Mediagazer: Chelsea Clinton Said to Be Close to Extending NBC News Contract (Amy Chozick/Media Decoder)

10:20 AM ET, February 22, 2012

Top News:

Two Western Journalists Killed in Syria Shelling — CAIRO — Two Western journalists, one American and one French, were killed early Wednesday as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad pursued a deadly bombardment of the central city of Homs, according to activists and officials.

Discussion: Capital New York, Media Decoder, Telegraph, The New Yorker Blog, CNN, msnbc.com and ShortFormBlog

Michael Rundle / The Huffington Post - UK:

Syrian Minister ‘Unaware Foreign Journalists Were In Country’ After Deadly Shelling — Syria has said they were unaware foreign journalists were in the country after an American and French journalist were killed on Wednesday. Marie Colvin, a veteran correspondent for the Sunday Times …

Reuters:

U.S., French journalists killed in Syria — (Reuters) - Two Western journalists were killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday when shells hit the house they were staying in, opposition activists and witnesses said. — They were named as Marie Colvin, an American working …

Discussion: @pdanahar, @fieldproducer, Digital Spy, Press Gazette, @laurapitel, @jessradio, @billneelyitv, @katz, @nytjim, Jon Slattery and The Staggers

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

John Witherow: ‘Marie was extraordinary figure in the life of the Sunday Times’ — Editor of the Sunday Times pays tribute to foreign correspondent Marie Colvin, after ‘reliable reports’ that she was killed in Syria — Marie Colvin, who has been killed in Syria.

Discussion: Guardian, The Huffington Post, Journalism.co.uk and The Times

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Marie Colvin killed in Syria — Marie Colvin, the award-winning Sunday Times journalist, has been killed in Syria. It is reported that she died alongside a French photographer in Homs when a house they were staying was shelled. — News agencies say she and the photographer, Remi Ochlik …

Discussion: Telegraph, The Awl, Press Gazette, BBC, TVNewser, Charlie Beckett and The Journalism Foundation

Ahmed Al Omran / NPR:

Rami Al-Sayed, Syrian Citizen Journalist, Is Killed During Attack On Homs — Early this morning the bombardment of Homs was streamed live to the web by a citizen journalist. But as the forces loyal to Bashar Assad continued their attack on restive city, the stream went quiet and never came back again.

Discussion: Guardian and The Lede

Laura Pitel / @laurapitel: According to @Avaaz, seven activists trying to get medical aid to injured journalists were stopped outside #BabaAmr and executed #Syria

Bill Neely / ITV: Marie Colvin — And so another witness, one more of the band …

Jim Roberts / @nytjim: Anderson Cooper interviewed Marie Colvin by phone yesterday on deaths of children in #Homs. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/... via @jonathanwald

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Whitney Houston Funeral Drew Millions on TV and Online — Millions of television and Web viewers spent time Saturday afternoon watching the funeral service for Whitney Houston, the pop music icon who died a week earlier. — CNN was the biggest beneficiary of the viewer vigil, according to Nielsen ratings.

Discussion: Mediaite and Chickaboomer

John Glenday / The Drum:

BBC Whitney Houston coverage criticised — The BBC has been forced to defend its saturation coverage of Whitney Houston's funeral on the BBC news channel after receiving 118 complaints about the channel's coverage of the four hour service on Saturday. — In a statement the broadcaster asserted …

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

FRICTION AT AOL: Arianna Is A Huge ‘Headache’... But Also The Most Valuable Person At AOL — A year after AOL acquired The Huffington Post for $350 million, sources say AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is getting frustrated with working with Arianna Huffington, who became President at AOL after the deal.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
A change at the top of The Huffington Post's business desk: More of Peter Goodman on the ‘middle class’

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Capital New York and FishbowlNY

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Comcast gives subscribers one more reason to quit Netflix — Updated. Comcast is rolling out a new streaming on-demand offering called Xfinity Streampix, which will bring more library content to subscribers that pay for its high-end double- and triple-play packages.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Home Media Magazine, Adweek, PC Magazine, Forbes, Variety and CNET

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:
Comcast's ‘Mini-Hulu Plus’ Offers Full TV Seasons to Go for $5/Month

Discussion: Comcast Voices, Comcast and VentureBeat

Jim Romenesko:

Zach Seward leaves WSJ for Atlantic Media — Zach Seward, who left Nieman Journalism Lab to join the Wall Street Journal's web team in December of 2009, has been named a senior editor for Atlantic Media's new global business brand, which launches later this year.

Discussion: @sdkstl

Elana Zak / 10,000 Words:

Storify Launches iPad App To Bring Storytelling To Your Fingertips — Storify, the popular drag-and-drop storytelling tool, is coming to an iPad near you in the form of a brand new, free app, the company announced today. The iPad application makes Storify available on mobile devices for the first time.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Featured stories, eMedia Vitals and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Netflix discussing deal with ex-HBO Films chief Colin Callender — Netflix is discussing a partnership with former HBO Films president Colin Callender to produce original content, including mini-series and movies, for the online video service, according to three people with knowledge …

Discussion: PC Magazine

Tonya Garcia / PRNewser:

Former ‘NY Times’ CEO, Janet Robinson, Joins F-H Board — Janet Robinson, who stepped down from her post as president and CEO of The New York Times in December, has joined Fleishman-Hillard's International Advisory Board. Her departure from the newspaper was one of many that cut across …

Discussion: TVNewser

Jim Romenesko:

NYT reporter defends Forbes writer accused of ‘stealing’ his work — O'Neill said that Forbes writer Kashmir Hill took the New York Times Magazine excerpt of Charles Duhigg's new book, “cut out the crap and got to the real shocker of the story,” which resulted in “a mind boggling 680,000 page views …

Discussion: @markarms and Neuromarketing, Thanks:@forrestkoba

Maureen O'Connor / Gawker: NYT Writer to Blogger: ‘What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?’

Gordon MacMillan / Brand Republic:

Sun insider claims Sun On Sunday is “desperately seeking advertisers” for first issue — A Twitter account belonging to someone who purporting to be an ex-News of the World journalist claims there is little enthusiasm for The Sun on Sunday internally and that dummies of the paper have not been well received.

Discussion: @sundayinsider