Mediagazer: The Manti Te'o Story: Why The News Media Let Its Guard Down (David Folkenflik/NPR)

12:00 PM ET, January 20, 2013

Top News:

Memo: The Atlantic president explains Scientology advertorial ‘screw-up’ — The Atlantic president Scott Havens sent this staff memo about the Scientology advertorial “screw-up” shortly after 6 p.m. Friday: — From: Havens, Scott — To: companywide.TheAtlanticMonthly — Dear Atlantic Staff,

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @jackshafer, @ckrewson and Poynter

Tim Carmody / The Verge:

Wikileaks claims Aaron Swartz was an ally and possible source, breaking anonymity — Unsubstantiated statements implicate US Secret Service in his prosecution and break the organization's own rules by ‘doxxing’ Swartz — Aaron Swartz died a week ago, from suicide.

Discussion: emptywheel, CNET, VentureBeat, AllThingsD, @wikileaks, @jason_pontin, @dangillmor, @tcarmody, Mashable! and @wikileaks

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Senator John Cornyn Asks Eric Holder To Explain DOJ Prosecution Of Aaron Swartz — While we've seen some politicians in Congress speak out about the prosecution against Aaron Swartz, for the most part, it had been the “usual crew” of folks who had formed the core of the anti-SOPA alliance — Reps. Lofgren, Issa and Polis.

Discussion: The Public Domain, Lessig Blog, v2, The Huffington Post, United States Senator …, The Verge and emptywheel

Mike Taylor / Guardian:

Hiding your research behind a paywall is immoral — As a scientist your job is to bring new knowledge into the world. Hiding it behind a journal's paywall is unacceptable — Publishing science behind paywalls is immoral. There, I said it. — I know, I know. It's an easy trap to fall into - I've done it myself.

Discussion: Globe and Mail, Nature and Techdirt

Patrick B. Pexton / Washington Post:

The Post uses someone else's words — again — Has technology made us all plagiarists? The Internet and Google have enabled every reporter, blogger and columnist to have what amounts to a million encyclopedias at their fingertips. We can search for material on virtually any subject …

Discussion: Top Digital Journal News, @rajunarisetti, @jswatz, @macloo, The Wrap and Poynter

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

YouTube halts funding for WSJ and Reuters channels; Reuters cuts positions — YouTube has cut off funding to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters that formed part of its $150 million dollar plan to help launch more than 100 premium channels. The termination of the one-year deals …

Discussion: GigaOM

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Magazines Use Digital Editions to Ramp Up Pricing — Cosmopolitan readers can get their first year's subscription to the print magazine for $10. But if they want the digital edition on their iPads, they will have to fork over $19.99. — That's a pricing maneuver so bold it may make even Cosmo readers blush.

Discussion: LNR Journalism

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

Digital First goes the Newhouse route in upstate New York — The three-day-a-week newspaper model pioneered by Advance Publications in Michigan is now spreading to Digital First Media. The company will move its Oneida Daily Dispatch from six days a week to three, including a new a Sunday edition, on February 3.

Drew Olanoff / TechCrunch:

Circa Raises $750K From Group Including Lerer Ventures To Revolutionize Mobile News Delivery — We've learned today that mobile news-delivery company Circa has raised another $750K on top of the $900K raised previously. The company launched its app of the same name, which allows you to follow …

MIT Technology Review:

The Algorithms That Automatically Date Medieval Manuscripts — Around a million medieval documents have no date making their historical significance difficult to quantify. But automated computer techniques look set to revolutionise the work for historians

Eric Mark Do / MediaShift:

Can Pay Walls Work for Hyper-Local Business News Sites? — Canada's largest newspaper company is launching two hyper-local business sites in a bid to duplicate the success of one of Canada's only profitable online news operations. YourMississaugaBiz.com launched several months ago, and YourHamiltonBiz.com will go live this month.

David Folkenflik / NPR:

The Manti Te'o Story: Why The News Media Let Its Guard Down … One of the top collegiate football players in the country, Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, was lionized by the media amid stories of his perseverance on the field after both his grandmother and his girlfriend died.