Mediagazer: Cable TV to the rescue: Will the “quality” subscription model work for books, movies, music? (Scott Timberg/Salon)

4:50 AM ET, July 22, 2013

Top News:

Mike Allen / Politico:

How ESPN/ABC stole Nate Silver from The New York Times — Young data guru promised Oscars role; may expand franchise to education, economics, weather — BEHIND THE CURTAIN - COURTING NATE SILVER: The battle for data whiz Nate Silver, fought secretly and aggressively by several …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, @jeffjarvis, @brianstelter, Forbes, @pkafka, New York Magazine and LA Observed

Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

Discussion: PandoDaily, Business Insider, New York Magazine, @carr2n, TechCrunch, Fast Company, paidContent, Deadline.com, @stevestreza, Politico, Mediaite, @pkafka, The Verge, @dangillmor, The Wrap, LA Observed, Variety and The Huffington Post, Thanks:@steverubel

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Aereo as Bargaining Chip in Broadcast Fees Battle — As another television programming blackout looms, this time because of a high-stakes negotiation between the CBS Corporation and Time Warner Cable, there is a new wrinkle, courtesy of Aereo, the start-up that streams broadcast TV via the Internet.

Discussion: CNET, @rakeshlobster, The Verge and Variety

Danah Boyd / Medium:

Whistleblowing Is the New Civil Disobedience — Like many other civil liberties activists, I've been annoyed by how the media has spilled more ink talking about Edward Snowden than the issues that he's trying to raise. I've grumbled at the “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” …

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

How Al Jazeera English gathered data to map Syria's rebellion — A look at data-driven interactives at Al Jazeera — Data was collected by Al Jazeera English's Syria expert who made hundreds of phone calls to rebel groups — Copyright: Image by Skeddy in NYC. Some rights reserved

Discussion: Big News Network.com and Al Jazeera English

Virginia Hughes / Phenomena:

How Forensic Linguistics Outed J.K. Rowling (Not to Mention James Madison, Barack Obama, and the Rest of Us) — Earlier this week, the UK's Sunday Times rocked the publishing world by revealing that Robert Galbraith, the first-time author of a new crime novel called The Cuckoo's Calling …

Discussion: @virginiahughes, @peterdedmonds, @smpl5 and @erich_owens

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Dish Pulls the Plug — For Now — On NimbleTV's Web TV Service — NimbleTV wants to deliver pay TV, over the Web, to any device, anywhere in the world. — But right now the startup, which launched a trial service last summer, isn't delivering any TV anywhere.

Discussion: The Verge

David Carr / New York Times:

TV Foresees Its Future. Netflix Is There. — Apple and Google were back making waves in the television world last week, with reports suggesting they were renewing efforts to use technology to transform the box in your living room. — But Netflix already has. — Netflix knows a little about transformation.

Discussion: GigaOM, ParisLemon and Mediashift

MG Siegler / Medium:

The 75 — 20 — 5 Rule — Don't believe everything you read. Or anything, really. — A few months ago, I found myself in an odd position — with some time off. A lot of it. Naturally, I decided to use the time not to disconnect, but instead to double-down on tech news.

Discussion: ParisLemon, @socialmedia_nz, @karaswisher, @gregwaldorf and @hittmannyc

The Economist:

TV Everywhere: The travel channels — ALFRED HITCHCOCK once compared television to indoor plumbing. “It didn't change people's habits,” said the master of cinematic suspense. “It just kept them inside the house.” If television chained entertainment-junkies to the couch, online video has now released their shackles.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

How Google or Apple Could Make Web TV a Reality: Spend Billions on the NFL — Sorry to bother you during earnings season, but I wanted to lob in an idea from the cheap seats. — I've been watching closely as all of you have tinkered with television for the last few years.

Discussion: Tech Deals and AllThingsD

Scott Timberg / Salon:

Cable TV to the rescue: Will the “quality” subscription model work for books, movies, music? — Movies are dying, bookstores disappearing, radio's awful — but it's a golden age of TV. Can we all learn from HBO? — Like a state covered by a range of microclimates, the culture world is a baffling and contradictory place these days.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times