Two years after ABC canceled them, soap operas One Life to Live and All My Children are coming back to life online, with four new 30-minute episodes per week available on Hulu and iTunes. But soap fans who are not used to online viewing may not tune in. Read more »
The Weather Company continues to expand beyond its core programming with new web series devoted to adventure and human interest. The new content comes as the company deepens its content and advertising strategies. Read more »
Have you been watching House of Cards? Then make sure to catch this spoof, created for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and starring key D.C. insiders. Read more »
Watching MLB games live on YouTube is now possible… if you live in Europe: The league is starting to stream two games per day on the video site, but not in key markets. Read more »
Target will sell electronics products endorsed by the editors of Wired in stores and online. Selections include the Square credit card reader, Fitbit and Belkin WeMo. Target also has an editorial partnership with CNET. Read more at GigaOM »
When is the use of another artist’s image “transformative” and when is it just copyright infringement? A major court ruling provides broader protection for appropriation artists. Read more »
The Huffington Post will launch in Germany this fall. The company has already expanded to Canada, the U.K., France, Spain and Italy, and a Japanese edition will roll out May 7. Read more »
Feast CEO David Spinks is combining the e-learning model pioneered by education sites like Udemy and Coursera with his experience in building online communities, and he’s applying it all to building on online cooking school. Read more at GigaOM »
The trend among social networks to produce original content often ends badly, as Tumblr’s shuttering of Storyboard showed. Here’s where other big services, from Facebook to YouTube, are going wrong – or, in the case of LinkedIn, going right. Read more »
I started keeping my diary 15 years ago, before Twitter, Facebook and a deluge of email. In a digital era, personal journal-keeping has changed and adapted to the more technological world — but those who privately chronicle their lives still find the practice useful. Read more »
Should news outlets in China engage in occasional self-censorship for the greater good of reaching readers and projecting influence? Read more at GigaOM »
iOS reading platform Readmill announced three partnerships Friday. The Berlin-based startup is working with digital marketplace Gumroad, and has also partnered with U.K. companies Faber Factory and Firsty Group, which offer services to independent publishers and authors. Read more »
Marco Arment sees a bright future for read-it-later services, and says that Instapaper’s acquisition by Betaworks will allow it to get some new features that he hasn’t had time to add. Read more »
New media incubator Betaworks has acquired Marco Arment’s popular read-it-later platform Instapaper. Betaworks acquired Digg last year, and the firm is focusing on both short-form and long-form content companies. Read more »
Blip used to be just another video hosting site trying to compete with YouTube. These days, it’s looking very different – and it’s getting ready to take on cable TV. Read more »
Amazon delivered its Q1 2013 earnings report Thursday afternoon, beating analyst expectations. In its release, which comes a day after renewed reports of an Amazon set-top box, the company highlighted its original television programming initiatives. Read more at GigaOM »
The New York Times is planning new lower-priced digital subscriptions for certain types of digital content. Executives provided some — but not many details on the company’s earnings call. Read more »
Google has published new numbers that show how governments around the world are asking to remove more content from services like YouTube than ever before. Read more at GigaOM »
Citia, a New York-based startup formerly known for its ebook apps, is expanding into new content areas. The company is behind Snoop’s new “Reincarnated: Track Notes” app, out today, and is also expanding from iPad to iPhone and the web. Read more »
Dallas-based book startup BookShout has raised $6 million in its second funding round. When the company launched, it allowed users to import their Nook and Kindle books onto the platform, but that function has been turned off. Read more »
Drippler arrives on iOS after racking up 5 million downloads on Android. The goal is to automatically curate content relevant to an iPhone user based on their device model, carrier, software version and app preferences. Read more »
The New York Times’s latest quarterly earnings estimates slightly missed analysts’ expectations. The company also announced a new plan to offer a variety of new, lower-priced digital products. Read more »
The European Commission has formally revealed the concessions Google is offering to make in order to settle an antitrust investigation over its search practices. Interested parties have a month to comment. Read more »
TV is fundamentally changing from a linear delivery model to a world in which apps compete with each other, and Netflix is spending billions to be part of that future. Read more »
A plan to make out-of-state internet merchants collect taxes could soon become law. Is the law simple fairness or does it mean more tax and regulation? Read more at GigaOM »
One thing that emerged from our media conference was that there is no single solution when it comes to the future of content, or the monetization of media — and that is probably a good thing. Read more »
Tumblr wants users to discover content by themselves, rather than pushing it out to them. The updates to its iOS app Wednesday are aimed at helping users share and save Tumblr posts. Read more »
The Twitter account of the Associated Press has been restored nearly 20 hours after it was suspended following a hacking incident. But, as of Wednesday morning, 95 percent of its followers are missing. Read more at GigaOM »
The Berlin-based Txtr is now selling its barebones e-reader, the Beagle, for €59 in Europe. The plan was to offer it for under €10 through subsidies from mobile carriers, but those deals haven’t surfaced yet — though the company says it’s close. Read more »
While much of the attention during and after the Boston bombings focused on how one Reddit thread got things wrong, there were other important parts of the community that were doing good — and even doing something approaching journalism. Read more »
Financial markets briefly plunged after hackers took over the AP’s account and reported a disaster in Washington. Read more at GigaOM »
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 »
Google’s published a blog post last week about “bad apples” in the ad industry. The meaning of the post is now clear: it was intended to rein in shady software, but also to send a message to other advertisers to clean up their act. Read more »
Aereo, a service that lets you watch live TV on your phone, is going live in Boston on May 15. Read more »
Churnalism, a new browser extension and website from the Sunlight Foundation, aims to help detect plagiarism online by checking content against Wikipedia and a database of press releases. But it won’t pick up on plagiarism from other sources. Read more »
The New York Times is no longer restricting non-subscribers’ access to its video content. The move, which comes as the Times tightens other parts of its paywall, is part of the paper’s plans to expand its brand in the video space. Read more »
What can you learn from today’s blogging elite? Check out this audio re-cast from our recent paidContent LIVE show to learn from some of the medium’s masters. Read more »
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings doesn’t really think that many people are sharing their accounts with extended family members. His remarks came in response to an estimate that 10 million people watch Netflix without paying for it. Read more »
Twitter’s love affair with television seems to know no bounds — two recent deals with BBC America and Comedy Central will bring video clips inside users’ streams, and more such deals appear to be in the works. Read more »
Netflix made more than $1 billion in revenue for the first time in its corporate history last quarter. The company also used its Q1 results to announce a new $12 family plan. Read more »
