Mediagazer: Why Every Company In TV Is Trying To Merge (Peter Lauria/BuzzFeed)

9:30 PM ET, July 1, 2013

Top News:

Edward Joseph Snowden / WikiLeaks:

Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow — One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will.

Discussion: @fmanjoo, Gawker, BBC, CNET, WorldViews, Guardian, The Moderate Voice, @jeffjarvis, Business Insider, Boing Boing, Techdirt, The Next Web, @lrozen, @fmanjoo, @megan, New York Magazine, @chrislhayes, Mashable, National Updates and Associated Press

Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times:
Edward Snowden asking 15 countries for asylum, Russian official says

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mediaite, Gawker, @ggreenwald, Guardian, The Verge, The Next Web, @reuters, Business Insider, Mashable, Softpedia News, New York Magazine, Reuters and Capital New York

New York Times:
Snowden Seeks Asylum in Russia, Putting Kremlin on the Spot

Discussion: RT, BBC, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller, Boing Boing and Mashable

Nitasha Tiku / Gawker:

New York Times Blogger Demanded Travel and Expenses from Companies — A blogger for The New York Times has been requesting thousands of dollars in “expenses” and travel airfare from a public relations firm trying to get its clients covered in the Times, according to emails obtained by Gawker.

Discussion: @timamolloy and @lindsaygoldwert

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

Why Every Company In TV Is Trying To Merge — The three factors behind a massive wave of consolidation. — Content is king — which is why seemingly every company that distributes it, from local television stations to cable operators to satellite distributors, is trying to merge.

Discussion: GigaOM, DealBook, multichannel.com/rss, @jbflint, @pkedrosky, 24/7 Wall St. and Businessweek

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times: Tribune CEO says TV deal won't factor into decision on newspapers

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
Tribune Co. buys 19 television stations in $2.7-billion deal

Discussion: DealBook, Poynter, Chicago Tribune, Variety, The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable, Bloomberg, Politico, PR Newswire and StreetInsider.com

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reborn as publishing arm targets smartphones — Chief executive says company aims to ‘own the second screen’ through deals such as Sun's Premier League highlights service — News Corporation, the newly devolved publishing division in Rupert Murdoch's global empire starts …

Discussion: The Wrap, B&C, FishbowlNY, Yahoo! News, Bloomberg, CNET, Digital TV Europe, Hollywood Reporter, TVNewser, The Raw Story, New York Magazine and The Huffington Post

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
News Corp. Down, 21st Century Fox Up In First Day Of Trading After Split

Discussion: Variety and Los Angeles Times

Matt Brian / The Verge:

Twitter's new ‘embedded on these websites’ feature helps users discover the story behind a tweet — Twitter has begun trialling new features that give users a way to learn more about the tweets that they read. As noted by security expert Mikko Hypponen, Twitter has enabled a new …

Discussion: TechCrunch, CNET, @cschweitz, Engadget, Marketing Land and WebProNews

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish:

The Independent Dish: Six Months In — We promised to keep you up to date with the new independent Dish's progress - and six months seems like a good time to summarize. The current number of subscribers to the Dish now stands at 27,349. I don't think there's a purely online site …

Discussion: paidContent

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Who's Winning at Volume in Publishing — Winning in digital media now boils down to a simple equation: figure out a way to produce the most content at as low a cost as possible. — In recent years, new players like The Huffington Post burst onto the scene by pumping out a dizzying amount of content each day.

Discussion: Strange Attractor, One Man & His Blog and MarketingVox News & Trends

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Leela de Krester Is Leaving DNAinfo — Editorial director and publisher Leela de Krester is leaving DNAinfo.com, founder Joe Ricketts announced today in an email to staff. — “I wanted to let you know about a change at DNAinfo.com. After 4 years of dedicated work helping to establish the company …

Discussion: Capital New York

Dylan Byers / Politico:

CNN airs Zimmerman's SSN, phone number — CNN appears to have broadcast the social security number and telephone number for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who is suspected of having killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., last February. — On Monday at 12:16 p.m. ET …

Discussion: Mediaite

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

U.S. court throws out Google digital books class status — (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday said a lawsuit against Google Inc's effort to create the world's largest digital books library should not have been allowed to proceed as a class action.

Discussion: The Laboratorium, paidContent, Mercury News, Reuters, Associated Press, Plagiarism Today, PublishersWeekly.com and CNET

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Ericsson beefs up its media services business with the acquisition of Red Bee Media — Sweden's Ericsson is doubling down on its digital media business after it announced that it has agreed to buy UK-headquartered Red Bee Media for an undisclosed sum. — The acquisition will beef …

Discussion: FierceTelecom News, Broadband TV News, multichannel.com/rss, Bloomberg, Digital TV Europe, Light Reading, Digital Media Wire, The Drum and ZDNet

Bill Mickey / Folio:

TechMedia Network Buys Bestofmedia Group — Deal includes Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide and Tom's IT Pro. — TechMedia Network, a group of digital properties for technology and science enthusiasts and professionals, has acquired Bestofmedia Group, publisher of tech and gadget review sites Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide and Tom's IT Pro.

Discussion: VentureBeat and Tech Media Network

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

With 30M Uniques Under Its Belt, Upworthy Is Ready To Monetize — The fastest growing news site ever is ready to start making money. — Coming off its biggest month of traffic yet, Upworthy, the social news aggregator that pairs progressive politics with viral marketing savvy …

Discussion: PandoDaily, TechCrunch and VentureBeat

Richard Horgan / FishbowlNY:

Former Newsweek Editor: There Never Was a ‘Golden Age’ of Journalism — As we get ready to celebrate that rarest of American work week wrinkles (an officially sanctioned four-day weekend), FishbowlNY would like to do its civic holiday duty by passing on some feel-good news about journalism.

Discussion: PenBay Pilot

Tom Watson / Forbes:

Is WikiLeaks Now An International Political Party? — Earlier this month, Julian Assange marked a full year of living in political asylum within the compact confines of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. The flight from U.S. charges of of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, the Booz Allen contractor assisted …

Discussion: Gawker and New York Times