Top News:
Emily Bell / Columbia Journalism Review:
Publishers partnering with Google and Facebook should beware of tech companies' control over content — Google and Facebook are our frenemy. Beware. — Google, Facebook, Twitter and any other social platform you care to name would at one time have gone to the corporate stake to defend …
Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:
New York Times Q1: $14M net loss, 47K new digital subscribers, total revenue down 1.6% to $384M — New York Times Co. Reports Loss as Print Ads Decline — The New York Times Company posted a $14 million net loss for the first quarter of 2015 as lucrative print advertising suffered a sharp drop-off.
Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:
In earthquake-ravaged Nepal, the BBC is using messaging app Viber to share information and safety tips — In the aftermath of last week's earthquake that devastated Nepal, BBC News is today launching an account on the messaging app Viber to publish news, information, and tips for staying safe as the country continues to recover.
Discussion:
Radioandmusic.com, Journalism.co.uk and @ptaillandier
Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
Hulu has 9M paid subscribers, up 50% since last year, with viewers streaming 30% more content on average — Hulu closes in on 9 million paid subscribers — The television-streaming site's members are up 50 percent since last year, CEO Mike Hopkins said, with each subscriber watching more video on average.
RELATED:
Jenny Surane / Quartz:
I am editor-in-chief of my college newspaper and the job I trained for no longer exists — At age 21, I was handed control of a million-dollar company with more than 250 employees when I was named editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel, the independent student newspaper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Discussion:
Vox, Media, disrupted, @kathyenglish, @antderosa and College Media Matters
New York Times:
Twitter shares fall an additional 9% on disappointment with weak sales of direct response ads — Twitter Troubles Lie in Marketers' Reluctance to Buy New Kind of Ad — SAN FRANCISCO — As a company, Twitter is an adolescent — gangly, starry-eyed, growing like a weed and unpredictable.
Discussion:
@vindugoel, @melbournecoal, Reuters, Adweek, Wall Street Journal, Boing Boing and Talking Biz News
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Vevo Names Erik Huggers CEO — Erik Huggers, who most recently led Intel's ill-fated attempt to launch an Internet TV service, has joined online music-video distributor Vevo as president and CEO. — Huggers' appointment is effective immediately. The 20-year digital media vet takes …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Bloomberg Business, Digital TV Europe and Re/code
Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press:
Book publishers to provide $250M in free ebooks to low-income students in initiatives tied to Obama's ConnectEd program — Obama pushes reading through e-book, library initiatives — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama announced Thursday that major book publishers will provide …
Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:
Newspaper Guild Rebrands to ‘NewsGuild’ — The Newspaper Guild of New York is no more. From now on, it's The NewsGuild of New York. Guild members voted 407 to 105 to change the name of the 81-year-old union. — The change was made to reflect the fact that as time passes …
Discussion:
The New York Observer
Sharon Weinberger / The Intercept:
A look at an Al Qaeda spokesman who was source for journalists and who died in missile strike — Life and Death of an Al Qaeda Spokesman — The voice on the phone was a mere whisper. The spokesman for al-Qaeda's most notorious affiliate, AQAP, sounded nervous.
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
HBO and Showtime sue two streaming sites for piracy in advance of Saturday boxing match, ask for injunction and for ISPs to block sites during match — Showtime and HBO Sue Over ‘Pre-Piracy’ — HBO and Showtime are no stranger to online piracy. Their TV-shows are pirated millions of times each month.
Justin Ellis / Nieman Lab:
Knight Foundation funds 20 new media and technology projects through its Prototype Fund — The Knight Foundation is awarding more than $700,000 to a new round of technology projects, with a focus on storytelling, data, and community building. Twenty projects will each receive $35,000 as part …