Top News:
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Gigaom struggled with significant debt for years, recently spent $400K/month on rent and interest; unprofitable research arm became a drag on the company — The Long Story Behind GigaOm's Sudden Demise — When GigaOm's managers announced the tech news publisher was laying off …
Discussion:
Guardian, Medium, @moorehn, @thekarami, @reformedbroker, @pkafka, @dangillmor, @mathewi, The Wrap and Beyond Search
RELATED:
Michael Wolf / Medium:
Gigaom's former VP of Research on how venture capital and the growth expectations that come with it contributed to Gigaom's demise — Gigaom: The Life and Death of a Venture Funded Media Startup — As most know, we lost Gigaom last week. It was a sudden passing of a widely beloved tech media company …
Discussion:
@jowyang, @pkafka, @johnhcook, @bmorrissey, @carnage4life, @gsterling and @raju
Jasper Jackson / Guardian:
David Cameron interview will help BuzzFeed win advertisers' vote — Like Vice's Barack Obama coup, site's grilling of the prime minister is aimed at not just boosting traffic, but gaining commercial credibility — David Cameron is to be interviewed live on Monday afternoon …
Alex Hern / Guardian:
The dual personality of Reddit: a problem for CEO Ellen Pao should she try to cleanse the site — Reddit: can anyone clean up the mess behind ‘the front page of the internet’? — The social news site is almost as famous for its never-ending supply of creepy subforums as it is for memes, pictures and assorted lols.
Discussion:
@howtogeek and @adrianchen
David Kushner / Rolling Stone:
Chris Poole hopes to sell 4chan, says Fappening and Gamergate stress triggered his departure — 4chan's Overlord Christopher Poole Reveals Why He Walked Away — His website made him an unlikely teenage celebrity — then it spun out of control — At 11 a.m. on January 21st …
Discussion:
@hakantee and @ballardian
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
ESPN's Bill Simmons Talks Podcasts, Grantland and His Next Contract — Bill Simmons, ESPN's popular and controversial multimedia star, is in Austin this weekend at the annual South by Southwest interactive festival, taping a series of podcasts — a longtime focus for him — for his Grantland site.
Discussion:
@timmarchman, @awealthofcs, @si_chrisstone and @richarddeitsch
Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Guardian US CEO Eamonn Store aims to double traffic, triple revenue to be profitable in three years — Guardian U.S. profitability ‘looks very realistic’ within three years — AUSTIN, Tex.—The Guardian's U.S. operation is on track to be profitable within three years, according to a company executive.
John Jurgensen / Wall Street Journal:
Adult Swim: How to Run a Creative Hothouse — The offbeat cable network is moving into prime time — On a wall outside the headquarters of Adult Swim, a block-long mural painting presents a timeline of the TV shows that built one of the most popular—and by far strangest—networks on cable.
Discussion:
@adultswim
Rex Sorgatz / Medium:
How The Daily Show triumphed: by enabling disruptive technology and embracing media inventions — How The Daily Show Triumphed — (By Enabling Disruptive Technology and Embracing Media Inventions, But Only When It Made Sense, Which Was Less Often Than One Might Think; — Also: Some Luck)
Henry Mance / Financial Times:
Final shortlist for new Guardian editor to be named on Friday: US EIC Katharine Viner and BBC Newsnight editor Ian Katz — Guardian set to name new editor to succeed Alan Rusbridger — The Guardian will name its new editor on Friday, having decided to overlook the bookmakers' favourite for the role …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Netflix's war with Internet service providers is over, but Comcast and AT&T still have congestion issues with Internet backbone operators GTT and Zayo — Netflix war is over, but money disputes still harm Internet users — AT&T won't upgrade network without payment; Comcast is working to fix congestion.
Chris O'Falt / Hollywood Reporter:
SXSW: 1 in 3 Films in Competition Funded by Kickstarter — It's a very Kickstarter South by Southwest. — 28 films playing playing this week at SXSW were backed by successful Kickstarter campaigns. These films include four of the ten narrative features in competition and 30 percent of the festival's entire competition slate.