Top News:
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Sources: Facebook, Amazon, and Verizon are likely bidders for digital rights to NFL Thursday night games — Facebook Wants to Pay for NFL Streaming Rights but Apple Doesn't — Last month, the NFL sold off TV rights to its Thursday night games to CBS and NBC*.
Discussion:
BGR, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, AppleInsider, Fast Company and SocialTimes
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
How Vice Media pleases sponsors: blurring logos in a KKK documentary, using reporter's interview to promote a video game, killing banking investigation, more — Vice Media goes gonzo on the news. Advertisers may be a different story. — With its swaggering reporting style and frank …
Discussion:
The Baffler, @mattdpearce, @bymikebaker and @brfreed
Adam Pasick / Quartz:
Spotify expands music discovery with Fresh Finds, a weekly playlist of music from new artists culled from music blogs and review sites — Spotify is using 50,000 anonymous hipsters to find your next favorite song — Spotify's personalized Discover Weekly playlist has won millions of fans …
Discussion:
TechnoBuffalo, Messenger, Music Business Worldwide, Music Ally, International Business Times, Design & Trend, Lifehacker, newstalk.com, news.spotify.com, MobileSyrup.com, Guardian, The Verge, Telegraph, AndroidHeadlines.com, Ubergizmo, Complete Music Update, Digital Music News, Tech Times, SlashGear, The Next Web, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Billboard, Engadget, Digital Spy, PCWorld, RAIN News, Digital Trends, Tech Insider, hypebot and BuzzFeed
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Vimeo revamps its iOS app with new design, improved discovery with categories, picture-in-picture, and Spotlight search support — Vimeo's iOS app gets a big makeover aimed at improving discovery — Vimeo, the video network and underdog to the global behemoth that is YouTube …
Discussion:
SocialTimes, 9to5Mac and The Next Web
Pavithra Mohan / Fast Company:
YouTube partners with UN to produce content that promotes gender equality, invests in videos by and about women at YouTube Spaces — YouTube Boosts Female Content Creators With Two New Initiatives — Both programs will focus on producing videos by women, for women, that discuss gender equality and other women's issues.
Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:
Perseus Books Agrees to Sell Distribution Business to Ingram — Deal comes days after agreement to sell publishing arm to Hachette Book Group — Perseus Books Group has agreed to sell the last remaining piece of its business—its physical and digital distribution services group—to Ingram Content Group for an undisclosed price.
Discussion:
Associated Press and GalleyCat
Olivier Laurent / TIME:
World Press Photo finds fewer manipulated entries in this year's contest, 16% compared with last year's 20%, but reports ongoing problems within the industry — World Press Photo Finds Fewer Manipulated Entries in This Year's Photojournalism Contest — Yet issues around heavy post-processing remain
Discussion:
PetaPixel, Thanks:@ravichandrans25
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Facebook adds Spotify integration to Messenger so users can share songs and playlists — Spotify becomes first music platform to integrate with Facebook Messenger — Music has arrived on Messenger. — Facebook announced today that its mobile messaging platform now integrates with Spotify.
Discussion:
Variety, TechCrunch, PCMag India feed, Mashable, RAIN News, Ubergizmo and VentureBeat
Tim Peterson / Marketing Land:
Sources: Facebook to announce it will open Messenger to publishers for content distribution at its F8 conference in April — Facebook Plans To Open Messenger To Publishers At F8 In April — Facebook will officially let publishers distribute content through Messenger and will announce …
Discussion:
@petersontee, VentureBeat, Business Insider and Ad Age
Steven Perlberg / Wall Street Journal:
Travel Site Atlas Obscura Raises $2.5 Million in New Funding — The company wants to be like ‘if National Geographic and Vice had a baby’ — Atlas Obscura may be a small publisher for now, but the travel and exploration website knows what it wants to be.
Jeff Baumgartner / Multichannel News:
Newsy, bought by E.W. Scripps in 2013 for $35M and aimed at young audiences, is added to Sling TV along with Univision-Bedrocket channel Flama — Newsy, Flama Join Sling TV Lineup — Adding more millennials-focused fare to the mix, Sling TV has added Newsy and Flama to its core, $20 per month “Best of Live TV” package.
Discussion:
NetNewsCheck Latest, PR Newswire, Broadcasting & Cable and The Next Web
Jeremy Barr / Ad Age:
Sources: ComScore charges publishers between $10-$20K to track traffic on platforms like Facebook and Flipboard in addition to costs for main site measurement — Publishers Have to Pay Up to Track Their Audiences on Distributed Platforms — And ComScore Measurement of Apple News Is Still Pending
Discussion:
@jeremymbarr and AdExchanger