Top News:

Tow Center's Emily Bell: News organizations have lost control of distribution, must work with social media apps and develop their own tech — Emily Bell: news groups should harness tech in the service of ‘good’ journalism — With social media companies stepping into the news business like never before …
Discussion:
TheMediaBriefing, @jayrosen_nyu, @mweinger and @mweinger

BBC review key points: weighing subscription model against license fee, structure of the BBC Trust, how programming can be distinct from commercial companies — BBC review: the key points — Culture secretary John Whittingdale launches ‘root and branch’ review of BBC charter
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BBC's “Scale and Scope” to Be Reviewed, U.K. Government Says — Just over a week after it put the BBC at the center of a dispute regarding its financial arrangements, the British government said Thursday that it would have to review its “scale and scope” as the two sides start negotiating …
Discussion:
GOV.UK departments and policy, @dcms, Hollywood Reporter, BBC, bbc.co.uk, @johnplunkett149, Mashable, @psmith, Telegraph and Guardian

Illicit sharing of HBO, Netflix, and other account passwords estimated to cost the VOD industry $500M+ in 2015 — Password Sharing: Are Netflix, HBO Missing $500 Million by Not Cracking Down? — Subscription VOD players, fighting for market share, aren't likely to crack down on cheaters
Discussion:
kottke.org

Interview with HBO's Bernadette Aulestia, EVP of global distribution operations, about HBO Now, cord cutters, cannibalizing fears, and scaling for big events — An interview with Bernadette Aulestia, the woman expanding HBO beyond cable — Bernadette Aulestia's first gig helping HBO expand beyond cable was a short-lived effort.
Discussion:
The Next Web, The Verge and FierceCable

As the Twitter Turns: Comms Head Gabriel Stricker Out in “Shift” in Strategy — Gabriel Stricker, Twitter's longtime head of communications, is leaving the company. — Unlike the departure of CEO Dick Costolo recently, the social communications company did not pretend this was not due …
Discussion:
@gabrielstricker and @hunterwalk

After eight years in jail, Canadian-Iranian “blogfather” Hossein Derakhshan sees loss of blogs, text, and individual power, calls for effort to save open web — The Web We Have to Save — The rich, diverse, free web that I loved—and spent years in an Iranian jail for—is dying.
Discussion:
@emilybell, Matt McAlister, @mathewi, Business Insider and @jeffjarvis

UK watchdog report finds two police forces unlawfully accessed data records to find journalists' sources — Two police forces breached code on protection of journalists' sources — Report by interception of communications watchdog reveals breaches of new code of practice in force only since March
Discussion:
Press Gazette

Egypt drops proposed two-year jail penalty for journalists who report information that contradicts government — Egypt to revise anti-terror media law: MENA — Cairo (AFP) - Egypt agreed to revise a controversial article of its touted anti-terror law threatening journalists with jail …
Discussion:
Guardian and Al Jazeera English

As digital media organizations expand to India, Medianama founder Nikhil Pahwa says success requires India-specific content — Are you a Western news company looking to expand to India? First, decide who you want to serve — Over the past seven years, Nikhil Pahwa has built …
Discussion:
@saikatd and @dikshamadhok

Flipagram cuts deal with Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and more for clips, raises $70M Series B led by Sequoia; John Doerr, Mike Moritz join board — Flipagram Raises $70M, Scores Record Label Deals Thanks To 30M+ Music Hungry Users — It's a mix of Instagram and YouTube...maybe a bit of a old school RockYou component.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, hypebot, iamWire, Variety, The Next Web and VentureBeat

Twitter's new preview cards could help publishers better highlight stories by providing extra room for art, video, and text, and get around 140-character limit — Twitter's new article preview cards could be a boost for publishers — Publishers may be able to get more value …