Mediagazer: BBC could be curbed under government plans to rein in dominance of media giants (James Chapman/Daily Mail)

1:45 PM ET, July 31, 2013

Top News:

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’ — • XKeyscore gives ‘widest-reaching’ collection of online data — • NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches — • Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history

Brian Fung / The Switch:
Senators lash out at NSA for excessive secrecy

Discussion: ODNI Newsroom Feed and BBC

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Greenwald: NSA hearing cancelled

Discussion: PolicyMic, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and @dylanbyers

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Good Jill, Bad Jill: The queen of The New York Times — April was an unusual, if not the cruelest, month for New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, who in September will mark two years on the job. On Monday afternoon, April 15, Abramson—who, at 59, is the first woman to serve …

Discussion: Poynter, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, The Atlantic Wire, The Huffington Post, @janinegibson, @amyohconnor, @calflyn, @moorehn, @nicohines and New York Magazine

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Social Video Startup NowThis News Launches The First-Ever News Channel On Instagram — A few weeks ago, Instagram announced Video, a way to share 15 second clips as well as photos with followers. Social web video startup NowThis News is taking advantage of it and launching the first-ever Instagram news channel.

Discussion: NewscastStudio, @nickidems, @julianxbrand, WebProNews, Business Wire and Beet.TV

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Facebook Said to Plan to Sell TV-Style Ads for $2.5M Each — Facebook Inc. (FB), seeking to break the long-held dominance of television over advertising budgets, plans to sell TV-style commercials on its site for as much as $2.5 million a day, two people familiar with the matter said.

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Facebook Draws More Young Prime-Time Viewers Than Major Networks — Facebook Inc. (FB), the largest social-networking company, attracts more 18- to 24-year-old people during prime-time viewing hours than any of four major television networks, a study from Nielsen found.

AAP:

Manning sentencing hearing to take a month — US soldier Bradley Manning's court martial moves to the sentencing phase, a day after he was convicted of espionage, but cleared of “aiding the enemy” in leaking US secrets to WikiLeaks. Manning on Tuesday was acquitted at a military trial …

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Voice of America, Al Jazeera English, Law and Sky News

Elias Groll / Foreign Policy:
What Does the Manning Verdict Mean for Edward Snowden?

Discussion: The Lede and The Guardian

Dan Gillmor / Guardian:
The Bradley Manning verdict is still bad news for the press

USA Today:

How the digital age has reshaped the ad game — Madison Avenue is quickly morphing into Digital Drive. — Technological advances have changed everything from where consumers watch TV to how they buy holiday gifts. In turn, ad agencies have revamped their hiring practices …

Discussion: PSFK and eMedia Vitals

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:
Should Publishers Fear Publicis Omnicom?

Discussion: @rickjwaghorn, @thebaltogroup and @joshsternberg

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Plain Dealer ‘eliminated the jobs of approximately 50 journalists’ — The Plain Dealer's promised layoffs took place Wednesday morning. About 50 people lost their jobs, one report says. — “Many of those let go will be familiar names to readers - reporters, columnists …

Discussion: Erik Wemple and @banditelli

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

Spotify in 2012: revenues of $577.1m and a net loss of $77.9m — Streaming music service Spotify has published its latest financial results in Luxembourg, revealing strong growth in revenues for 2012 but an increase in the company's net losses. — Spotify's revenues were €434.7m …

Reuters:
Music streamer Spotify doubles 2012 revenues after expansion

Discussion: Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch

James Chapman / Daily Mail:

BBC could be curbed under government plans to rein in dominance of media giants — The BBC could be included in a move to limit media ownership, the Government announced yesterday. — Culture Secretary Maria Miller launched a consultation on rules governing media plurality …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, The Australian, TBI Vision, @democracyfail, Guardian and broadcastnow.co.uk

Jonathan S. Landay / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

McClatchy asks Obama administration if U.S. helped New Zealand collect data on journalist — WASHINGTON — The McClatchy Co. asked the Obama administration on Tuesday to explain news reports in New Zealand that U.S. intelligence agencies had helped that country's military track cellular telephone calls …

Discussion: InvestigateDaily, Bloomberg, @jonathanlanday, Sydney Morning Herald, Associated Press, HeraldSun and Committee to Protect …

Chris Trotter / The Daily Blog:
Lone Wolf: Jon Stephenson and his Search for the Truth

Discussion: @jmnicholls, @maxdcoyle and @feyhag

Gary Shteyngart / New Yorker:

Confessions of a Google Glass Explorer. — On a weekday afternoon in late June, a nondescript forty-year-old man in beige shorts, a blue Penguin sports shirt, and what appears to be a pair of shale-colored architect's glasses with parts of the frame missing gets on an uptown No. 6 train …

Discussion: The Verge, @justinpickard, @omarg, @ewanpearson, @lcatino, Engadget, The Next Web, Marketing Land, The New Yorker Blog and bookforum.com

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:
How Vice's Tim Pool used Google Glass to cover Istanbul protests

Discussion: @andysherry, @tomo_taka1, @audreydomasian, @flohmann, @btrpkc, @panzer, GigaOM, @vice and @marcsettle

Spencer E. Ante / Wall Street Journal:

Report Finds MIT Didn't Push Aaron Swartz Prosecution but Says It Failed to Lead — A Massachusetts Institute of Technology report concluded the university acted prudently in the way it handled its involvement with the government's prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz …

Discussion: Salon, TarenSK, Wired, Chicago Sun Times, @semanticwill, TIME and Digits

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Viacom Demands New Judge in YouTube Copyright Fight — An appeals court is primed to review the long-running dispute a second time. — After swinging and missing twice, Viacom is telling an appeals court it needs an umpire who isn't blind to YouTube's alleged copyright infringement.

Discussion: BLOUIN BEAT, Business Insider and Plagiarism Today

Todd Spangler / Variety:

HBO Go Is Coming to Google Chromecast — HBO — looking to keep pace with online rival Netflix — is planning to bring its Internet-video service to Google's cheap Chromecast device for TVs. — “We are actively exploring supporting Chromecast as another way for our subscribers to enjoy HBO Go …

Discussion: Slate, ReadWrite, CNET, Boing Boing, Electronista, BGR, TechnoBuffalo, Broadcasting & Cable, Pocket-lint, The Verge and GigaOM

Bloomberg:

Silicon Valley's Bid for $100 Billion Slowed by Hollywood — Armed with billions in cash and promising advanced features, Intel Corp. (INTC), Google Inc. (GOOG), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Sony Corp. (6758) are gunning to take on cable, phone and satellite companies by offering pay TV via the Web.

Ryan Singel / Wired:

Now That It's in the Broadband Game, Google Flip-Flops on Network Neutrality — In a dramatic about-face on a key internet issue yesterday, Google told the FCC that the network neutrality rules Google once championed don't give citizens the right to run servers on their home broadband connections …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, GigaOM, Yahoo! News, The Verge, Boing Boing and Mashable