Top News:
Eliza Kern / GigaOM:
App.net financial backers show they're open to a paid Twitter alternative — Is the world ready for a paid version of Twitter? Maybe so, backers have shown. Entrepreneur Dalton Caldwell's Kickstarter-esque campaign to develop a paid alternative to the social network hit its $500,000 funding goal …
Discussion:
AllThingsD, Dalton Caldwell, CNET, TechCrunch, The Verge, The Next Web, Techland and Business Insider
Matt Williams / Guardian:
Bowing to pressure, NBC will stream Olympics closing ceremony live online — Ceremony that will feature Spice Girls and The Who will not be available on television but will be shown online — Olympic broadcaster NBC has bowed to pressure and agreed to stream the Games' closing ceremony live.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Los Angeles Times, Examiner, @nbcolympics, SBNation.com and Deadline.com
Charlie Warzel / Adweek:
Are Tablet-Only Publications Dead? — Is there a future for tablet-only publications? The last few weeks have cast an ominous shadow over this niche industry following substantial staff cuts at News Corp.'s The Daily and a decision by the Huffington Post to give up on charging for its iPad magazine after just five issues.
Thanks:@cwarzel
Steve Myers / Poynter:
Few news orgs cross the ‘Continental Content Divide’ between social and immersive journalism — Steve Rubel outlines what he calls the “Continental Content Divide” that has emerged among media companies: … The goal of the social strategy is to create news that finds you, while the immersive approach results in “news you find.”
Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:
Fox sues to shut down Aereo copycat over TV streaming — Broadcasters have been battling for months to shut down Aereo, a service that uses dime-size antennas to stream TV to Apple devices. Now, the fight has taken a strange new twist. [Note: this post has been updated with BarryDriller comments]
Discussion:
Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline.com, Betabeat, Radio & Television … and Digits
Brian Stelter / The Caucus:
Romney and Ryan to Give First Joint TV Interview on CBS — For their first joint television interview, Mitt Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan have picked the most popular news program on American television: CBS's “60 Minutes.” — The interview will be broadcast at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday …
Discussion:
New York Times, Mediaite, Politico, TVNewser and National Review
Adrian Chen / The New Inquiry:
Tweeting the Beat — Yesterday was a relatively quiet day in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, judging from the calls that came over the police radio scanner. A man fell out of a car at a Target and began twitching. A kid pulled a fire alarm at Washington School. Another man had a choking episode in a restaurant.
Discussion:
The Verge
Violet Blue / CNET:
Piracy witch hunt downs legit e-book lending Web site — commentary: Several authors on Twitter mistook an e-book lending Web site for a piracy hub, a mistake that eventually took the site offline. As the dust settles, a disturbing picture of file-sharing hysteria emerges.
Discussion:
GigaOM, The Verge and digitaltrends.com
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Olympic winners: How NBC's authentication helped VPN providers — NBC is streaming some 3,500 hours of video live from the London Olympics - but access to the live streams is restricted to pay TV subscribers who have access to MSNBC and CNBC as part of their TV bundle. — That leaves out quite a few viewers.
Dave Smith / International Business Times:
Paul Ryan: How Mitt Romney Failed to Announce His VP Before Twitter — Mitt Romney needed to announce his VP decision by Aug. 11. His plan? Supporters of the campaign would download a free app for iPhone or Android called “Mitt's VP,” which promised they would be the first to know the official news of Romney's running mate.
Discussion:
Twitter Blog, The Atlantic Online, Examiner, Gizmodo and ABCNEWS
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
Olympics Online: Who Wins The Gold Medal For Best Website? — We're well into the second week of the London 2012 Olympics, so which media website is winning with its online coverage? NBC fell at the first hurdle with its TV scheduling, but did the network get back into the race with its website?
Discussion:
BBC and Bleacher Report
Brad McCarty / The Next Web:
From BuzzFeed to Flipboard, The Clip Report Vol. 2 predicts the future of media — In our changing media landscape it's important to note the ways in which different sites are being used and are seen - not only by their readers but also by the people who are using them for effective marketing.