Top News:
Richard Sandomir / New York Times:
Baseball analyst Curt Schilling fired from ESPN one day after posting offensive commentary on Facebook — Curt Schilling Is Fired by ESPN — Curt Schilling, a former All-Star pitcher and one of the highest-profile baseball analysts on ESPN, was fired from the network Wednesday …
Discussion:
38 Pitches, Outsports, ESPN MediaZone, Mediaite, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Big Lead, ThinkProgress, CNNMoney, Newser, @meredithshiner, TVLine, Washington Blade, @manuclearbomb, Gothamist, Forbes, USA Today, Deadspin, @wilcomethat, Variety, @michellemalkin, Indianapolis Star, Deadline, SBNation.com, TheBlaze.com, The Daily Caller, Yahoo Sports, Outsports, Bleacher Report, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Grant Schilling, Talking Points Memo, CBS New York, NPR, The Week, New York Magazine, WTKR-TV and Fortune
Jack Marshall / Wall Street Journal:
AOL acquires VR company RYOT; 25 staffers to form unit under The Huffington Post, working with TechCrunch, Engadget, clients of AOL's branded content division — Verizon's AOL Buys Virtual Reality Video Specialist RYOT — The company will form a new unit under AOL's Huffington Post division
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Business Wire, VentureBeat, IR.net, Fortune, TechCrunch, VatorNews, Editor & Publisher, ZDNet, CNET, IR.net, Reuters, The Wrap, FishbowlNY and Variety
Lara O'Reilly / Business Insider:
Google claims YouTube ads generate better return on investment than TV in 77% of cases after analysis of 56 campaigns across eight countries — Google attacks TV, saying YouTube ads generate a better return on investment most of the time — Google is once again directly targeting TV advertising budgets …
Discussion:
Guardian, The Next Web, BGR, Business Insider, Tech News Today, The Huffington Post and The Drum
David Lieberman / Deadline:
Comcast announces Xfinity TV Partner Program, allowing subscribers to watch without its set-top box, starting with Samsung Smart TVs, Roku boxes later this year — Comcast Introduces Plan To Let TV Subs Watch Without Its Set-Top Box — Comcast is relaxing its grip on the set-top box …
Discussion:
Comcast, Forbes, Comcast Press Releases, Wall Street Journal, @shiraovide, The Next Web, @liamboluk, @briandietz, Engadget and Multichannel News
Daniel Alegre / Inside Search:
Google will soon add live TV listings to search results, announces advertisers can buy targeted TV ads with DoubleClick Dynamic Ad Insertion — Building the future of TV, with you — This blog is cross-posted on DoubleClick and Cloud Platform. — The television industry is in the midst of a massive change.
Discussion:
AdExchanger, Broadcasting & Cable, VentureBeat, The Verge, 9to5Google, Adweek, DoubleClick Publisher Blog, Forbes and Adobe Creative Cloud
Serri Graslie / Nieman Lab:
NPR social audio experiment on Facebook finds images important, calls-to-action effective, ideal length hard to discern due to lack of data, convoluted workflow — Can audio go viral on Facebook? Here's what happened when NPR ran an experiment for a month — Sharing audio on social media is hard to do.
Discussion:
American Press Institute
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Accelerated Mobile Pages launches on Google News — Google on Wednesday announced that it's integrating Google News with Accelerated Mobile Pages, the burgeoning web standard that aims to make the mobile web faster. — Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, launched on Google Search earlier …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, Google News Blog, Android Police, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, Ad Age, VentureBeat and Marketing Land
Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
American Press Institute study examining ethics of giving to nonprofit news organizations finds 6 of 10 funders gave grants for specific stories — An ethical quandary for nonprofit journalism — are funders calling the shots? — The American Press Institute — and an axis …
Discussion:
American Press Institute, @ampress, Current, @poynter and McClatchy
Reporters Without Borders:
World Press Freedom Index: Europe has freest media, North Africa/Middle East has least free; Finland ranked 1st, Tunisia and Ukraine rose most, Poland fell most — 2016 World Press Freedom Index - leaders paranoid about journalists — Organisation — RSF_en
Discussion:
NPR, CNNMoney, Washington Post, FishbowlDC, Hong Kong Free Press, TNP, dna, The Hill, Asian Correspondent, The Independent, The Moscow Times, ABC, Public Radio of Armenia, Uatoday.tv, RAPPLER, Ghana Business News, The Local, The Online Citizen, Malaysiakini, The Local, Press Gazette, SWI swissinfo.ch and The Local
Tara Conlan / Guardian:
BBC News creates controller role for mobile and online as overhaul begins — James Harding reveals plans to organise news, mobile and online under new controller as part of reshaping of division in face of around £80m cuts by 2022 — BBC News is creating a controller of mobile …
Discussion:
The Drum and Mobile Industry Review
Tony Semerad / Salt Lake Tribune:
Paul Huntsman, brother of ex-Utah governor and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr., is buying The Salt Lake Tribune from Digital First Media — Huntsman family buying The Salt Lake Tribune, hopes to ensure ‘independent voice for future generations’ — The Salt Lake Tribune is being purchased by the Huntsman family.
Discussion:
Politico, @kdoctor, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake Tribune, @ralstonreports, Salt Lake Magazine, Deseret News, Poynter and @gdebenedetti
New York Times:
Top editor at Hong Kong's Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper fired after front-page Panama Papers story, raising press freedom fears — Timing of Editor's Firing Has Hong Kong Worried About Press Freedom — HONG KONG — A top editor at one of Hong Kong's most prestigious newspapers …
Discussion:
Hong Kong Free Press, Voice of America, International Business Times, BBC, South China Morning Post, China Digital Times, EJ Insight, RFA, Hong Kong, Associated Press, The Atlantic, Hong Kong Free Press, The Straits Times, Hong Kong Free Press, The Standard, Nikkei and Marketing Interactive