• Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Exits
    The Wikimedia foundation’s executive director has resigned, following a fight within the community over leaked plans to apparently build a search engine and compete with Google. “Lila Tretikov, who joined the organization in May 2014, offered her resignation to the board this week,” The Guardian reports. Plans to build a Knowledge Engine were controversial within the Wikimedia community.  
  • Time Inc. Eyeing Yahoo Acquisition
    Time Inc. is reportedly pursuing an acquisition of Yahoo’s core business. “The $1.5 billion owner of magazines including People, Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune, has heard a presentation from Citigroup Inc. bankers on pursuing a deal to merge with Yahoo,” Bloomberg Businessweek reports. “The idea is of real interest to Time Inc. Chief Executive Officer Joe Ripp.”
  • Newspapers Might Do Death Spiral
    If the next three years look like the last three years, a third to a half of the 50 largest metropolitan newspapers will go out of business. That’s according to Nicco Mele, author, digital strategist and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Journalism at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. “Mele … said that while the production and distribution of digital journalism are well understood, ‘what’s not well understood is how we make money or fund journalism in the digital age,’” Harvard’s Shorenstein Center reports.
  • Web.com Buying Yodle For $300M
    Web.com Group is buying online ad firm Yodle for $300 million, plus another $42 million over the next two years. “The deal will add ‘higher growth revenue streams’ and is expected to increase earnings excluding items within the first year,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “Yodle’s offerings include search engine optimization, email marketing and the creation of websites and Facebook pages.”
  • BBC Still Rules British News Diet
    Among British consumers, BBC News dominated digital news, last year, by generating a 30% market share. That’s according to The Guardian, citing a new study conducted by digital market intelligence company SimilarWeb. Overall, “The top 10 biggest media publishers are responsible for nearly two-thirds of the news consumed by British people online,” it notes.
  • Amazon Developing Global Delivery Business
    Amazon is reportedly going ahead with an aggressive global expansion of its Fulfillment By Amazon service, which provides storage, packing and shipping for independent merchants selling products on the company’s site. “The ambitious strategy promises to turn FedEx and UPS into Amazon rivals, but also will pit the Seattle giant against Chinese counterpart Alibaba,” Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
  • News Corp. Posts Modest Quarterly Earnings
    Blaming foreign currency fluctuations and lower print ad revenue, News Corp. posted fiscal second-quarter earnings of 20 cents per share on $2.16 billion in revenue. “Analysts had expected News Corp. to report earnings of about 21 cents a share on $2.13 billion in revenue, CNBC reports, citing consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters.
  • The Man Behind Amazon's Retail Drive
    Amazon’s ambitious retail store initiative is reportedly being led by Steve Kessel, a seasoned Amazon executive who oversaw the launch of the first Kindle e-reader. “Kessel is widely respected inside Amazon, where he is known as a low-ego leader with greater emotional intelligence than some other senior executives at the company,” Re/code reports, citing sources.
  • Comcast Expanding Gigabit Cable Web Service
    Comcast is expanding its gigabit cable Web service to Atlanta and Nashville, and then, later this year, Chicago, Detroit, and Miami. The carrier’s fiber-based 2Gbps service, which launched last year, is also now available to 18 million homes, ars technica reports. “That's a sizable chunk of Comcast's network, which passes 55 million homes and businesses in 39 states and Washington, DC.”
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