Mediagazer: Interview with GroundSource founder Andrew Haeg, on using messaging over SMS, WhatsApp, more to build community for news sites and others (Joseph Lichterman/Nieman Lab)

3:25 PM ET, March 23, 2016

Top News:

Joe Pompeo / Politico:

Blendle launches pay-per-story app in the US with articles from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, and Financial Times, starting at $.09 each — Paid journalism startup Blendle launches in the U.S. — Blendle, the Dutch journalism start-up developing an iTunes-style payment method …

Nick Denton / Gawker:

Hogan suit was about racist comments on another videotape, and Gawker will win on appeal — The Hogan Verdict — The decision by a Florida jury to grant $140 million in damages for a story on Gawker.com about a Hulk Hogan sex tape was extraordinary. The number is far larger than even the plaintiff himself had asked for in relief.

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:

Interview with GroundSource founder Andrew Haeg, on using messaging over SMS, WhatsApp, more to build community for news sites and others — GroundSource is trying to help news sites build community through text-message conversations — “I can't imagine many stronger indications …

Guardian:

Sun publisher posts £250m loss due to write-down and hacking costs — Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers pushed to loss as value of publishing rights falls and £50m is set aside to deal with continuing cost of hacking scandal — The publisher of the Sun has recorded a loss …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC proposed cable box rules don't prohibit third party set-top box makers from inserting more ads next to TV channels or in frames around them — FCC's cable box rules won't prohibit extra ads around TV channels — Ban unneeded as companies like TiVo “are not disrupting advertising,” FCC says.

Discussion: FCC

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Supreme Court rejects Trinity Mirror challenge against paying damages of £1.2m to eight hacking victims — The Supreme Court has rejected Trinity Mirror's challenge against a £1.2m damages award made to eight victims of phone-hacking. — The publisher is facing at least 158 claims …

Discussion: Forbes, Life Style Extra, Reuters, Rolling Stone, Life Style Extra and Guardian

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

How the Financial Times racked up 45M downloads of its 12 podcasts in 2015 and why it continues to launch more — The Financial Times racked up 45 million podcast downloads last year — Podcasting is the hot new thing to many publishers, but not to the Financial Times.

Robert Cookson / Financial Times:

Times newspaper group 2015 revenue down to £345M, profit of £11M, digital subscriptions down 6% to 147K, print circulation up 1% to 394K over year to June — Profits rise at Times newspaper group — Rupert Murdoch's Times newspaper group substantially increased its profits last year …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Associated Press:

Activists call for investigation into March 10 death of Salvadoran radio journalist Nicolas Humberto Garcia — Human rights body condemns Salvadoran journalist's killing — SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — An arm of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is condemning the slaying of a radio journalist in El Salvador.

Smartclip:

RTL, the German TV and Radio group, aquires video ad tech firm SmartClip for about €47M — Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland to acquire smartclip — Investment in online video advertising sales — Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland will make an important step in implementing its strategy …

Discussion: Telecompaper, TVBEurope and Broadband TV News

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

RIAA report: streaming accounted for more US recorded-music revenue than downloads in 2015, rising from 27% in 2014 to 34% in 2015 — US recorded-music revenues rose slightly in 2015, says RIAA — US music industry body the RIAA has published its figures for 2015, revealing …

Agence France-Presse:

French news sites Le Monde, L'Equipe, and Le Parisien, plus music streamer Deezer ask users to disable adblocking tools in effort organized by trade association — French news sites block the adblockers, telling readers to uninstall or lose access — Websites including Le Monde …

Discussion: BetaNews, @mattnavarra, mUmBRELLA, @pewpy, The Next Web, FishbowlNY, GeekWire, The Register, PC Magazine and The Verge

Glyn Moody / Ars Technica UK:

UK court rules that 8-second videos are long enough to infringe on copyright in case brought by cricket board and Sky UK against Fanatix website and app — Eight-second videos are long enough to infringe on copyright, says UK judge — Sharing key sporting moments on Fanatix site just not cricket, court decides.

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, TechnoLlama and The Register

Guy Chazan / Financial Times:

Bertelsmann plans to increase Penguin Random House stake — Bertelsmann, Europe's largest media group by sales, said it planned to increase its stake in Penguin Random House to as much as 75 per cent if co-owner Pearson exited the company next year. — Thomas Rabe, Bertelsmann chief executive …