Mediagazer: ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons From Twitter After Criticizing Network (Jordan Zakarin/Hollywood Reporter)

10:55 PM ET, March 14, 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, Gawker, ZDNet, The Huffington Post, VentureBeat, Boing Boing, Twitchy 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: Naked Security, The Verge, Fortune, Forbes, Business Insider and Gizmodo

Felix Salmon / Reuters:
Did Google just kill RSS?

Discussion: Slate, The Atlantic Wire and Motherboard

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

Discussion: Slate, Marco.org, Building Feedly, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, The Verge, pressgazette.co.uk, NYT Bits, VentureBeat, Forbes, ZDNet, Reuters, Dave Winer, BBC, The Dish, GeekWire, Softpedia News and Marketing Land

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

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

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

Discussion: Inside Flipboard, Forbes, VentureBeat, GigaOM, ZDNet, The Next Web, Mercury News, @carr2n, ReadWrite, @tcarmody, @tcarmody, @editorialiste, @abbruns and One Man & His Blog

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, The Atlantic Wire, WebProNews and Marketing Land

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

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, Lost Remote, TechCrunch, GigaOM, Fast Company, CNET, Business Insider, The Verge, Daily Dot and Pocket-lint

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.

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, Mediaite, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post and @jayrosen_nyu

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, The Wrap, Home Media Magazine, TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times, Broadcasting & Cable, Engadget, Variety and The Next Web

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

CBS Brings Ad-Sponsored Streaming TV To iPhone And iPad; Social Integration, Android & Windows 8 Support Still To Come — CBS is today introducing a new iOS application for iPad and iPhone, which brings its television programming to mobile devices, offering full episodes for streaming a week after they originally air.

Discussion: paidContent, CBS San Francisco, FierceMobileContent News, SlashGear, NetNewsCheck Latest, AllThingsD, CNET, AppNewser, Fox Business, Broadcasting & Cable, The Verge, The Next Web, Home Media Magazine, Variety, WebProNews, Radio & Television …, @ryanlawler and MacRumors

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, The Verge, Deadspin, Daily Dot and Mashable!

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Sources: Olbermann's inability to get a job cited in Current TV settlement — Keith Olbermann has settled his $50 million lawsuit with Current TV, bringing an end to the almost year-long legal dispute over the outspoken host's dismissal from the liberal news network.

Discussion: Chickaboomer and Forbes

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: Guardian and Jon Slattery

Andrew Woodcock / Press Association:
Leveson press reform proposal discussions break down

Discussion: BBC, Hollywood Reporter, Spectator, Channel 4, politics.co.uk, Telegraph and Guardian

Jack Limpert / About Editing and Writing:

They Were Young, They Were Low-Paid, and They Went On to Change Journalism — In my second issue at The Washingtonian, back in April 1969, we ran a lively little piece, “Ben, Where Are You Hiding the Women's Section?” It laid out how executive editor Ben Bradlee had dismantled …

R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly:

ABC News' ‘20/20’ Faces Libel Lawsuit for OC Internet-Dating Story — [Moxley Confidential] Orange County judge refuses network's demand to kill libel lawsuit against the ABC program — Twenty months ago, ABC News' 20/20 broadcast an hour-long episode on an important public topic: Internet-dating crooks.

Discussion: LA Observed

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Spinoff of Time Inc. Rattles Employees — It was an elite reception at a glittery Manhattan setting: prominent media figures like Gayle King and Lesley Stahl gathered on the 10th floor of the Time Warner Center on Monday night to toast Sheryl Sandberg, the Facebook executive who recently released a book about her life.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Motley Fool, FishbowlNY, Media Decoder and USA Today