Mediagazer: Launching a Startup in Iraq (Jackie Spinner/American Journalism Review)

3:10 AM ET, April 11, 2013

Top News:

Josh Catone / Mashable:

Orphaned Tumblr Storyboard Posts Find New Home on Mashable … In early 2012, Tumblr hired an editorial team to cover the “ideas, themes and people” of the vast blogging community. That team launched Storyboard, which produced hundreds of fascinating stories on everything from Hurricane Sandy relief to One Direction fandom.

Discussion: Betabeat, Tumblr Staff Blog, THE BAD DEAL and Tumblr Editorial

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

The trouble with Tumblr's journalism experiment — To understand why Tumblr suddenly brought an end to its original-journalism project, Storyboard, after just a year, it helps to consider what outgoing Facebook managing editor Dan Fletcher told an audience at Washington State University last month.

Discussion: Mashable, Poynter, paidContent, New York Times and The Huffington Post

Adam Weinstein / Gawker:
If Tumblr 'Couldn't Be Happier' With its Journalists, Why'd it Just Fire Them All?

Discussion: Daily Dot, Digiday, Businessweek and @nicknotned

Jackie Spinner / American Journalism Review:

Launching a Startup in Iraq — An American journalist's Web site is a go-to destination for news about the Iraqi oil industry. — Jackie Spinner (jackiespinner@mac.com) has reported on the Middle East since 2004. She was a staff writer for the Washington Post for 14 years and covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the paper.

Caroline Winter / Businessweek:

Would You Tweet This Article if It Earned You Points? — Is it possible to coerce virality? Won Hee Chang, a young Korean tech entrepreneur, is looking to find out by reviving her grandfather's magazine with a new model for monetizing online journalism: Readers who share content via social media …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Exclusive: Microsoft's next Xbox will take over your TV, interact with your cable box — The fight for the living room continues — Microsoft is investing in TV in a big way with its next Xbox console as part of a fight for the living room. Multiple sources familiar with the company's Xbox plans …

Discussion: Forbes, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, GigaOM, BGR, Engadget, ParisLemon, Business Insider, Softpedia News, CNET and WebProNews

Loes Witschge / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Getting personal: A Dutch online news platform wants you to subscribe to individual journalists — “It's my own little shop, that's what I like about it. You decide what goes in — like having your own newspaper.” — Arnold Karskens has his own channel on Dutch news startup De Nieuwe Pers (The New Press).

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Steve Kolowich / Wired Campus:

Coursera Takes a Nuanced View of MOOC Dropout Rates — Philadelphia — Massive open online courses have gained renown among academics for their impressive enrollment figures and, conversely, their unimpressive completion rates. — What accounts for the high attrition in MOOCs, and what does it mean?

Miriam Elder / Guardian:

Swear words ban leaves Russian media in a muddle — Confusion over new law that leaves media facing hefty fines if they break ban despite no list of prohibitive words being issued — Russian media outlets that print swear words face heavy fines under rules signed into law on Monday by the president.

Discussion: The Week

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Bloomberg View Expands With Jon Landman Hire And More Jeffrey Goldberg — NEW YORK — Bloomberg View, the news organization's nearly 2-year-old opinion section, has hired veteran journalist Jonathan Landman to the newly created position of editor-at-large as it expands writer Jeffrey Goldberg's role on the site.

Discussion: New York Magazine, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Press Room, Politico and FishbowlNY

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Military Tightens Media Rules in Case of Private Who Leaked Files — FORT MEADE, Md. — The military on Wednesday tightened rules on reporters covering the court-martial proceedings against Pfc. Bradley Manning because of a bootleg recording of him speaking at a pretrial hearing in February that surfaced online.

Discussion: Guardian

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

INTERNAL MEMO: The New York Times Replaces Its Tech Editor Two Months After He Got The Job — Only two months after he got the gig, the new New York Times tech editor is already the old New York Times editor. — On January 16, the Times replaced tech editor Damon Darlin with assistant managing editor Glenn Kramon.

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

Disney Studios Lays Off 150 Employees — LOS ANGELES - Walt Disney Studios, which employs 7,000 people, on Wednesday laid off 150 workers, including a few relatively senior executives in movie publicity and the DVD department. — The layoffs followed a yearlong review by the company.

Discussion: Variety, Bloomberg, Hollywood Reporter, LA Biz Observed, Reuters and Los Angeles Times

John Harris / Guardian:

Tim Waterstone: ‘If reading is going be all digital in 50 years, so be it’ — Thirty years ago, Tim Waterstone founded one of the UK's best-known booksellers, and is still in love with the idea of bookshops. So what is he doing starting a new ebooks venture?

Discussion: paidContent and The Bookseller