Mediagazer: Amazon Wants to Create Appointment TV Online, Not Follow Netflix Binging (Esther Zuckerman/The Atlantic Wire)

9:15 AM ET, June 19, 2013

Top News:

Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:

Michael Hastings, ‘Rolling Stone’ Contributor, Dead at 33 — The bold journalist died in a car accident in Los Angeles — Michael Hastings, the fearless journalist whose reporting brought down the career of General Stanley McChrystal, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, Rolling Stone has learned.

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Michael Hastings - journalists pay tribute to ‘fearless’ war correspondent

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post

BuzzFeed:
Statement On Michael Hastings

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch donates $50,000 in memory of late correspondent — News Corp founder gives gift to Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting as his company prepares for de-merger — Rupert Murdoch has donated $50,000 (£32,000) to a New York university in memory …

Adam Haigh / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Spinoff Falls in Sydney After Murdoch Split — News Corp. (NNC), the Wall Street Journal publisher spun off by Rupert Murdoch, fell in its Sydney debut as stock in the billionaire's newspaper assets started trading separately in a split from his entertainment businesses.

Discussion: Sydney Morning Herald, Business Spectator, TheAustralian, Wall Street Journal and Guardian

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch splits empire but keeps faith in tomorrow's newspapers

Discussion: Big News Network.com

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Google challenges U.S. gag order, citing First Amendment — Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests the court makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it is forced to give the government.

Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times:
Yahoo discloses how much government data requests it gets

Discussion: Business Insider, Engadget, Valleywag, Christian Science Monitor, TechRadar.com, Bloomberg, The Register, The Independent, ZDNet, CNN, CNNMoney.com, BBC, Reuters and Guardian

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

BT chief steps down to take UK government role as Sky Sports battle intensifies — Ian Livingstone, the chief executive of BT is stepping down from his role at the head of the company to take up the position of Minister of State for Trade and Investment in the UK.

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

U.K. Regulator Launches Review of BT Competition Complaint Against BSkyB — The telecom giant has argued that the pay TV company, in which Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. owns 39 percent, has abused its market power in sports channel carriage talks. — U.K. media regulator Ofcom said Wednesday …

Discussion: Reuters

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

How PBS Won at Digital — Millions of Americans can point to PBS as a third parent, as the network that helped raise them with programs like “Sesame Street” and “Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.” — But PBS is not immune to the transition from analog to digital and needs to continually reinvent itself.

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

The Advance Publications name game — The old Newhouse Pledge and the company's corporate shuffle — The Oregonian is about to get Newhouse'd. — As the billionaires' Advance Publications has rolled out its newspaper-liquidation plan across the country, it has engaged in a curious bit of corporate name-shuffling.

Beth Healy / The Boston Globe:

At least 8 potential purchasers may give offers to Times Co. — At least eight potential buyers, ranging from former newspaper executives with local roots to private equity investors from the West Coast, are weighing bids for The Boston Globe as the June 27 deadline for submitting offers approaches …

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

Yet another YouTube funding: Bedrocket invests in Shira Lazar's What's Trending — Thought there was no money in producing original content for YouTube's audience? The folks at Bedrocket Entertainment beg to differ — and just invested in What's Trending.

Discussion: The Next Web and Variety

Esther Zuckerman / The Atlantic Wire:

Amazon Wants to Create Appointment TV Online, Not Follow Netflix Binging — Though Netflix may have emerged as the frontrunner when it comes to original streaming content, what with the successes of House of Cards and Arrested Development, don't expect Amazon to be following in its footsteps entirely.

Discussion: The Wrap, GeekWire and WebProNews

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

UK newspapers' print ad revenue ‘to shrink by £400m by the end of 2014’ — Group M forecasts digital media will help drive rise in overall UK ad spend - but regional press in particular will suffer — Almost £400m in print advertising is forecast to be lost from the UK newspaper market …

Discussion: HoldTheFrontPage

Telegraph:

BBC spent £28m of licence-fee payers' money gagging 500 staff — The BBC has used licence fee payers' money to buy the silence of more than 500 staff with payouts of up to £500,000 each. — According to figures released under Freedom of Information, in the past five years 539 staff …

Discussion: Guardian and London News

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Netflix Announces Next Market: the Netherlands — Country likely to be the company's only overseas addition in 2013 — Netflix is going Dutch. — The Netherlands will be the next country to get the streaming service, the company announced late Tuesday.

Discussion: PR Newswire, paidContent, Home Media Magazine, Softpedia News, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Nate Silver: Politico Co-Founders Lack ‘Curiosity For The World Outside Of The Bubble’ — Nate Silver has some thoughts about Politico. Plenty of them. — In an email sent Tuesday to TPM (posted below), Silver — who nailed the 2012 presidential election by correctly forecasting the outcome …

Discussion: @evgenymorozov and The Huffington Post