YouTube’s rollout of premium pay channels may sound promising, but transitioning from the home of free online video to a pay site will be challenging – and may be of little value for existing brands. Read more »
The past few days have seen a blizzard of leaks about surveillance activity by the government’s ultra-secret NSA arm, including data collection from phone companies and internet giants. Here is what you need to know about this developing story. Read more at GigaOM »
Barnes & Noble will start commissioning original works for Nook Snaps, its e-singles section. For the first 60 days, authors keep 100 percent of the royalties; after that, the royalty rate drops to 40 percent. Read more »
Amazon launched the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD in China on Friday and its digital bookstore has quickly jumped from 25,000 to 47,000 titles in the past six months. Read more at GigaOM »
On Thursday, the Apple ebook trial brought testimony from Amazon and Google executives, and some tough and often funny questioning from Apple’s attorneys. Read more »
Two popular trends — personalized news readers and native advertising — meet in a new ad product offered by News360. Read more »
Digg isn’t a newcomer to the social news scene — in fact, it helped pioneer the concept. But the folks at Betaworks are re-imaginging social news for 2013, and the RSS reader they plan to launch in late June will play an integral role. Read more at GigaOM »
The Meebo bar, the noted product from the social media publishing company founded in 2005, will be discontinued on Thursday as the team focuses its full attention on Google+ products. Meebo was acquired by Google in June 2012. Read more at GigaOM »
Roku users will soon have access to yet another video subscription service. Redbox Instant will launch its very own Roku channel this summer. Read more at GigaOM »
Vidora and Showyou both want to convince publishers to join forces instead of trying to distribute their content through standalone apps. Read more at GigaOM »
AT&T is seeking a guinea pig to test out its idea for a subsidized mobile internet, and Hulu fits the bill perfectly. If Hulu foots the bill for its own data traffic, consumers could stream video to their hearts’ content. Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter has signed another global partnership with one of the world’s largest advertising firms, aimed at allowing the company’s clients to target their ads to specific Twitter users based on their behavior on the network. Read more at GigaOM »
Tango has already built up a surprisingly large following of social gamers within its communications app. Now it plans to export its video, voice and messaging platform to other game makers. Read more at GigaOM »
Professional sports video is worth many billions of dollars — and the leagues are getting smarter about parcelling it out in small pieces to sell across different platforms. Read more »
In court on Wednesday, Amazon executive Russ Grandinetti argued that publishers’ switch to the agency model was intended to “slow down the success of the Kindle,” while Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said Apple did not force publishers to enact agency contracts with Amazon and other retailers. Read more »
Social media and tools like Twitter have come under fire during real-time news events because critics say they spread misinformation — but in places like Istanbul they can be a lifeline when the traditional media is ineffective. Read more »
Two out of five YouTube video views are coming from mobile devices in the U.S., and the video service is increasingly cashing in on these mobile views. Read more »
A leading consulting firm just put out its annual report on the entertainment and media industry. Here’s some highlights, including ones that show why it’s a good time to be in the content business. Read more »
Berlin-based e-reading startup Readmill has added a free books section to its iOS app, and also announced partnerships with The Atavist, The Guardian and Livrada. Read more »
The Washington Post will start rolling out its paywall to a select group of readers next week. Read more »
Digital magazine publishing platform Glossi rolled out new tools Wednesday, designed to let users create and distribute their magazines more easily. Read more »
Analyst firm PwC thinks that the U.S. trade ebook market will surpass the size of the print book market by 2017. Read more »
Sources of all kinds — including politicians — can become publishers and distribute their own information directly to an audience, without the need for a traditional media outlet. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for journalism? Read more »
Looking for a job in digital media? Each week we highlight some of the most interesting positions posted to paidContent’s jobs board. Check out the latest gigs at media companies across the country. Read more »
In a Q&A, Politco’s executive editor talks about how to stay relevant as your media company gets older, how to grow in a saturated Washington market, and why he barely watches TV. Read more »
As the antitrust trial against it gets underway, Apple continues to fight accusations that it engaged in collusion and price-fixing with the major e-book publishers — despite the overwhelming evidence that it did exactly that. Read more »
Amazon has signed a big streaming video deal with Viacom. The multi-year agreement includes Prime Instant Video access to kids’ shows like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants, plus grownup shows like Tosh.0. Read more »
As the time ticks down toward Google Reader’s demise, Feedly — which has emerged as a leading alternative — announced that it’s partnering with a bunch of other RSS clients, including Reeder and Press. Read more »
Doximity, a “LinkedIn for Doctors,” and U.S. News and World Report are teaming up for an online “Doctor Finder” service. Read more at GigaOM »
Just as the Mad Men of the 50′s and 60′s tapped into consumer desires and emotions for a new school of advertising, modern companies like Instagram and Pinterest will need a similar revolution in how we think about ads if they want to make money. Read more »
The proposed new rules would stop carriers from blocking services that compete with their own, but still allow subtler types of discrimination. It would be an improvement, but also allow the creation of a two-speed internet. Read more at GigaOM »
The Department of Justice’s trial against Apple kicked off in New York Monday. The DOJ alleges that Apple conspired with publishers to set ebook prices, while Apple argues that there was no conspiracy and that Apple was operating the way it normally does with content providers. Read more »
If the media is being disrupted in many of the same ways that the automotive manufacturing industry has been, who would qualify as the most innovative or disruptive force in the media business over the last decade? Read more »
Junyo, an education startup led by Zynga co-founder Steve Schoettler, is launching a new product strategy for using data to improve education publishing, and perhaps education itself. Read more at GigaOM »
The federal government is pressing its legal and PR case against Apple in New York federal court today. It released some slides from the proceedings that are intended to highlight the intended conspiracy. Here’s a look. Read more »
Newspaper companies might not want to think of their business as being similar to industrial manufacturing like the car industry, but in many ways it is — and they can learn from what other manufacturers have been through. Read more »
Onwards and upwards — advertisers, once again, spent more money than ever before on online ads. Here’s the latest, and a nifty chart, by way of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Read more »
A new French court ruling raises questions about how far the country, which has robust support for artists and musicians, should go in imposing cultural taxes on connected devices. Read more »
The world of mobile is getting faster and faster, and that means more LTE everywhere. It also means less talking, more Facebook and, of course, more video. The bottom line — we are only just getting started. Some data points from Ericsson’s mobility report. Read more at GigaOM »
What does Phil DeFranco’s new deal with Revision3 say about the state of the industry, and are there other creators who might be right for similar deals? Read more »
