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Committee to Protect Journalists expresses relief Arkady Babchenko is alive, calls on Ukrainian officials to say why they used extreme tactic of staging murder — Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who had been reported shot and killed in the Ukrainian capital yesterday, has appeared alive at a televised news conference in Kiev.
Discussion:
Committee to Protect …, The Guardian, Associated Press, Boing Boing, VICE News, @hadas_gold and Associated Press
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Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, widely reported to have been assassinated in Kiev on Tuesday, appeared at a Ukrainian press conference on Wednesday — Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, widely reported to have been assassinated in Kiev on Tuesday, is alive and well.
Discussion:
Jon Slattery, CNN, BuzzFeed, New York Post, Metro.co.uk, CNN, Al Jazeera English, Reuters, Mediaite, @ridt, @miriamelder, @juliaioffe, Voice of America, @skynewsbreak, @afp, @ap, @pdanahar, @johnsweeneyroar, @pressfreedom, @juliaioffe, CNN, @christogrozev, @christogrozev, @maxboot, @christogrozev, @buzzfeednews, @olivianuzzi, @liamstack, @asluhn, @paleofuture, @polina__ivanova, @maxseddon, @maxseddon, @pptsapper, @perlberg, @joelmgunter and @maxseddon

Reporters Without Borders condemns faking of Babchenko's murder: “It was distressing and regrettable that the Security Service of Ukraine played with the truth”
Discussion:
The Moscow Times, @miriamelder, @johnmcquaid, @staska, @be_herrero, Poynter, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, @christopherjm, @jcstearns, Bustle and Slate


Sources: London Evening Standard strikes a £3M deal with six companies including Uber and Google that erases divide between news and advertising — London's Evening Standard newspaper, edited by the former chancellor George Osborne, has agreed a £3 million deal …
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The Evening Standard denies allegations of payment in exchange for favorable coverage of brands like Uber, saying that all commercial content will be labeled — The Evening Standard (ES) has explicitly denied allegations that it has accepted millions of pounds from brands like Uber in return for …


DoubleClick announces advertisers can now buy ad inventory programmatically from Google Play Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, and soon Pandora — Advertisers can buy digital audio ad inventory programmatically on Spotify, TuneIn, SoundCloud and Google Play Music.
Discussion:
DoubleClick Advertiser Blog, Ad Age, MediaPost and The Drum


Meeker's annual chart comparing time spent and ad spending shows rapid drop in print ads and continued mobile growth, nearing the time and money spent on TV — Since 2011, the share of Americans' media consumption that happens in print has dropped about 40 percent.
Discussion:
Recode, Recode, VentureBeat, Fortune, @recode, The Drum, 9to5Mac, @joshconstine and @jbenton, more at Techmeme »


Profile of NewsDigest, a popular news app in Japan, which employs no journalists and generates stories using a combination of AI and social media — - Japan millennial made newsroom using artificial intelligence — NewsDigest is one of most popular news apps in Japan


Publishers in India give scant coverage to Cobrapost claims that outlets were willing to skew news for pay; Times of India says it was operating “reverse sting” — It is a potential scandal that claims to strike at a key pillar of Indian democracy - the freedom of the press …
Discussion:
Jacob Plammoottil Jacob, Times of India and Scroll.in


The Skimm launches a one-to-one texting service for subscribers, with editorial team answering questions on specific topics within a time window — “People are always on their phones, but this isn't 'Let's just start shooting them info over text.' When you integrate into somebody's routine …
Discussion:
@getprpl, @laurahazardowen, @ryanvailbrown and @mattervc


The Village Voice Editor-in-Chief Stephen Mooallem quietly left the company in March, leaving a four-person editorial team — The Village Voice Editor-in-Chief Stephen Mooallem has quietly left the company, The Post has learned. — The former executive editor of Harper's Bazaar …


Hulu CEO says its internet pay-TV service Hulu With Live TV has signed up 800K subscribers since its launch over a year ago — Hulu, in a little over a year since launching its $40 monthly internet-streaming “skinny bundle,” has signed up 800,000 customers for the service, according to CEO Randy Freer.
Discussion:
Engadget, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Los Angeles Times and Recode, more at Techmeme »


Univision formally names Vincent Sadusky to succeed Randy Falco as chief executive officer; Sadusky starts on Friday — Univision Communications Inc. announced on Wednesday that Vincent Sadusky will be its next chief executive officer, taking over the Spanish-language media giant as it grapples with difficult times.
Discussion:
Variety, @daviduberti, Financial Times and Broadcasting & Cable