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

9:00 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: Telegraph, msnbc.com and ShortFormBlog

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 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, Press Gazette, BBC, Charlie Beckett and The Journalism Foundation

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 of people who take a deep breath and plunge in to places where most would not, is dead. Marie Colvin watched a baby take its last breaths in Homs yesterday and re-told the story with evident emotion on ITN last night.

Jim Roberts / @nytjim:

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

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

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: Home Media Magazine, Adweek, Media Decoder, PC Magazine, Forbes, Variety and CNET, more at Techmeme »

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Comcast's ‘Mini-Hulu Plus’ Offers Full TV Seasons to Go for $5/Month — On Tuesday, Comcast announced Xfinity Streampix, a new subscription video service for computers and mobile devices offering additional movies and full seasons of television shows. Streampix will launch this week …

Discussion: Comcast Voices, Comcast and Fortune

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

Ben Fenton / Financial Times:

Church ready to settle phone-hacking case — Charlotte Church, the singer, is on the verge of settling her phone-hacking case against the News of the World, raising the prospect that Rupert Murdoch's newspaper group will face no High Court trial over the scandal, it emerged on Tuesday.

Discussion: Digital Spy

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

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Sun on Sunday ad campaign to launch at Brit Awards

Discussion: Gawker, Speakeasy and The Wrap

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Barnes & Noble Delivers New 8GB Tablet, Disappointing Earnings — Barnes & Noble released a new model of its Nook Tablet on Tuesday at the same cost and with nearly identical specs as Amazon's Kindle Fire: 8GB of storage for $199. — The current 16GB tablet stays at $249 …