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 …
RELATED:
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, USA Today and @davidfolkenflik
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
RELATED:
Emily Steel / New York Times:
After collapse of Comcast-TWC deal, regulatory spotlight turns to AT&T-DirecTV merger
After collapse of Comcast-TWC deal, regulatory spotlight turns to AT&T-DirecTV merger
Discussion:
Reuters
Andrew Hampp / Billboard:
Sony Music removes original recordings from SoundCloud pages of more than half-dozen artists, including Adele, Hozier, Kelly Clarkson, in licensing impasse — Sony Pulls Hozier, Adele, Miguel, Others From SoundCloud In Licensing Impasse — Sony Music has removed original recordings …
Discussion:
theMusic.com.au, Rolling Stone, all, The Verge and Stereogum
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
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:
TechCrunch, Mashable, @spgreenwood, AdExchanger, CNNMoney, PC Magazine, Silicon Republic, Business Insider, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Engadget, FishbowlNY, @jordanoplinger and @mikeisaac
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Banjo raises $100M from SoftBank to build out software that detects events in real time, using images; Sinclair Broadcasting using the tool for reporting now — Banjo Raises $100 Million to Detect World Events in Real Time … Banjo started four years ago as a simple app …
Discussion:
@emilybell and @gavinsblog
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Medium adds Creative Commons licensing for writers — Writing platform Medium is following the lead of services like Flickr and Vimeo and introducing Creative Commons copyright options for its authors. As of today, writers will be able to select between a variety of licenses that go beyond the standard …
Discussion:
Medium, Medium and Boing Boing
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
Dominic White / Sydney Morning Herald:
21st Century Fox reports mixed Q3 results with $6.84B revenue; cable gains offset Super Bowl revenue loss — 21st Century Fox revenue lower, but beats expectations on gains in film, cable TV — Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has reported lower earnings and revenue for the third quarter due …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Deadline, Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Broadcasting & Cable
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, TechCrunch and AdExchanger