Mediagazer: Web Companies Pay for Internet Fast Lane (Wall Street Journal)

4:40 PM ET, June 19, 2013

Top News:

James Poniewozik / TIME:

Michael Hastings and Who Journalists Really Work For — I'm not the person to write a personal appreciation of Michael Hastings, the 33-year-old investigative journalist who died in a car crash in Los Angeles yesterday. I never met him; I don't know if he was a good guy, or a bad guy, or both in what ratio.

Discussion: New York Times, LAist and Business Insider

Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:

Michael Hastings 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. He was 33.

Discussion: Guardian, The Daily Caller, Boing Boing, Washington Post, The Wrap, Slate, BuzzFeed, KTLA 5, FishbowlNY, PandoDaily, FishbowlDC, Business Insider, Corey Pein, Publishers Lunch, PublishersWeekly.com, WorldViews, The Informer, @romenesko, The Huffington Post, Newsy, GalleyCat, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, CBC News, msnbc.com, Capital New York, @idreamin4d, @mariamdena, @mollyknefel, Digital Spy, @tommyxtopher, @joseiswriting, @gillianmae, @antwoabboud, @varyagi, @britmccandless, @peterlauria3, LAist, Daily Mail, @buzzfeedandrew, @7im, @rachelsklar, @emptywheel, @trevortimm, @robsondan, @skippable, @scottstenholm, @dtxjoe, @hprynne, LA Observed, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, Mediaite, Mashable, Gawker, Pressing Issues, The Atlantic Wire, Democracy Now, @freedomofpress, The New York Observer, Politico, Hollywood Reporter, @buzzfeedandrew, @tobyharnden, @ariannahuff, The Maddow Blog, @ggreenwald, @trevortimm, @chrisgeidner, @zekejmiller and @adamserwer

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Missing Michael Hastings — One of the great reporters of his generation died Tuesday at 33. The stories he wrote, and the ones he didn't live to write. — Michael Hastings was really only interested in writing stories someone didn't want him to write — often his subjects; occasionally his editor.

Discussion: Slate, The New Yorker Blog, Poynter, Guardian, The Informer, FishbowlDC, Business Insider, KTLA 5, Hillman Foundation blogs, BBC, msnbc.com, Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post

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

Discussion: The Week, BuzzFeed, FishbowlNY, Pressing Issues, Mediashift, Rolling Stone and Business Insider

Thomas Beller / Page-Turner:

The Ongoing Story: Twitter and Writing — I was in the Time magazine archives recently, doing research for my biography of J. D. Salinger, when I pulled open a drawer and found a small box containing a bunch of discarded typewriter heads for the I.B.M. Selectric typewriter—the cutting-edge writing technology of my youth.

Discussion: @robinsloan, @qhardy and @robinsloan

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Wired Editor Michael Copeland Joins Andreessen Horowitz To Lead New ‘Content Strategy’ — Wired Senior Editor Michael Copeland is joining venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. We've confirmed with the VC firm that Copeland will be leading Andreessen's new ‘content strategy.’

Discussion: @mvc

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 …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Media Nation, Poynter, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY and Prof Chris Daly's Blog

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: Guardian, Insider Monkey, HeraldSun, TheAustralian, Hollywood Reporter, Business Spectator, Wall Street Journal and Guardian

Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch donates $50,000 in memory of late correspondent

Discussion: Guardian

Jason Deans / Guardian:

ITV buys US production company Thinkfactory Media — UK broadcaster continues US spree, paying £19m for 65% stake in producer behind Kevin Costner drama Hatfields & McCoys — ITV has made its third foray into the US TV production sector, paying $30m (£19m) …

Discussion: The Wrap, men, Telegraph, Hollywood Reporter, screendaily.com, Variety and C21Media

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Apple TV Finally Gets HBO GO And WatchESPN, iTunes Shoppers Now Buying 800K TV Shows Per Day — Apple has added two major new content sources to Apple TV today, via HBO GO and WatchESPN integration. The new streaming services adds a considerable selection of content to the company's streaming …

Discussion: Apple, AdAge, Variety, Bloomberg, CNET, Broadcasting & Cable, AllThingsD, Newsy, Home Media Magazine, The Next Web, GigaOM and The Verge

Annie Machon / Using Our Intelligence:

Edward Snowden — the Globalisation of Whistleblowing — I have held back from writing about the Edward Snowden NSA whistleblowing case for the last week — partly because I was immersed in the resulting media interviews and talks, and partly because I wanted to watch how the story developed, both politically and in the old media.

Discussion: Washington Times, BetaNews, Jack Shafer and The Maddow Blog

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.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
U.K. Regulator Launches Review of BT Competition Complaint Against BSkyB

Discussion: Reuters and Guardian

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.

John Reynolds / Guardian:

P Diddy to launch cable music channel Revolt TV — US hip-hop star aims to fill gap left when MTV stopped playing music videos with the ‘first channel of the social media age’ — Sean “P Diddy” Combs is to launch a cable music channel, Revolt TV, which he claims will be the …

Discussion: Business Insider and @peterlauria3

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

Reuters:

Dish abandons Sprint bid for now to focus on Clearwire — (Reuters) - Dish Network Corp said it would not make a new offer to buy No. 3 U.S. wireless provider Sprint Nextel in time for a Tuesday deadline and will instead focus on its tender offer for Clearwire Corp.

Discussion: Multichannel.com, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, The Verge and Engadget

Wall Street Journal:

Web Companies Pay for Internet Fast Lane — Streaming video on the Web can be a bumpy experience: The video can slow or stop altogether. To avoid these problems, Netflix Inc., the biggest online video outlet, has been trying to install special equipment directly connected to the networks of Internet access providers.

Discussion: GigaOM, Variety and Digits

Dominic Ponsford / pressgazette.co.uk:

Guardian G8 spying revelations were in breach of DA-Notice guidance, but this doesn't explain lack of follow-up by other media — Detailed revelations about how British security services spied on foreign powers when the UK hosted the last G8 summit in 2009 were splashed across the first five pages of The Guardian on Monday.

Discussion: Guardian