Mediagazer: Senate Takes Initial Step Toward Media Shield Law (Henry C. Jackson/Associated Press)

6:50 PM ET, August 1, 2013

Top News:

Eric Deggans to leave Tampa Bay Times for job as NPR's first TV critic — Eric Deggans, TV and media critic for the Tampa Bay Times, will become NPR's TV critic. — After nearly 18 years critiquing television, media, music and pop culture at the Tampa Bay Times, I will be leaving the newspaper …

Discussion: The Wrap, Poynter, @charlie_mccollu, @nextgenradio, @timkarr, @nabjdigital, @moryan, @tb_times, @davidfolkenflik, @npraudie, @craigtimes, @brianstelter and @deggans

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

The NYT's $150 million-a-year paywall — Growth slows sharply, but digital-subscriber revenue is propping up the paper — The New York Times's once-torrid paywall growth continued to slow in the second quarter, adding 23,000 digital-only subscribers. — That's the second quarter in a row …

Discussion: Forbes, The Dish and @cjr

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: Nieman Journalism Lab, Boston Herald, NetNewsCheck Latest, FishbowlNY, Mashable, The New York Times Company, Forbes, Media & Entertainment, @learmonth, @vkw, NetNewsCheck Latest, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, @mathewi and Reuters

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

New York Times Profit Tops Estimates on Digital Subscribers — New York Times Co. (NYT), the newspaper publisher controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as it drew more subscribers for its digital editions.

Discussion: @paulxharris

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Times C.E.O. Mark Thompson stays the course in second-quarter earnings call

Discussion: Business Insider

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Can Marissa Mayer Save Yahoo? — Marissa Mayer is sitting in URLs, the Yahoo! (YHOO) cafeteria, making the case for the future of a company that almost everyone in Silicon Valley views as doomed. Employees swarm around her, assembling rows of chairs for the afternoon's FYI …

Discussion: CNET, The Verge, Business Insider and @clairecm

BuzzFeed:

Is Tumblr Shrinking? — Yahoo bought Tumblr because Tumblr has millions of young users. But are they sticking around? — Last November, David Karp posted on Tumblr's staff blog. “I have an exciting and slightly overwhelming milestone to share with you,” the site's founder and CEO said.

Discussion: The Verge, @ryanpbroderick, @michaelnoer and @jwherrman

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: Yahoo! News, Erik Wemple, The Independent, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, WebProNews, Daily Mail, @simonhoupt, Mediaite, The Big Lead, TheBlaze.com, Softpedia News, The Drum, New York Magazine, Gawker and FTVLive

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Plain Dealer plans special print section to explain shift to digital — The Plain Dealer, which laid off about 50 employees Wednesday, “plans a six-page special section in Sunday's paper to further explain the changes ahead,” Jay Miller reports. — The laid-off employees …

Discussion: Cleveland Magazine, Connie Schultz …, FishbowlNY, Cleveland Leader and Associated Press

Will Bunch / Philly.com:
The de-newspaperization of America

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, GalleyCat, @urvaksh, Columbia Journalism Review, @johnrobinson, @will_bunch, @jmartnyt, @jfdulac, Crain's Cleveland Business, @adamwagner1990, @majorcbs, Columbia Journalism Review, Talking Biz News, @franklomonte and @tom_derrico

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Fusion Launching October 28 With Nightly Jorge Ramos Program, Satire Block — Fusion, the upcoming cable channel from ABC News and Univision, will launch Monday October 28, the companies say. The channel will launch on a number of pay-TV operators, including Cablevision, Charter and Cox.

Discussion: New York Times, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and The Huffington Post

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:
Fusion Hires Former ‘Daily Show’ EP To Develop News/Satire Programming

Discussion: Variety, ABC News, Politico, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com

Cotton Delo / AdAge:

U.S. Adults Now Spending More Time on Digital Devices Than Watching TV — Digital Devices Now Get More Than Five Hours Per Day, According to eMarketer — American adults this year will for the first time spend more time each day using digital media than watching TV, according to a new report by eMarketer.

Discussion: CNET, Gawker, MediaPost, Financial Times, brafton.com, Marketing Pilgrim, Kirk LaPointe's … and eMedia Vitals

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.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Dish Hit With 53-Station Blackout in Fight With Raycom — Local stations go dark for satcaster in 36 markets in latest clash over retransmission payments — In the latest blowup over broadcast TV retransmission fees, Dish Network customers in 36 markets lost access to 53 television stations owned …

Discussion: TVSpy, EON and Broadcasting & Cable

Brendan Nyhan / Columbia Journalism Review:

The scandal attention cycle — How the media lost interest in IRS targeting, even as new facts emerged — At this point, the evidence on the Internal Revenue Service scandal is clear. Contrary to the initial hype, there is no credible evidence of White House involvement …

Discussion: Wonkblog and @aseitzwald

Henry C. Jackson / Associated Press:

Senate Takes Initial Step Toward Media Shield Law … WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel took a step forward on legislation to protect reporters and the news media from revealing their sources. But lawmakers put off until September a broader debate over whether Congress defines who is a journalist.

Discussion: rcfp.org and USA Today

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:

CBS Alternative Programming Head Jennifer Bresnan to Step Down — Jennifer Bresnan, executive vice president of alternative programming for CBS, will step at the end of the summer, the network said Thursday. — Bresnan, who's led the network's alternative programming since 2008 …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and Hollywood Reporter

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Hulu Plans to Hook Subscription Service Into Google Chromecast — Online TV joint venture says it is ‘actively working’ with Google to add Hulu Plus access to $35 streaming adapter — Google's cheap Chromecast Internet TV adapter already lets users stream free Hulu content to their televisions …

Discussion: AfterDawn.com, New York Times, IntoMobile, Gizmodo, WebProNews, SlashGear, Mashable, TechnoBuffalo, Softpedia News, The Verge, Broadcasting & Cable, Business Insider and Engadget

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Want to sell some Kurt Vonnegut fan fiction? Now you can, on Amazon's Kindle Worlds — Amazon's Kindle Worlds has secured a license to Kurt Vonnegut works like Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle, allowing users to write and sell fan fiction based on those works.

Discussion: GalleyCat, @feldmaniac, CNET, Amazon.com and Engadget

Rebecca J. Rosen / The Atlantic Online:

The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish — A book published during the presidency of Chester A. Arthur has a greater chance of being in print today than one published during the time of Reagan. — Last year I wrote about some very interesting research …

Discussion: The Switch and New Yorker

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.