Top News:
Hollywood Reporter:
A look inside Jeff Bezos' Amazon Studios as it makes its push into original movies — Amazon's Hollywood Shopping Cart Secrets — “Can I show you my Pinterest board?” offers Roy Price, holding out his iPhone. “This is how we develop shows on Amazon.” — The head of Amazon Studios …
Discussion:
CNNMoney, Business Insider, GeekWire, @neilcybart, @janicebmin and @jyarow
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Jamieson Cox / The Verge:
Spike Lee's Chi-Raq is officially Amazon's first original movie — It's been rumored for a while, but we now have confirmation that Spike Lee's upcoming Chi-Raq will be Amazon Studios' first original movie. Lee directed the movie and co-wrote it with Kevin Willmott.
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, The Next Web, /Film and TechCrunch
Alex Sherman / Bloomberg Business:
Netflix supports Charter's Time Warner Cable merger after Charter pledges not to charge peering fees for content providers through 2018 — Netflix to Support Charter Acquisition of Time Warner Cable … Netflix Inc. will support Charter Communications Inc.'s $55 billion acquisition …
Discussion:
Home Media Magazine, New York Times, The Wrap, Ad Age, Wall Street Journal, Deadline, Washington Post, The Hill, Jenner & Block, FierceCable, DSLreports, @sherman4949, Wired and Engadget
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Sasha Frere-Jones to launch entertainment vertical at the LA Times — Sasha Frere-Jones, the former New Yorker music writer who left that magazine for the annotation startup Genius, will be a cultural critic at large for the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper announced Wednesday morning.
Discussion:
The New York Observer
Jefferson Graham / USA Today:
Marlene Sanders, the first woman to anchor a prime-time network newscast, dies at age 84 — Pioneering TV journalist Marlene Sanders dies — LOS ANGELES—Marlene Sanders, one of the first female broadcast TV journalists, died of cancer Tuesday at age 84.
Richard Horgan / FishbowlNY:
Bill Carter, Michael Wolff Join THR Contributing Editor Ranks — With Bill Carter, you get subject matter expertise like this: I interviewed David Letterman for the first time when I was reporting my book The Late Shift in 1993. He was then, and has remained, the most reliably great interview subject I can remember.
Discussion:
@thrmattbelloni and @janicebmin
John Jewell / The Conversation:
Murdoch newspapers have a long history of teaming up with conservative governments to target public media like the BBC — Bad news week for BBC as Murdoch press sharpens claws — Sang Tan / AP/Press Association Images — It's to be yet another week of crisis, inspection and introspection …
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Ken Doctor / Capital New York:
Skift nears profitability, is focusing on trends and the future of travel — What are they thinking? Rafat Ali's go long, go deep vertical strategy — There's bootstrap, and there's “bootstrap plus.” Bootstrap plus is what digital media entrepreneur Rafat Ali calls his Skift modus operandi.
Discussion:
@alacra1, @raju and @jayrosen_nyu
Jamieson Cox / The Verge:
Neil Young, whose Pono high fidelity music player was released in January, pulls his music from all streaming services, citing poor audio quality — Neil Young is yanking his catalog from streaming services — Neil Young took to Facebook and Twitter today to announce that he's removing …
Discussion:
Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Next Web, Fortune and Pitchfork
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Judge Rejects New “Blurred Lines” Trial, Trims Damages to $5.3 Million — The judge has also ruled that Universal Music and T.I. should be held liable for copyright infringement. — The federal judge overseeing the high-profile lawsuit brought by the Marvin Gaye family against Robin Thicke …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, The FADER, Variety and Pitchfork
Rick Webb / Medium:
Banners are useful for brand marketers despite “fraud”, because they're cheap and effective for raising awareness — Banner “Fraud” Doesn't Matter — A Message from brand marketers to publishers — Here's a message on behalf of brand marketers everywhere.† We know about banner fraud already.
Justin Lafferty / SocialTimes:
Facebook out-performs Google and YouTube with targeted ads despite plummeting reach — Adobe Q2 Report: Facebook Beats Google/YouTube at Getting You to Click on Ads — The great social video war is on, and Facebook is making up ground on Google with effective, targeted advertising.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, AdExchanger, Re/code, Forbes, Variety, ZDNet and WWD