Mediagazer: The Journalist's New Escape Plan: Start-Ups (Charlie Warzel/BuzzFeed)

10:25 AM ET, June 4, 2013

Top News:

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong? — A magazine publisher has written a provocative article raising that question. I try to offer some answers. — In an article titled “Our American Pravda,” Ron Unz, the businessman, writer, and publisher of The American Conservative …

Discussion: @ron_fournier, @tinkuray, @charlesfrith and Talking Biz News

Amar Toor / The Verge:

Chicago Sun-Times trains reporters to shoot with iPhones after laying off all its photographers — The Chicago Sun-Times this week laid off all 28 of its staff photographers, and has reportedly begun training its remaining reporters on “iPhone photography basics.”

Discussion: Forbes

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

The Journalist's New Escape Plan: Start-Ups — Tech start-ups are fishing vets from old media. And old media vets are biting. — Image by Nasdaq via Facebook, Zef Nikolla, File / AP — At first glance, it all makes sense. Leave the broken, somewhat depressing world of media …

Discussion: @binowski, @rafe and @dvg

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

John Malone's Liberty Global Names Dana Strong COO of Virgin Media — The cable industry veteran has worked at UPC Ireland and will move to the U.K. cable giant, whose acquisition Liberty Global is expected to close in the coming days. — LONDON - John Malone's Liberty Global continues …

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Liberty Global Shareholders Approve Virgin Media Acquisition

Discussion: Herald, RTÉ, The Irish Times, IP&TV News, Mobile News Online and Silicon Republic

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Matt Zoller Seitz Named Editor of RogerEbert.com — Matt Zoller Seitz is taking over as editor of RogerEbert.com. Seitz joined New York as its television critic in January of 2012. He will continue in that role while overseeing content, and contributing reviews, personal blogs and more to RogerEbert.com.

Discussion: All Content

New York Times:

Advertising on Social Media Bumps Up Against Free Speech — As social media sites pursue advertising in a bid for new revenue, they are finding that they must simultaneously create a safe space for the advertisers they attract. — With the money, they are discovering, comes responsibility.

Gregory Warner / NPR:

For Young Somali Journalists, Work Often Turns Deadly … Shabelle Media is Somalia's largest news outlet — and a very dangerous place to work. Of the 12 journalists gunned down in the country last year, four were reporting for Shabelle. — A number of the reporters are teenagers, some as young as 15.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Hola, Dora! Amazon Locks Up the Viacom Kids Shows Netflix Doesn't Have Anymore — Netflix doesn't want Viacom shows like “Dora the Explorer” and “Spongebob Squarepants “- or at least, not at Viacom's asking price. — But Amazon is happy to pay up: Jeff Bezos and company have locked …

Discussion: Amazon.com, Home Media Magazine, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Variety, The Huffington Post, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, Digits, The Verge and WebProNews

Kathryn Brenzel / Columbia Journalism Review:

In Libya, new media freedom is uncertain — A post-Qaddafi abundance of independent news has been followed by violence against journalists — The post-revolutionary euphoria that followed Libya's 2011 uprising against dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi spawned dozens of new media outlets—at least 69, by some counts.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Netflix, Hulu Dominate Mobile TV Viewing … The bulk of TV content watched on smartphones and tablets today is provided through Netflix and Hulu Plus — not networks or pay TV providers, according to a new study. — About 64% of TV shows viewed on smartphones and 54% on tablets were via Netflix …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaPost and Digital Media Wire

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

The micropublishing explosion has begun — Last week, Marco Arment announced that he has sold The Magazine to the minimalist iOS publication's executive editor, Glenn Fleishman. Arment said he had accidentally built a business he was ill-suited to running.

Discussion: PR Newswire and Business Insider

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Apple Accuses DOJ of Unfairly Twisting Steve Jobs's Words — Steve Jobs figures prominently in the U.S. Department of Justice's e-book price fixing case against Apple. His e-mail messages to other executives at Apple and in the publishing industry, his comments to biographer Walter Isaacson and others …

Discussion: paidContent, iDownloadBlog.com, Fortune, The Verge, Guardian, Wall Street Journal and Reuters

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Reeder, gReader & Other Popular Feed Reading Apps Partner With Feedly Ahead Of Google Reader Shutdown — In less than a month, Google Reader will shut down for good, according to the countdown timer on Digg.com, a company now in the process of building a replacement.