Top News:
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Al Jazeera America dismisses CEO Ehab Al Shihabi, replacing him with Al Anstey, previously managing director of Al Jazeera English — Al Jazeera America gets a new CEO — Amid turmoil that has seen the departure of three high level executives and a lawsuit from a former staffer in recent days …
Discussion:
New York Times, Politico, TVNewser, Guardian, CNNMoney, Financial Times, @jayrosen_nyu, Mediaite and @tomgara
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John Koblin / New York Times:
Al Jazeera America faces staff morale issues, a lawsuit, an exodus of top executives, and poor ratings — Al Jazeera Network, in Turmoil, Is Now the News — Nearly two years ago, Ehab Al Shihabi, the chief executive of Al Jazeera America, took the stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival …
Discussion:
TVNewser, Mediaite, USA Today, The Daily Beast, JNS.org, Capital New York, The Wrap, Financial Times, mUmBRELLA, BuzzFeed, Hollywood Reporter, Algemeiner.com, Poynter, Talking New Media, The Times of Israel, The Wrap, CNNMoney, Sacramento Bee, Deadline, @tomgara, @ggreenwald, The Huffington Post, @nytimes, @buzzfeedandrew, @drewharwell and PR Newswire
Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:
Al Jazeera CEO Is Demoted, Not Fired, In Day of Intrigue — When the rumor went round that Al Jazeera CEO Ehab Al Shihabi had been fired, one staffer said it was like ‘The Witch is Dead.’ But it was just a demotion. — A mere 48 hours after trying to defend the troubled news channel Al Jazeera America …
Discussion:
Variety
Ben Popper / The Verge:
Reddit launches a video division to create original content — The social news service Reddit has grown to a truly massive size, garnering 170 million monthly visitors and 6.7 billion pages view this January, while maintaining a fairly bare-bones service. It helps elevate obscure material …
Discussion:
Mashable, TechCrunch, PC Magazine, @spgreenwood, Business Insider, CNNMoney, VentureBeat, Silicon Republic, The Next Web, FishbowlNY, @jordanoplinger, @mikeisaac and Engadget
Ted Johnson / Variety:
FCC's Tom Wheeler Defends Net Neutrality, Comcast-TW Cable Merger Opposition — CHICAGO — FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defended newly imposed net neutrality rules as well as the agency's plans to block the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, saying that moves have been necessary to protect competition.
Discussion:
Deadline, Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, Los Angeles Times, Variety and FierceCable
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Julia Greenberg / Wired:
Snapchat rolls out update letting users embellish Discover clips with text and drawings, share them with friends — SNAPCHAT ALLOWS USERS TO (FINALLY!) SHARE NEWS — It's hard being a media company. We get it. And now Snapchat gets it too. — Today, the ephemeral messaging company rolled …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, @daliaezzat_, Business Insider, The Next Web, Mashable and ClickZ
Jack Nicas / Wall Street Journal:
FAA partners with CNN and two other firms to expand drone testing for commercial purposes, in urban areas and beyond the sight of device operators — FAA Works With CNN, BNSF to Study Drone Flights — CNN to film in urban areas with drones, BNSF to inspect railroads, PrecisionHawk to collect crop data
Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
Tribune Publishing Q1 earnings down 75%, total revenues down 5% to $396M on advertising decline — Tribune Publishing earnings drop on advertising decline — Get unlimited digital access to chicagotribune.com. Try it today for ONLY $0.99.
Discussion:
Associated Press, @megmacpr, Wall Street Journal, Capital New York, The Wrap, StreetInsider.com, Talking New Media and bizjournals
Vox Product Blog:
The evolution of the editorial products team at Vox Media; what worked, what didn't, and why — Building a team to scale storytelling while fostering experimentation — The editorial products team at Vox Media is the one responsible for projects like SB Nation's live draft tracker …
Discussion:
Poynter
Tim Wu / New Yorker:
Consumers want a la carte internet TV, but cable-like bundles make more economic sense for channels — The Dreaded Bundle Comes to Internet TV — When a man named Herb MacDonald pioneered the pay-one-price, all-you-can-eat buffet in Las Vegas sometime in the in the middle of the last century …
Tony Haile / Chartbeat Blog:
Chartbeat raises $15.5M in Series C funding, launches tools to test headline and ad engagement — Two New Products, Two New Partners, $15M New Dollars — Last month, Chartbeat celebrated its sixth anniversary. Over those six years, we've worked with thousands of incredible partners …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, AdExchanger and TechCrunch
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Conde Nast in first digital-only launch with website for ‘alpha geeks’ Ars Technica UK — Magazine publisher Conde Nast has launched its first digital-only title - the technology website Ars Technica UK. — The site has been published in the US since 1998.