Top News:
New York Times:
Sources: Pandora has held preliminary discussions about selling itself — Pandora Is Said to Have Held Talks About Selling Itself — Pandora Media, the largest Internet radio service, has held discussions about selling the company, according to people briefed on the talks.
RELATED:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Time Inc Acquires Viant, Owner Of Myspace And A Vast Ad Tech Network — It looks like Myspace is becoming a big-media property once again. Today during its quarterly earnings report, Time Inc announced that it has acquired Viant, a profitable company that has built a large ad tech business …
Discussion:
Mashable, Business Wire, Guardian, The Wrap, Business Insider, Viant, The Next Web, Variety, New York Magazine, Marketing Land, Consumerist, ZDNet, Media & Entertainment, FishbowlNY, SocialTimes, Tech Times, Engadget, @rafat, @shiraovide, @mashable, @alexhern, Beet.TV, Digital Spy, MediaPost, CNBC, The Drum, Multichannel News, RAPPLER, Talking New Media, Fortune and AdExchanger
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Time Inc. Q4: revenue down 2% to $877M on profit of $17M; digital ad revenue up 17% YoY to $102M; print and other ad sales down 6.6% to $328M — Time Inc. Reports Profit Decline but Gives Optimistic Sales Guidance — Magazine publisher to acquire marketing firm Viant, owner of MySpace
Discussion:
Time Inc., The Verge, WWD, Benzinga, Reuters, Wallstreet.org, Reuters, Talking New Media and MarketWatch
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
Quartz's new iPhone app uses a chat interface and push notifications to deliver curated news stories — Quartz's new app wants to text you the news — For a brief moment during development, the first app from Quartz — the four-year-old business news publication owned by The Atlantic …
Discussion:
Quartz, App Store, Forbes, Nieman Lab, Wired, FishbowlNY, Guardian, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, Fortune, @zeigor, App Advice, Fusion, New York Magazine, The Next Web, @christauziet, @chrismessina, @mims, Media Wire Daily, @fromedome, @doingitwrong, @lpolgreen, @marcsettle and Digiday
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
CBS CEO Les Moonves says talks about streaming services with Apple have ceased for now — Les Moonves says talks with Apple have stopped — Last year CBS CEO Les Moonves was bullish about his company's talks with Apple about a possible game-changer in TV.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, The Local News Lab, Medium, dropbox.com, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint, BGR, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Medium, Tech Insider, The Verge, Medium, ZDNet, Medium and The Local News Lab
RELATED:
Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:
CBS meets Q4 estimates with net earnings of $251M on $3.9B in revenue, driven by licensing and distribution — CBS Reports Record Fourth Quarter Revenue — Network ad sales up 8% — CBS reported record revenues during the fourth quarter. — Net earnings were $261 million …
Discussion:
Radio & Television …, Multichannel News, The Wrap, Variety, Variety, @miriamgottfried, Engadget, Fortune, TechCrunch, Forbes, Variety and Sacramento Bee
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
Donald Trump settles with Univision over Miss USA Pageant — Donald Trump and Univision have settled the lawsuit that arose when Univision dumped Trump's Miss USA pageant telecast. — “The terms of the settlement are confidential,” the two sides said in an announcement Thursday afternoon.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Mediaite, The Wrap, Variety, KABE-LP, Media & Entertainment, Reuters, The Hill, Washington Times, Hollywood Reporter, Talking Points Memo and Deadline
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Soundcloud files financial results showing $44.27M loss in 2014 with revenue of $19.7M; board forecasts it will need more capital investment in 2016 — SoundCloud financial results show €39.1m loss in 2014 — SoundCloud's revenues rose 54% to €17.4m in 2014 …
Discussion:
Music Business Worldwide, FACT Magazine, Your EDM, Ars Technica, Billboard, Jezebel, Complex and AllAccess.com
Jonathan Shorman / Topeka Capital-Journal:
KU student newspaper sues administrators, alleging funding cuts after critical editorial — Administration signed off on cut to fees for The University Daily Kansan — The student newspaper at the University of Kansas sued KU administrators Friday, alleging they approved funding cuts …
Discussion:
Columbia Journalism Review, Lebanon Daily Record, The Lawrence Journal-World and KCUR
Jack Marshall / Wall Street Journal:
Publishers see improved revenue from Instant Articles after changes to ad policies; some now generate same amount per view as their own mobile sites — Facebook's Instant Articles Advertising Fixes Win Over Publishers — It's getting easier to generate ad revenue from the platform, publishers say
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Viacom bets on new hires for MTV News, including Jamil Smith from The New Republic, to revive the network's brand — Viacom Reboots MTV News in First Step Toward Reviving Network — MTV may be about to invoke memories of Kurt Loder and Tabitha Soren. — At MTV, those two correspondents …
Discussion:
FishbowlNY, Ad Age, Billboard, Adweek, The Huffington Post, @runofplay, @runofplay, @pkafka, @pappademas and @jamilsmith
Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:
Dish to disable DVR ad-skip for 7 days after broadcast to resolve Fox suit — No precedent on consumers' right to stream content they already paid for. — Fox and Dish have settled a years-long copyright dispute over several Dish viewing features, including the Hopper ad-skipping DVR …
Discussion:
Variety, Digital Trends, Reuters, FierceCable and Deadline
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
Twitter's problem isn't that it stopped growing; it's that people expect it to keep growing — Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions — Twitter is the world's most important social network. — That might sound like the ravings of an addict …
Discussion:
Forbes, Vanity Fair, louisgray.com, TechCrunch, The Mary Sue, CNBC, @sg, Business Insider, CNNMoney, Boing Boing, @neilsandhu, @jayrosen_nyu and Fortune
RELATED:
TechCrunch:
Twitter reports 320M total MAUs, no change from previous quarter, quarterly revenue up 48% YoY to $710M, meeting expectations
Twitter reports 320M total MAUs, no change from previous quarter, quarterly revenue up 48% YoY to $710M, meeting expectations
Discussion:
New York Times, TechCrunch, Forbes, Fortune, USA Today, Business Insider, Fast Company, @carlquintanilla, ZDNet, Digital Trends, Ad Age, The Wrap, AdExchanger, Pocket-lint, @mathewi, @arjunbasu, @carnage4life, @gungnirdev, @oliyoung and @jyarow