Mediagazer: Reuters Employee Exposed as Alleged Anonymous Agent (Updating) (Sam Biddle/Gizmodo)

1:40 AM ET, March 15, 2013

Top News:

The United States Department of Justice:

Former Web Producer Indicted in California for Conspiring with “Anonymous” Members to Attack Internet News Site — A former web producer for a Tribune Company-owned television station in Sacramento, Calif., was charged today in an indictment for allegedly conspiring with members of the hacker group …

Politico:

Reuters' Matthew Keys indicted for conspiring with hacker group ‘Anonymous’ — Matthew Keys, a deputy social media editor at Thomson Reuters, has been charged in an indictment for allegedly conspiring with members of the hacker group “Anonymous” to hack into a Tribune Company website, the Justice Department announced today.

Sam Biddle / Gizmodo:

Reuters Employee Exposed as Alleged Anonymous Agent (Updating) — Matthew Keys, one of Reuters News' top social media managers, is facing potentially serious prison time after federal accusations that he's a member of Anonymous. According to the DOJ, Keys tried to help hackers deface Tribune Company news sites.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Politico, Poynter, ZDNet, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Boing Boing, Twitchy, L.A. NOW and VentureBeat

Reuters:
Thomson Reuters employee indicted for aiding hackers: court filing

Discussion: @gerryshih, Vancouver Sun, @ryanjreilly, @rabite, @mikeisaac, KTLA 5 and L.A. NOW

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

Google Reader's demise is awful for Iranians, who use it to avoid censorship — Google's announcement that it's killing off Google Reader, the company's beloved, if not wildly popular, tool for consuming RSS feeds, was met with outrage from journalists and other, largely American nerds …

Discussion: The Verge, Business Insider, Naked Security, Forbes, The Atlantic Wire, Gizmodo, Poynter and bookforum.com

Felix Salmon / Reuters:
Did Google just kill RSS?

Discussion: Fortune, The Verge and Motherboard

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:
Google Reader Still Drives Far More Traffic Than Google+

Discussion: Mashable!, The Daily Beast, ZDNet, TechCrunch and Dave Winer

Om Malik / GigaOM:
Google Reader lived on borrowed time: creator Chris Wetherell reflects

Discussion: Slate, Building Feedly, Marco.org, TechCrunch, Marketing Land, NYT Bits, Fast Company, Forbes, Dave Winer, Reuters, BBC, ZDNet, The Dish, GeekWire, Softpedia News and Marketing Land

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Google Reader, please don't go — I need you to do my job

Discussion: Inside Flipboard, ZDNet, Mercury News, @carr2n, Lifehacker, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, pressgazette.co.uk, GigaOM, ReadWrite, VentureBeat, @tcarmody, @tcarmody, @editorialiste, @abbruns and One Man & His Blog

Jim Romenesko:

Boston Phoenix is folding — Boston's alt-weekly, founded in 1966, is closing. I'm waiting for more information to post.

Discussion: Boston Globe, @bostonphoenix, 10,000 Words, talkingnewmedia.blogspot.co.uk, @monikabauerlein, Media Decoder, @longform, @zseward, @talkingnewmedia, The New York Observer and bizjournals

Justin Peters / Columbia Journalism Review:

Boston Phoenix, down in flames — On Thursday afternoon, Boston Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich announced that the 47-year-old alt-weekly would cease publication effective immediately. The past few years “have been extremely difficult times for our Company,” Mindich said in a statement …

Discussion: Media Nation, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Digg Blog:

We're Building A Reader — Like many of you, we were dismayed to learn that Google will be shutting down its much-loved, if under-appreciated, Google Reader on July 1st. Through its many incarnations, Google Reader has remained a solid and reliable tool for those who want to ensure …

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Digg announces plan to build an RSS reader with 'the best of Google Reader's features,' including its API

Discussion: Betabeat, VentureBeat, The Atlantic Wire and WebProNews

Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Working on Incorporating the Hashtag — Facebook Inc. is getting ready to take on a symbol of rival Twitter: the hashtag. — Facebook is working on incorporating the hashtag, one of Twitter Inc.'s most iconic markers, into its service, said people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: AllThingsD, AdAge, TechCrunch, CNET, Business Insider, The Verge, GigaOM, Marketing Land, Lost Remote, Fast Company, Daily Dot and Pocket-lint

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

Hulu's content chief Andy Forssell officially takes over as acting CEO — Hulu has officially announced that its SVP of content Andy Forssell is going to become its acting CEO when founding CEO Jason Kilar leaves the company at the end of the month. Kilar made the announcement himself Thursday afternoon on Hulu's blog, writing:

Discussion: Hulu Blog, AdAge, SlashGear, The Wrap, Home Media Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Variety and Broadcasting & Cable

Bloomberg:

Time Spinoff Seen as Hunter or Prey With $3.9 Billion: Real M&A — The spinoff of Time Inc. to create the world's largest publicly traded magazine publisher may be just the beginning of deals for the owner of People and Sports Illustrated. — With analysts estimating an enterprise value …

Discussion: The Corsair, Motley Fool and USA Today

Christine Haughney / New York Times:
Spinoff of Time Inc. Rattles Employees

Discussion: Media Decoder and FishbowlNY

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Chris Hayes to Take Over 8 P.M. Slot on MSNBC — Chris Hayes will take over the 8 p.m. time slot on MSNBC in the next month, the channel is expected to announce on Thursday morning, the day after the current host of that hour, Ed Schultz, said he was moving from the weekdays to the weekends.

Discussion: TVNewser, Columbia Journalism Review, Mediaite, Politico, Capital New York, TVNewser, The Week, NBC Universal, Variety, msnbc.com, The Huffington Post, National Review, The Raw Story, The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable, @brianstelter, Inside Cable News and New York Magazine

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Biden's office forces reporter to delete photos, apologizes — A staffer for Vice President Joe Biden demanded that a reporter delete photos he'd taken at an event in Rockville, Md., Tuesday. The vice president's office later apologized to University of Maryland J-school Dean Lucy Dalglish …

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller, Reuters, TechCrunch, Mediaite, The Huffington Post and @jayrosen_nyu

Jordan Zakarin / Hollywood Reporter:

ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons From Twitter After Criticizing Network — One of the sports network's biggest personalities called a segment that aired on “First Take” on Monday “awful and embarrassing,” allegedly drawing his employer's ire. — ESPN has suspended star commentator …

Discussion: USA Today, Deadspin, The Verge, Daily Dot and Mashable!

Press Gazette:

Cameron urges Parliament to back Royal Charter: 'There is no point producing a system the press won't take part in' — David Cameron said that press owners would have refused to sign up to the system of press regulation backed by statute called for by Labour and the Lib Dems.

Discussion: Big News Network.com, Guardian and Jon Slattery