Top News:
Alex Sherman / Bloomberg Business:
Sources: Comcast to drop proposed Time Warner Cable takeover deal after FCC staff recommends hearing; announcement as soon as Friday — Comcast Plans to Drop Time Warner Cable Deal — Comcast Corp. is planning to walk away from its proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc. …
Discussion:
New York Times, Forbes, Home Media Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, TVNewser, Quartz, Telegraph, Variety, The Atlantic Online, CNNMoney, Engadget, Vox, Re/code, The Wrap, corporate.comcast.com, Bloomberg Business, The Huffington Post, Techdirt, Business Insider, Gothamist, USA Today, @cnbcnow, @joshuatopolsky, Financial Times, @jbflint, AppleInsider, Pocket-lint, National Journal, Mashable, Associated Press, Motherboard, SSN Insider, @molly_knight, Washington Post, @dangillmor, @richbtig, BuzzFeed, Multichannel News, Electronista, The Hill, Politico, @brianstelter, AdAge, ReadWrite, TechCrunch, GeekWire, BGR, Light Reading, Guardian, Mediaite, VentureBeat, Talking New Media, Deadline, The Week and Media Law Prof Blog
RELATED:
Erin Griffith / Fortune:
Comcast held acquisition talks with Vox Media, but deal fizzled within the last month — Will Comcast go on a post-Time Warner Cable buying spree? — Comcast recently held acquisition talks with digital publisher Vox Media, Fortune has learned. The potential deal fizzled out within the last month.
Discussion:
@reckless, @jayrosen_nyu, @zseward, @dangillmor, @matthewmspace and @rafat
Bloomberg Business:
Comcast's hurdles were too high, despite political donations, deep Washington ties, and $17M spent on lobbying — Comcast Finds Golf and 128 Lobbyists Can't Sell U.S. on Merger — Comcast Corp. spends more than any other company lobbying Washington. Its chief executive has golfed with President Barack Obama.
Discussion:
TechCrunch and Variety
Jonathan Mahler / New York Times:
Comcast's TWC bid and FCC's stance on net neutrality were separate yet intertwined issues
Comcast's TWC bid and FCC's stance on net neutrality were separate yet intertwined issues
Discussion:
@richbtig
Jim Tankersley / Washington Post:
Why the PR industry is sucking up Pulitzer winners — The number of news reporters in the Washington, D.C., area nearly doubled over the last decade, from 1,450 to 2,760. In Los Angeles it grew by 20 percent. In New York City, it basically stayed flat. Outside of those cities …
Discussion:
Poynter, @tinyrevolution and The Local News Lab
Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon revenue up 15% YoY to $22.72B, posts net loss of $57M after $108M profit a year ago — Amazon Swings to Loss Despite Jump in Sales — E-commerce firm's cloud computing business posts revenue of $1.57 billion — Amazon.com Inc. finally revealed financial details …
Discussion:
Forbes, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Forbes, BBC, Reuters, Business Insider, Tech Trader Daily, ZDNet and CNBC
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Cablevision Debuts “Cord Cutter” Packages Combining Broadband, Free Antennas, And Optional HBO NOW — Cablevision made headlines as the first pay-TV provider to offer HBO's new standalone service HBO NOW to its broadband customers, and today the cable company is again targeting cord cutters …
Discussion:
Multichannel News, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Variety, Tom's Guide, FierceCable and Engadget
Scott Moritz / Bloomberg Business:
Disney Blocks Verizon Custom TV Ads in ‘Skinny Bundle’ Dispute — Walt Disney Co. has pulled television ads for Verizon Communications Inc.'s Custom TV from its networks after saying that the new TV-package service violates contract agreements. — Verizon was notified by e-mail Wednesday …
Molly Mirhashem / National Journal:
How Washington-area reporters and communications people manage the deluge of email — “Inbox zero is the paleo of email,” says Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce. “It's totally arbitrary and requires so much energy.” — “I feel terrible about it, but I'm in too deep,” …
Discussion:
@moelleithee and @cschweitz
Digidave:
Felix Salmon's report on the death of journalism as a career is greatly exaggerated — At Perugia this year Felix Salmon gave a talk: “The end of journalism as a career?” — In typical fashion, anytime a headline ends in a question mark the answer is almost always “no.”
Discussion:
@jjhenning, @cwarzel, @losowsky, @dlboardman, @mikeisaac, @scottros, @romenesko and Fusion
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Yelp wins dismissal of lawsuit over quality of its reviews — (Reuters) - Yelp Inc has won the dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed it deceived shareholders by overstating the authenticity and quality of consumer reviews on its website, and thereby enabled insiders to sell company stock at inflated prices.
Discussion:
Law360
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Hulu Scores More Exclusives With First-Ever Turner Deal — In its battle with Netflix and Amazon for streaming video marketshare, Hulu today announced its first-ever licensing agreement with Turner Broadcasting, which sees the streaming video service gaining exclusive subscription rights …
Discussion:
Hulu Blog, Variety, Multichannel News, Tech Times, Polygon and Adweek
Committee to Protect Journalists:
Libyan journalist shot dead in Benghazi TV office — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of a Libyan television journalist in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday. Muftah al-Qatrani, 33, was shot dead in his office at Al-Anwar, the privately owned television production company …