Mediagazer: Comcast and CBS Post Strong Results, Aided by Web (Brian Stelter/New York Times)

10:05 AM ET, August 1, 2013

Top News:

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Digital subscriptions up 35% at New York Times & IHT, 70% at Boston Globe — Circulation revenues in the second quarter of 2013 rose 5.1 percent over the same period the year before, a company earnings report says. Advertising revenue fell 5.8 percent over the same period. Overall, revenue was down by .9 percent.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Reuters:

New York Times Co reports slip in total revenue — New York Times Co reported on Thursday that revenue slipped almost 1 percent to $485.4 million, as gains in subscriptions to its flagship and other newspapers could not offset declines in advertising. — Total operating profit …

Discussion: GigaOM

The New York Times Company:

The New York Times Company Reports 2013 Second-Quarter Results — The New York Times Company NYT +2.53% announced today second-quarter 2013 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $.13 compared with $.25 in the same period of 2012. Excluding severance and the 2012 special …

Discussion: New York Times, StreetInsider.com and @edmundlee

Will Bunch / Philly.com:

The de-newspaperization of America — It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper. Now you have a few newspapers that make a profit because they are national brands …

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Despite Controversy, Rolling Stone ‘Boston Bomber’ Issue Is a Hit on Newsstands — Rolling Stone's “Boston Bomber” issue got a rash of bad publicity and retailers like CVS and Stop & Stop pulled it from shelves after a “Boycott Rolling Stone” campaign gained steam on Facebook.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Independent, @simonhoupt, The Big Lead, Daily Mail, Softpedia News, The Drum, Gawker, New York Magazine and FTVLive

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Comcast and CBS Post Strong Results, Aided by Web — Judging by the second-quarter earnings reported by two major media companies on Wednesday, the good times are still rolling in the television business. — Comcast reported that its earnings rose to $1.7 billion from $1.35 billion …

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
CBS President On ‘Illegal’ Aereo: 'We Don't Think It's Catching On At All'

Discussion: Home Media Magazine

Reuters:
CBS Earnings Beat Expectations, Sumner Redstone Endorses Les Moonves

Discussion: Radio & Television …, CBS Corporation, AdAge, Los Angeles Times, @jboorstin, @dana_mcclintock, @megjameslat, @dana_mcclintock, @jlafayette, @jboorstin, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com

RT:

Snowden granted 1-year asylum in Russia, leaves airport — NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is allowed to enter the country's territory. — The whistleblower has been granted temporary political asylum in Russia, Snowden's legal representative Anatoly Kucherena said.

David Batty / Guardian:

Twitter bomb threats to female journalists — Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman and Independent writer Grace Dent among women threatened — Police are investigating bomb threats made on Twitter against several female journalists, including Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman.

Eric R Danton / Rolling Stone:

Bradley Manning Hollywood Drama Planned — ‘We Steal Secrets’ makers seeking screenwriters for new film — A Hollywood drama about whistleblower Bradley Manning is already in the works: Variety reports that Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney and producer Marc Shmuger are seeking writers …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Moviefone Blog, Guardian and Digital Spy

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Did the media drop the ball on the Bradley Manning trial?

Discussion: @sulliview, @piratenpartij, @abeaujon, Foreign Policy, @niemanlab and Variety

David Carr / New York Times:
Whistle-Blowers in Limbo, Neither Hero Nor Traitor

Discussion: The Next Web and CNN

Christopher Mims / Quartz:

Google is testing a local news product for Google Now — Google has hatched a plan to boost the visibility of its existing local news product, and in the process is testing a whole new way to get people to pay attention to the news that is geographically most relevant to them.

Discussion: Street Fight, Fast Company, @bbccollege, GigaOM, TechnoBuffalo, The Verge, Yahoo! News, Search Engine Land, SlashGear, Engadget, Pocket-lint, @jason, TechCrunch, @tscurrie, @laureni, @digiphile, @vincos, @mathewi and @niemanlab

Christopher Flavelle / Bloomberg:

If Politics Is So Easy, Why Can't Journalists Do It? — Chrystia Freeland, a columnist and senior editor at Thomson Reuters, said last week that she's quitting her job to run for political office in Canada, where she was born. Freeland is an accomplished journalist and the author of a book …

Discussion: @edmundlee, @scroll, @scottbix, @bloombergview and @adwooldridge

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Netflix debuts multiple user profiles so your roomate won't screw up your recommendations — Members of a household using one Netflix account can each create their own viewing page — Netflix has built one of the world's most powerful recommendation engines.

Discussion: AllThingsD, The Next Web and Engadget

Sara Morrison / The Wrap:

Fox News Sues TVEyes for Copyright Infringement — Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation — Fox News Channel sued TVEyes, a $500-per-month TV and radio broadcast search service, for copyright infringement on Tuesday.

Discussion: Courthouse News Service, @mattcover and @buzzfeedandrew

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

German Publishers Can't Wean Themselves Off Google News, Despite Winning Copyright Law Change — Germany's new copyright law comes into force today but several major German publishers haven't rushed to pull their news snippets from Google News, despite lobbying in favour of tightening the law.

Discussion: GigaOM, Associated Press, Engadget, New Zealand Herald and The Verge

Reuters:

Music streamer Spotify doubles 2012 revenues after expansion — * Revenues hit 435 mln euros vs 190 mln in 2011 — * Expanding to Latin America, Asia this year — Music streaming web service Spotify more than doubled revenues in 2012 to 435 million euros ($577 million) …