Mediagazer: News Corporation Said to Be Close to Acquiring Stake in YES Network (Media Decoder)

11:10 PM ET, November 14, 2012

Top News:

Matt Buchanan / BuzzFeed:

How To Wage War On The Internet — The Israel Defense Forces just launched a bloody assault on the Palestinian militant group Hamas. And it launched the assault on Twitter. The advent of CNN and its live coverage of first Persian Gulf War may have been the first real taste …

Discussion: Wired, GigaOM, Guardian and NYT Bits

Jon Mitchell / ReadWrite:

Heads Up: The IDF Is Live-Blogging Its Attack On Hamas [Video] — We've never seen anything quite like this. The verified social media accounts of the Israeli Defense Forces are providing live updates on a concerted military effort against Hamas. Using the hashtag #PillarOfDefense …

Discussion: IDF Blog, The Verge, The Daily Beast, Gawker, WorldViews, BBC, Business Insider and Fast Company, Thanks:@rwjon

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Social Warfare: Israel Live-Tweets Its Military Campaign Against Hamas — The era of social has officially arrived. — The Israeli Defense Force, the official military arm of the state of Israel, has launched a full-scale combat campaign against Hamas, the Islamist party that governs the Gaza Strip area of the Middle East.

Discussion: New York Times, Forbes, Daily Dot and Business Insider

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Is it time for the New York Times to embrace sponsored stories? — As news publishers confront a troubled online ad market, many of them are turning to “native advertising” which lets marketers create content that resembles a website's natural content. The New York Times is resisting …

Jack Marshall / Digiday:
The Mobile Banner: A Dog That Won't Hunt

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Nxtblog

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:
News companies see a financial future in brand-sponsored digital content

Discussion: Noted, eMedia Vitals, CJR, AdAge and Forbes

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes: Ads That Get More Love Than the Stories Around Them? Pulse Has Them

Media Decoder:

Spotify Attracts Investments From Coca-Cola and Fidelity — Coca-Cola is becoming a minority investor in Spotify, as part of a new round of financing that will bring in $100 million and value the streaming music service at about $3 billion. — Spotify has completed the financing round …

Discussion: PandoDaily, The Next Web, Digital Media Wire, GigaOM and WebProNews

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Spotify Closes $3 Billion Funding Round — Spotify has closed its latest funding round, which values the company at around $3 billion, according to a person familiar with the transaction. The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that Goldman Sachs would lead a group …

Discussion: Betabeat, The Next Web, TechCrunch and SocialTimes

David Simon:

Stray penises and politicos — I can remember the specific moment when I swore off the sex lives of the famous as journalistic currency. It was the case of a national sportscaster — I won't name him, but, alas, most of those old enough will remember the name, which is regrettable — whose sex life had suddenly become the media chow.

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post and Tampa Bay Times

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:
The Quandary for Biographers: Get Up Close, but How Personal?

Discussion: ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Guardian and Grantland

Daniel Miller / Hollywood Reporter:

Nate Silver on His Hollywood Future and 'Moneyball'-ing Box Office — The FiveThirtyEight blogger tells THR he's been approached by agents and producers, already has done work for a studio and isn't sure he wants to write a book about the election: “I prefer to go broader.”

Discussion: The Corsair and Los Angeles Times

Rebecca Greenfield / The Atlantic Wire:
Nate Silver Thinks Voting Is for Pundits

Discussion: Deadspin and Betabeat

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Kickstarter-backed journalism startup Matter publishes its first story — Matter, the science and technology journalism startup that raised over $140,000 from 2,566 backers on Kickstarter, is launching with its first article Wednesday. GigaOM readers are already quite familiar …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and kottke.org

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter: New longform science journalism site ‘Matter’ launches today

Felix Salmon:

The FT backs down on paywalled blogs — Back in mid-2010, the FT's Money Supply blog disappeared behind the FT paywall, with promises that it wouldn't be the last. From the top on down, the general attitude at the FT has been clear: the idea that the FT should publish information for free is …

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

A Mormon Reporter On The Romney Bus — On the night of the South Carolina Republican primary in January, I sat near the front of a dark campaign press bus, and listened to reporters talk about Mitt Romney's underwear. — Earlier in the day, one of them had happened upon the candidate …

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Don Nash Becomes Executive Producer Of ‘Today’ — A longtime “Today” veteran has become the newest executive producer of the show, NBC News announced Wednesday. Don Nash, currently a senior broadcast producer on the troubled morning show, will take the day-to-day reins from Jim Bell on December 1st.

Discussion: Reuters and TVNewser

Richard Sandomir / New York Times: Producer Leaves ‘Today’ Show to Direct Olympics for NBC Universal

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Warren Buffett closes former Media General paper in Virginia — The Manassas (Va.) News & Messenger will stop printing at the end of 2012, Steve Jordan reports. Berkshire Hathaway bought the paper from Media General when it purchased most of the chain's other newspapers in May.

Discussion: Omaha World-Herald, Reuters and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Media Decoder:

News Corporation Said to Be Close to Acquiring Stake in YES Network — News Corporation is close to acquiring a stake in the YES Network, a New York-based cable channel that broadcasts Yankees baseball and Nets basketball games, among other regional sports, a person briefed on the discussions said Wednesday.

NBCUniversal:

The NBCUniversal News Group Adds iVillage To Its Portfolio — iVillage Joins NBC News Digital, Creating New Opportunities For Both Consumers And Advertisers In the Women's Marketplace — NBCUniversal News Group announced today that iVillage, one of the largest online communities for women …

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Delve Launches Enterprise Newsreader For Focused, Relevant And Collaborative Reading — RSS readers, Instapaper, Pocket, Flipboard, etc., all provide ways for consumers to gather, collect, and share news. But each is aimed at the general user, and while definitely usable in a business setting …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Marty Baron stories dwell on cuts at The Washington Post — Boston Globe Editor Marty Baron is The Washington Post's incoming executive editor. Profiles and accounts of his ascendance all praise his journalism career, then rue the cuts that presumably face him.

Discussion: Washington Post and Erik Wemple