Top News:


Tow Center's Emily Bell: News organizations have lost control of distribution, must work with social media apps and develop their own tech — Emily Bell: news groups should harness tech in the service of ‘good’ journalism — With social media companies stepping into the news business like never before …
Discussion:
TheMediaBriefing, @jayrosen_nyu, @mweinger and @mweinger


BBC review key points: weighing subscription model against license fee, structure of the BBC Trust, how programming can be distinct from commercial companies — BBC review: the key points — Culture secretary John Whittingdale launches ‘root and branch’ review of BBC charter
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BBC's “Scale and Scope” to Be Reviewed, U.K. Government Says — Just over a week after it put the BBC at the center of a dispute regarding its financial arrangements, the British government said Thursday that it would have to review its “scale and scope” as the two sides start negotiating …
Discussion:
Guardian, @dcms, Hollywood Reporter, BBC, Telegraph, bbc.co.uk, @johnplunkett149, Mashable, GOV.UK departments and policy, @psmith and Guardian


Illicit sharing of HBO, Netflix, and other account passwords estimated to cost the VOD industry $500M+ in 2015 — Password Sharing: Are Netflix, HBO Missing $500 Million by Not Cracking Down? — Subscription VOD players, fighting for market share, aren't likely to crack down on cheaters
Discussion:
kottke.org


After eight years in jail, Canadian-Iranian “blogfather” Hossein Derakhshan sees loss of blogs, text, and individual power, calls for effort to save open web — The Web We Have to Save — The rich, diverse, free web that I loved—and spent years in an Iranian jail for—is dying.
Discussion:
@emilybell, Matt McAlister, Business Insider, @mathewi and @jeffjarvis


Egypt drops proposed two-year jail penalty for journalists who report information that contradicts government — Egypt to revise anti-terror media law: MENA — Cairo (AFP) - Egypt agreed to revise a controversial article of its touted anti-terror law threatening journalists with jail …
Discussion:
Guardian and Al Jazeera English


Flipagram cuts deal with Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and more for clips, raises $70M Series B led by Sequoia; John Doerr, Mike Moritz join board — Flipagram Raises $70M, Scores Record Label Deals Thanks To 30M+ Music Hungry Users — It's a mix of Instagram and YouTube...maybe a bit of a old school RockYou component.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, hypebot, Variety, iamWire, The Next Web and VentureBeat


Interview with HBO's Bernadette Aulestia, EVP of global distribution operations, about HBO Now, cord cutters, cannibalizing fears, and scaling for big events — An interview with Bernadette Aulestia, the woman expanding HBO beyond cable — Bernadette Aulestia's first gig helping HBO expand beyond cable was a short-lived effort.
Discussion:
The Next Web and The Verge


As digital media organizations expand to India, Medianama founder Nikhil Pahwa says success requires India-specific content — Are you a Western news company looking to expand to India? First, decide who you want to serve — Over the past seven years, Nikhil Pahwa has built …
Discussion:
@saikatd and @dikshamadhok


Twitter's new preview cards could help publishers better highlight stories by providing extra room for art, video, and text, and get around 140-character limit — Twitter's new article preview cards could be a boost for publishers — Publishers may be able to get more value …


UK watchdog report finds two police forces unlawfully accessed data records to find journalists' sources — Two police forces breached code on protection of journalists' sources — Report by interception of communications watchdog reveals breaches of new code of practice in force only since March
Discussion:
Press Gazette


NewsHunt acquires BuyT for integrating contextual product recommendations — News and content app NewsHunt has bought BuyT, a product discovery and recommendation platform, which will be integrated with NewsHunt for delivering product recommendations to NewsHunt users, and help it improve its mobile advertising based monetization.
Discussion:
The Tech Portal, iamWire, YourStory.com, Tech in Asia and The Economic Times