Mediagazer: Comcast Developing Anti-Piracy Alternative to ‘Six Strikes’ (Exclusive) (Andrew Wallenstein/Variety)

7:20 PM ET, August 6, 2013

Top News:

David Remnick / New Yorker:

Donald Graham's Choice — “The pattern of a newspaperman's life is like the plot of ‘Black Beauty,’ ” A. J. Liebling wrote. “Sometimes he finds a kind master who gives him a dry stall and an occasional bran mash in the form of a Christmas bonus, sometimes he falls into the hands of a mean owner …

Chris Hughes / New Republic:

What Jeff Bezos Is Thinking — His purchase of the Washington Post makes perfect sense — It turns out Silicon Valley does give a damn about Washington. With Jeff Bezos's purchase of the Washington Post and the efforts of Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us, the Internet's enormous riches are showing …

Discussion: @tnr, @niemanlab, @franklinsquared, GeekWire and @jackshafer

Laura Bennett / New Republic:

Author of Bezos Book: 'He's Buying a Lot of Political Influence' — Businessweek senior writer Brad Stone has written a book about Amazon—titled The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon—that will be released by Little, Brown in October. Stone spent several years reporting the book …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Wonkblog, The Huffington Post, Slate, Mashable, Forbes, Business Insider, LA Biz Observed, Xconomy, @jyarow, Media Myth Alert, @ehmccormick and The Week

David Carr / New York Times:

The Washington Post Reaches the End of the Graham Era — In late 2012, Donald E. Graham, the chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Company, met with the paper's publisher, Katharine Weymouth, to look at the paper's future for the next three years. Their assessment troubled them.

Discussion: Washington Post, Poynter, The National Memo, New Republic, Forbes, Capital New York, @kaleekreider, GigaOM, FishbowlNY, @emmagkeller, Salon, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, Politico, TVSpy, @1bobcohn, @curtisbeast, @anupkaphle and @brianstelter

Evan McMurry / Mediaite:
'This Isn't Rupert Murdoch': Bob Woodward Praises ‘Innovator’ Jeff Bezos, Predicts ‘Renaissance In Reporting’

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, Fast Company and Forbes

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
If Anyone Can Save the Washington Post, It's Jeff Bezos

Discussion: TechCrunch, Poynter, Mediashift, The Huffington Post, Digital Media Wire and Magnify Blog

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:
Here's Why I Think Jeff Bezos Bought The Washington Post

Washington Post:
The Grahams: A family synonymous with The Post and with Washington

Discussion: TIME, Fast Company, Poynter, Forbes, Guardian, Digital Media Wire, @themarkberman, Top Digital Journal News and @ceciliakang

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff to Co-Anchor ‘NewsHour’ — The PBS “NewsHour,” which was co-anchored for decades by the two men who created it, will soon be co-anchored by two women. — PBS announced on Tuesday that Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff would take over the nightly newscast in September …

Discussion: PBS, TVnewser, Politico, @sengillibrand, @girls_inc, Hollywood Reporter, @ombudsman, @dorothylucey, @gwenifill, @wnyc, @hari, The Huffington Post, NPR and Boing Boing

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘New York’ magazine and ‘The New Yorker’ buck downward newsstand trend with stronger digital sales — New York's hometown weeklies are bucking one of the bleaker trends of the magazine industry, which as a whole faced a roughly 10-percent drop in newsstand sales during the first half of 2013, according to a report issued this morning.

Discussion: Alliance for Audited Media, New York Times, Adweek and Folio

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Magazine Newsstand Sales Down, Digital Subscriptions Up — The Alliance for Audited Media just released its first half circulation and sales data, and it's a mixed bag. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: Overall, single copy sales dropped 10 percent compared to the first half of 2012.

Discussion: GalleyCat, AdAge, FishbowlDC and SocialTimes

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Google's new search feature makes it easier to find seminal articles on big topics — When big news breaks, readers clamor for updates — but they also yearn for context. For example, when word got out Monday afternoon that Jeff Bezos had spent $250 million to become the new owner of The Washington Post …

Discussion: Inside Search, Poynter, support.google.com, GigaOM, TechCrunch, @lyssamcdonald, PandoDaily, Google Webmaster Central Blog, VatorNews and @randyabramson

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Disney Earnings Flat as Film Studio Weighs Down ESPN, Theme Parks — Disney reported little change in its third quarter earnings, as the strong performance of ESPN and the company's theme parks division were stymied by the wearker performance of the company's film studio.

Discussion: Variety, Forbes, Home Media Magazine, Radio & Television …, Page-Turner and Wall Street Journal

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:

SOPA died in 2012, but Obama administration wants to revive part of it — You probably remember the online outrage over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) copyright enforcement proposal. Last week, the Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force released a report on digital copyright policy …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Consumerist, WebProNews, @tagallagher, BGR and Techdirt

Tony Maglio / The Wrap:

21st Century Fox Reports Q4 Revenue Gain — The company split into two publicly traded firms on June 28, 2013 — 21st Century Fox Tuesday on Tuesday reported a revenue gain for its fiscal fourth quarter and a narrowing of its loss from the similar period a year ago.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and NetNewsCheck Latest

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Comcast Developing Anti-Piracy Alternative to ‘Six Strikes’ (Exclusive) — Cable operator pitching TV industry on plan to convert illegal downloads to legal transaction opportunities — Comcast Corp. is developing a new approach to fighting piracy in the U.S., and wants other major content companies and distributors on board.

Discussion: CNET, Ars Technica, GigaOM, @brianstelter, Forbes, Electronista, Plagiarism Today, Techdirt, WebProNews, Consumerist, Softpedia News, Business Insider, BGR, TorrentFreak and Engadget

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Rupert Murdoch pays tribute to ‘loyal and distinguished’ Richard Caseby as former Sun managing editor leaves News UK — News UK has confirmed that Sun managing editor Richard Caseby is leaving after 24 years with News UK and News International. — News Corporation executive chairman Rupert …

Discussion: @edgecliffe and Guardian

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Andrew Morse Expected to Leave Bloomberg TV for CNN — Bloomberg LP head of U.S. television Andrew Morse is planning to leave the financial news channel for CNN, TVNewser has learned. — At CNN Morse is expected be in a high-level role related to newsgathering, though his exact title isn't yet clear.

Discussion: Lost Remote and FishbowlNY