Mediagazer: Sling TV's $20 cord-cutter package comes to Xbox One (Richard Lawler/Engadget)

11:50 AM ET, March 17, 2015

Top News:

Politico Europe to launch April 21, with weekly print edition starting April 23; joint venture with Axel Springer includes main newsroom in Brussels — Staffed-up POLITICO Europe to launch April 21 — POLITICO Europe, the Arlington-based company's foray into the European media market …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, Guardian, Poynter, Politico, @matinastevis, @tarapalmeri, @mattyglesias, Press Gazette, @ahmed, @exen, @ronpatz, Wall Street Journal and Media Wire Daily

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:

BuzzFeed UK hit 18.8M unique visitors in February and is expanding editorial staff from 35 to 50 in 2015 — London calling: A look at BuzzFeed's British invasion — LONDON — BuzzFeed is, of course, known for mixing news with lists and quizzes, so it was inevitable that when British Prime …

Discussion: @tomgara, @niemanlab, @sarahdrinkwater, @broderick, BuzzFeed and Financial Times

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

BuzzFeed's New Strategy: Fishing for Eyeballs in Other People's Streams — BuzzFeed doesn't have any problem attracting Web traffic — the people who brought you The Dress say they're getting 200 million visitors a month, even when they don't have an astonishing viral phenomenon on their hands.

Discussion: @karaswisher, @richjm, @joshconstine, @jbenton, @mccollumashley, TechCrunch, @rafat and AdAge

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Apple aiming to launch online TV service in September with about 25 channels, anchored by ABC, CBS, Fox — Apple in Talks to Launch Online TV Service — Service would have about 25 channels, anchored by broadcasters such as ABC, CBS and Fox — Shalini Ramachandran and Daisuke Wakabayashi

Discussion: CNNMoney, New York Times, TechCrunch, /Film, Reuters, Light Reading, Multichannel News, Tubefilter, Variety, WebProNews, Pocket-lint, App Advice, Awful Announcing and The Verge

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Ex-Washington Post columnist Jason Reid's new ESPN radio show halted after he criticized station owner in a column — ESPN radio suddenly halts ‘The Man Cave’, and some blame NFL's Redskins — Sports columnist Jason Reid said goodbye to his Washington Post colleagues on Wednesday …

Discussion: ProFootballTalk, NBCSports.com, The Big Lead and Deadspin

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Trinity Mirror in early stage talks to buy Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers — Mirror owner in talks to buy Richard Desmond's Express — It is not known if negotiations between Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers include the Sunday Express and Star titles

Discussion: The Times, Press Gazette, The Drum, Press Association, @marksweney and Featured Articles

Gregory Korte / USA Today:

White House exempts from FOIA its Office of Administration, which keeps visitor logs — White House office to delete its FOIA regulations — WASHINGTON — The White House is removing a federal regulation that subjects its Office of Administration to the Freedom of Information Act …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube To Replace Annotations With Smarter, Mobile-Optimized “Cards” — For years, YouTube has offered annotations as a way for video creators to add clickable text overlays to their videos as a way to boost engagement with viewers, provide more information, or help in navigation.

Discussion: YouTube Creator Blog, YouTube Creator Blog, Fast Company, 9to5Google, Tubefilter, gHacks Technology News, Android Authority, AndroidHeadlines.com, Digital Trends, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, PCMag Australia internet …, The Next Web, Marketing Land, The Verge, VentureBeat, Guardian and Engadget

Jasper Jackson / Guardian:

BBC Jimmy Savile abuse report to be published in May — Dame Janet Smith's review says it has interviewed 375 witnesses about Savile and more than 100 about Stuart Hall — The judge-led inquiry into sexual abuse at the BBC expects to publish its report in the second half of May …

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

The Sun launches political website SunNation as a stand-alone site beyond its paywall — Sun launches Buzzfeed-style political website beyond the paywall with exclusive Cameron-cam look at Downing Street — The Sun today launched a fun Buzzfeed-style political website beyond its paywall.

Discussion: Guardian, @sunnation and Business Insider

Chris Mooney / Washington Post:

Google studying ways to assess the quality of websites based on their accuracy — Why some people are so terrified by the idea of a Google truth machine — Almost exactly three years ago, I attended a conference at Harvard and MIT that brought together two groups not very used to talking to each other …

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Sling TV's $20 cord-cutter package comes to Xbox One — From the start, Microsoft intended for the Xbox One to be at the center of both games and TV watching. With today's launch of Sling TV on the game console, it can bring those two parts together properly for gamers in the US.