Top News:
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
NPR changes policy to prohibit promotion of podcasts and NPR One app on the air in apparent effort to appease local radio stations — NPR decides it won't promote its podcasts or NPR One on air — NPR is — sort of like the Associated Press and the major broadcast networks — a creature of its structure.
U.S. Department of Justice:
US Department of Justice files antitrust suit to block Tribune Publishing from buying the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise — Justice Department Files Antitrust Lawsuit to Stop L.A. Times Publisher from Acquiring Competing Newspapers — Acquisition Would Monopolize Newspapers …
RELATED:
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Tribune Publishing wins $56 million auction to acquire OC Register
Tribune Publishing wins $56 million auction to acquire OC Register
Discussion:
LA Observed, Poynter, LAist, @jackdolanlat, USA Today, Orange County Register, Courthouse News Service, Editor & Publisher, @juliewestfall, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, L.A. Daily News, Associated Press, MyNewsLA.com, Agence France-Presse, LA Observed, The San Diego Union …, The Wrap and Talking New Media
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube and Google Play agree to join T-Mobile's Binge On Program, following criticism of video throttling — YouTube and Google Play Movies & TV will now participate in T-Mobile's “Binge On” program, which offers cellular subscribers the ability to watch a variety of services without those streams counting against users' data plans.
Discussion:
Neowin, Google Public Policy Blog, Digital Trends, GeekWire, Techdirt, Mashable, T-Mobile Newsroom, Fortune, ZDNet, @om, @om, SiliconBeat, Consumerist, The Next Web, Engadget, Multichannel News, The Wrap, Variety, 9to5Mac, The Hill, Lifehacker, Bloomberg Business, CNET, MacRumors, GeekWire, AndroidHeadlines.com, The Verge, PhoneDog.com, Re/code, TmoNews, Ars Technica, The Verge and BGR
Micah Singleton / The Verge:
Kickstarter acquires Drip, a music streaming service and fan community for independent labels — Kickstarter acquires its first company — Kickstarter has acquired Drip, a music-streaming service and fan community for independent labels, the company announced today.
Discussion:
The Kickstarter Blog, TechCrunch, The Next Web, VatorNews, @ystrickler, VentureBeat, Fast Company, CNET, Billboard and Consumerist
Micah Singleton / The Verge:
Sources: SoundCloud signs licensing deal with Sony Music, the last of three major labels, paving way for launch of paid subscription service later this year — SoundCloud has signed a licensing deal with Sony Music, giving it deals with all three major labels and paving …
Discussion:
Digital Music News and The Wrap
Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
Sony Pictures Television shifting to an international-first model, with sales to UK's Channel 4 and ITV and Canada's Shaw before selling shows US channels — TV starts to rewrite its US-first script — Television viewers around the world have feasted on a diet of imported …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Broadcaster Sky jumps into virtual reality, launches new content studio and readies VR app — European pay-TV broadcaster Sky — a long-time investor in virtual reality startup Jaunt — has positioned itself as a more direct content player in the VR world. Today the company …
Discussion:
mUmBRELLA, Fortune, stuff.tv, City A.M., mirror, Digital Spy, TechRadar.com, Pocket-lint and Variety
Amy X. Wang / Quartz:
Click fraud moves into music streaming, draining money from companies and artists, and it's almost impossible to detect — Music streaming has a nearly undetectable fraud problem — Loud controversies are a hallmark of the music streaming industry. — Remember Taylor Swift's public feud with Spotify?
Discussion:
Patently Apple and Digital Music News
Tom Dotan / The Information:
Sources: Time Warner investing more in Mashable, following prior funding from Time Warner Investments — Time Warner Investing More in Mashable — Time Warner is pumping more money into Mashable, a millennial-focused tech and pop culture news site, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
@rafat, @michellerobbins and @jwherrman
Ed Christman / Billboard:
Spotify and National Music Publishing Association reach settlement over unpaid mechanical rights royalties, sources say the payout pool is between $21M and $30M — Spotify and Publishing Group Reach $30 Million Settlement Agreement Over Unpaid Royalties — Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify …
Discussion:
The Verge, Re/code, New York Times, Billboard, Business Insider, Variety and Music Business Worldwide
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
A friendly new Slack bot from Digg lets you ask for articles around keywords, domain names, and more — Chat bots (and chatty bots) are the new [insert 2015 journalism trend of your choice]. In particular, as the team messaging tool Slack takes over newsrooms, Slack integrations eager …
Discussion:
Digg, Gary Liu, The Next Web, @jvanslem and TechCrunch
Human Rights Watch:
Azerbaijan president pardons 148 prisoners, including 13 journalists and activists, but Khadija Ismayilova remains in prison — Dispatches: Good News from Azerbaijan (For a Change) — President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan signed a decree today for the Novruz holiday, pardoning 148 prisoners …