Top News:
Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
Comcast Shareholders Approve Time Warner Cable Merger — More than 99% of Comcast shareholders voted this morning in support of the company's planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable. TWC shareholders, who are expected to vote on the merger tomorrow, would get 2.875 shares of Comcast Class A stock for every one of their TWC shares.
Discussion:
Multichannel News, The Wrap, Lost Remote, VentureBeat, Variety and FishbowlNY
RELATED:
Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Newsweek announces it's profitable — IBT Media is celebrating the first anniversary of its Newsweek ownership with some good news. — The publisher, which closed on a sale of the title last October for an undisclosed sum, told staff this week that it plans to reveal Newsweek is now profitable …
Discussion:
FishbowlNY, @joelcifer, @joepompeo and @granteb
Abigail Edge / Journalism.co.uk:
Shorthand launches immersive storytelling tool aimed at freelancers — Immersive aims to offer individual journalists a quick and cost effective format for producing media-rich stories combining text, images and video — Shorthand, the immersive storytelling platform …
David Higgerson:
Instead of fearing Facebook, journalists should be exploring how to make the most of it — Why journalism needs to get over its fear of Facebook — At the Online News Association conference in Chicago, Facebook went under the microscope, challenged almost to prove it was a force for good in journalism …
Discussion:
@davidhiggerson, @raju, @marcsettle, @macloo and HoldTheFrontPage
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Forbes tweaks native ad program for greater scale — Publishers are pinning their hopes on native ads, but sooner or later, they'll have to address the question of how they're going to scale ads without diminishing the qualities that make them native in the first place.
Discussion:
Forbes and Talking Biz News
Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Gannett shifts some costs of USA Today layoffs to states — USA Today laid off about 70 people last month. Those who lost their jobs received a week of pay for every year of service, health care through the end of September and the vacation pay they'd already accrued for the year.
David Bauder / Associated Press:
CBS News Takes Huge RIsk, Sends Reporter Undercover To Syria — NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News reporter Clarissa Ward traveled undercover to Syria to interview two Westerners fighting against the United States for stories airing this week, a risk the network took despite the backdrop of kidnappings and beheadings by Islamic state fighters.
Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:
Cable network Fusion hires Alexis Madrigal, deputy editor of TheAtlantic.com, to cover tech, TV and digital media — Fusion Hires Alexis Madrigal of Atlantic.com to Bolster Tech Coverage — Alexis Madrigal, deputy editor of Atlantic.com and a prominent online voice on technology and culture …
Discussion:
The New York Observer, @alexismadrigal, @carr2n, @jayrosen_nyu, @clarajeffery, @pkedrosky, @thomnagy, @damiencave, MediaWire Daily, @noahshachtman, @nbj914, @mathewi, @deilemberg, @nandorvila, @stevesilberman, @sarahrich, @jcstearns, @megangarber, @fruzse, @ashleymayer, @buzzfeedben, @phillydesign and @digiphile
Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:
Should publishers take Web design cues from print? — With the relaunch of Bloomberg Politics this week, Bloomberg is extending Businessweek's polarizing design aesthetic further into the Web. With splashy homepage visuals, Businessweek-esque pull quotes and a continuous scrolling feature …
Discussion:
American Press Institute
Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Politico Sees Big Money In Expanding Its Labor Coverage — NEW YORK — The percentage of American workers in unions is the lowest in nearly a century, and only two major newspapers still devote a reporter full-time to covering labor. But where some others outlets have scaled back, Politico sees an opportunity.
Discussion:
Washington Post and @erikwemple
RELATED:
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Politico to add new policy shop: ‘The Agenda’
Politico to add new policy shop: ‘The Agenda’
Discussion:
American Press Institute, The Huffington Post and @erikwemple
Andrew Hampp / Billboard:
Is Pandora Finally Playing Nice with the Industry — or Just Paying Lip Service? — For the longest time, digital media executive Lars Murray didn't know what to do with Pandora. As vp marketing at Columbia Records, he recognized that it was the top streaming radio service in the United States …
Discussion:
@jkalifowitz
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Longer articles don't necessarily imply extra time spent viewing ads, says Chartbeat — Longer stories draw more attention, but with diminishing returns — There's a growing narrative that long-form articles drive more attention time, which some are touting as the new metric of choice for digital publishers.