Top News:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sling TV will offer HBO for $15/month by April 12 as part of Dish and Turner distribution deal — Sling TV's Service For Cord Cutters Will Offer HBO Starting Next Month — Sling TV, Dish's new over-the-top service designed for cord cutters, announced today that it will become …
NetNewsCheck:
Scripps, Journal Communications Complete Merger And Spinoff — The E.W. Scripps Company has completed its merger of broadcast assets with Journal Communications and the two companies have spun off their respective newspaper properties, Scripps announced on Wednesday.
Discussion:
Broadcasting & Cable, JSOnline and TVSpy
Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:
The Guardian targets oil companies with ‘unprecedented’ climate-change campaign — Climate change is one of those large, sweeping stories in which history has not made a dent in more than 30 years. Alan Rusbridger, the editor in chief of the Guardian, decided to tackle it in a six-month, all-hands blitz
Discussion:
Guardian, Guardian and @jayrosen_nyu
Nataliya Vasilyeva / Associated Press:
Independent Crimean station ATR ceased broadcasting after repeated Russian broadcasting license refusals — Crimea's only Tatar TV station goes off air — MOSCOW (AP) — Crimea's independent television station ATR went off air at midnight on Tuesday after Russian authorities repeatedly refused to give it a broadcasting license.
Discussion:
Guardian
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
68% of smart phone users occasionally and 33% frequently follow breaking news via mobile — Pew Report: News consumers are increasingly using smartphones — A report from the Pew Research Center released Wednesday shows that smartphone ownership has nearly doubled in recent years …
Discussion:
Pew Internet, Multichannel News, Quartz, @pewinternet and Pew Research Center
Julie Posetti / WAN-IFRA:
Three months after the Charlie Hebdo killings, Paris newsrooms remain under armed guard — Three months after ‘Charlie’, Paris newsrooms are still under armed guard — There has been a significant increase in threats to Paris newsrooms in the past two months in the aftermath …
William Turvill / Press Gazette:
News website partly funded by EU launches in UK ahead of possible in-out referendum — European Union news and policy website EurActiv has today launched a new website specifically for the UK. — The site, which is part-funded by the EU and also relies on company sponsorship …
Discussion:
@rebel_rock_on and @gazthejourno
Patrick Frater / Variety:
Unlicensed foreign films and TV series to be removed from Chinese video streaming sites today — Rules Tightened for Foreign Content on China's Online Video Platforms — Unlicensed foreign films and TV series are to be removed from China's powerful online video platforms from today.
Associated Press:
Berkshire Hathaway buys 2 small Virginia newspapers, The Martinsville Bulletin and the Franklin News-Post, from Haskell Newspapers — Berkshire Hathaway buys 2 small Virginia newspapers — OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's company has added two small Virginia newspapers to its collection …
Discussion:
Poynter
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Toronto Star drops paywall, joins Snapchat — The Toronto Star announced Wednesday the retirement of its digital subscription program, formalizing a move that was projected months ago. — The Star also launched a Snapchat account and enabled readers to share its articles with WhatsApp.
Discussion:
Toronto Star and @meg_wagner
Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
NY, OR, MN, MO, and TX sue magazine subscription service Orbital Publishing Group for price inflation and unauthorized sale of publications — Subscription Service Accused of Fraud — States allege sham outfit inflated prices for publications it wasn't authorized to sell
Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:
Facebook says a dip in reach numbers for publishers in February was due to a data glitch, not a real decline in delivery of posts — Facebook claims Newsfeed dip for news sites was a mere ‘bug’ — Facebook giveth traffic. Hath Facebook taken it away? — The social network …
Discussion:
SocialTimes, The Awl, The Whip, dna, @ssstrom, @jayrosen_nyu, @pierrefitter, @earcos, @mathewi, American Press Institute and @mikeisaac