to Ebola.

Brendan Sasso / National Journal:

FCC may treat some online video services like cable and satellite TV providers — The FCC May Redefine ‘Television’ to Include the Internet — The proposal could create new competition to cable providers like Comcast. — The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether …

Discussion: Multichannel News, Variety and Mashable

Alina Selyukh / Reuters:
U.S. FCC votes to do away with sports TV blackout rule

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Capital New York, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, US News, Washington Post and Variety

Lene Bech Sillesen / Columbia Journalism Review:

Good news is good business, but not a cure-all for journalism — Positive news sites are presented as the answer to news fatigue, but solutions journalism practitioners disagree — Most news consumers probably know that the news these days is mostly dire, and that the act of staying informed …

Discussion: @rasmus_kleis and @cjr

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Amazon doesn't treat all Hachette authors equally when selling books; reasoning remains opaque — Amazon Is Not Holding Back on Paul Ryan — All Hachette authors are equal, but some are more equal than others. — Before Representative Paul Ryan's book “The Way Forward” was published by Twelve …

Discussion: Washington Post, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, @ryanchittum, @danielschulman, Mediaite, Talking New Media and EW.com

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

Popcorn Time app for streaming video torrents arrives for jailbroken iPhones and iPads — Popcorn Time Finally Comes To iOS — Popcorn Time, the so-called Netflix for pirates, is now on iOS. It's never been easier to watch pirated movies and TV shows on the iPhone or Android device.

Discussion: BGR, TorrentFreak and International Business Times

Ernst-Jan Pfauth / Medium:

Out of De Correspondent's nearly 19K backers, 11K renewed their subscription after a year — Here's what happened to that world-record in journalism crowdfunding — In November 2013, GigaOm's Mathew Ingram reported on the Dutch journalism crowdfunding campaign which led to the founding of our publication, De Correspondent:

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @davidbauer and @kevglobal