Startup founder Chad Whitacre caused a fuss recently when he suggested that a reporter do an “open interview” that would be available to everyone — but why is that approach seen as such a threat by some media outlets? Read more »
Popular politics blog The Dish, which went independent and added a metered paywall at the beginning of this year, is probably not going to reach its $900,000 goal, founder Andrew Sullivan says. Read more »
PBS is landing on the Roku with two dedicated channels, which will bring content from shows like Dinosaur Train, Curious George, Frontline and Nova to the media streamer. Read more »
Users will now get their own vertical on BuzzFeed, where they can submit according to their “Cat Power.” Read more »
The Kobo Aura HD has a great screen, but its deficiencies should make consumers look twice at the $169.99 price tag. Read more at GigaOM »
Chegg, a company best known as a textbook rental site, is partnering with Coursera to distribute its content to students enrolled in massive open online courses. Read more »
AOL continues its surprising turnaround with another quarter of growth in its content and advertising segment. The company is still, however, depending on its legacy business for all its profit. 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 »
The flamboyant entrepreneur, who is facing extradition from New Zealand to the U.S. over copyright infringement allegations, plans to launch easy-to-use yet secure communications services. Read more at GigaOM »
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer addressed video, working from home and the company’s future goal during a chat in New York with Stephen Levy of Wired. Read more at GigaOM »
Jill Abramson, the executive editor of the New York Times, addressed media trends at Wired’s conference in New York City. Read more »
When the NPR show Planet Money wanted to put together a project about the economic life-cycle of a T-shirt, Kickstarter seemed like the natural approach — and it showed how much crowdfunding has in common with public media. Read more »
BitTorrent wants more artists to give away stuff to file sharers – which is why they just gave those artists an option to also sell stuff to file sharers. Read more »
Evan Williams sees Medium, the blogging platform that he and Biz Stone launched last year, as a modern-day magazine. While Medium will eventually open to everyone, Williams said he wants the site to be “a great place for professional writers.” Read more »
Local papers will get a heaping of Major League Baseball highlights thanks to a new syndication deal with NDN, a company backed by Reggie Jackson. Read more »
The Huffington Post rolled out its first Asian edition in Japan on Tuesday. Read more »
Enjoy this re-broadcast of a star-studded panel from our recent paidContent LIVE show in New York. Read more »
The Marketplace Fairness Act — which will force online merchants to collect tax on behalf of other states — passed the Senate on Monday. Read more at GigaOM »
The new weekend editor at Gawker’s auto-focused Jalopnik blog got hired because he was a knowledgeable commenter on the site, an example of how the feedback loop between writers and readers can pay off for blogs. Read more »
YouTube is reportedly close to launching paid channel subscriptions on its site – and we’ve found a number of clues that hint at kids content being part of this initiative. Read more »
Aereo, which sells $8 a month subscriptions to watch TV on mobile devices, has responded to lawsuits from broadcasters by filing an unorthodox suit of its own this week. The suit may be for PR purposes more than legal ones. Read more »
There is a conventional wisdom in the media industry that micropayments for online content don’t work, but Greg Golebiewski of Znak It says that this isn’t true, and that media companies need to experiment with the model. Read more »
Digital library distributor Baker & Taylor launched an app Monday that will let library patrons read ebooks on iOS and Android devices. Read more »
The New York Times is launching a series of short, web-only documentaries with nonprofit Retro Report. The weekly 10- to 15-minute documentaries will run on the NYT’s baby boomer blog and will examine events of the past. Read more »
This week, famous faces, new shows and pleas for advertising dollars brought many web video companies to web video’s version of TV’s upfronts. Here are just a few of the biggest stories to emerge. Read more »
Sourcebooks and Overdrive believe that library lending leads to increased book sales and author recognition. In a two-week trial, they will promote a Sourcebooks ebook on library homepages and see how the promotion affects paid sales and author recognition. Read more »
Spotify has acquired the music app Tunigo, which helps users discover Spotify playlists and browse music and music-related news. Read more at GigaOM »
The Washington Post posted discouraging earnings Friday, with revenue and circulation down from a year ago. Read more »
Vimeo on demand is getting a new movie starring Kristen Bell as a day-and-date release, with the film premiering online the same day it comes out in theaters. Read more »
Barnes & Noble is integrating many Google services — including Google Play, Gmail, Google Maps and the Chrome browser — into its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets. Read more at GigaOM »
Whenever a breaking news event leads to errors on Twitter, critics suggest that the service needs some kind of built in correction or editing mechanism — but adding one would not only be complicated, it would also be unwise. Read more at GigaOM »
Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt is watching the Aereo legal battle with interest. If the upstart prevails, Britt may try a similar tactic himself. Read more at GigaOM »
Bitcoin is a hot topic for the tech and finance industries. GigaOM is hosting an exclusive get-together in San Jose on May 16th where people from Facebook, Google and Expensify will share their thoughts on the crypto-currency. Read more at GigaOM »
It may seem like a sideshow, or a service that can only bring noise and chaos to the news, but RapGenius and its approach towards annotation shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand just yet. Read more »
Traditional media brands are cranking out video content in the hopes of persuading marketers to shift ad budgets from TV to online offerings. But can companies like Conde Nast and the Wall Street journal deliver the necessary quality and audience size? Read more »
E-singles startup Byliner has a new president: Deanna Brown, who was previously the CEO of Federated Media and before that held executive roles at Scripps, Yahoo and AOL. She also founded Inside.com and Gaming Industry News and cofounded CondéNet. Read more »
News site The Root has rolled out a page that shows the most popular tweets and trends among black Americans, who are heavy Twitter users. Read more »
A trade group says that newspapers like the New York Times have seen large increases in circulation, but that’s partly because they are allowed to count their readers multiple times. The industry needs to do better. Read more »
The Atlantic is launching an ebooks division that will publish e-singles and curated collections of content from the magazine’s archives. The first e-single is only available through Amazon’s Kindle Singles store for now, though it will soon be available at other retailers. Read more »
Hachette announced Wednesday that it will make all of its ebooks, including new titles, available to libraries nationwide. New ebooks will be priced at three times the cost of the print version, but a library only has to buy a copy once. Read more »
