Mediagazer: Bad sign for e-readers? E Ink sales plunge (Laura Hazard Owen/GigaOM)

3:50 PM ET, August 16, 2013

Top News:

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

AOL Starts Patch Cuts, and Up to 500 People May Lose Their Jobs — AOL has begun making mass layoffs at its Patch unit. — By the time the cuts are over, AOL could end up reducing the local news network's 1,000-worker labor force by half, according to people familiar with the plans.

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
Here's The Story Of How AOL Fired 350 Patch Employees Today

Discussion: @stevekovach

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
Patch Is Dying—Local News Needs Paywalls

Discussion: FishbowlNY and City Desk

Barton Gellman / Washington Post:

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds — The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Post, The Switch, ABC News, FishbowlDC, PerspecSys, @astepanovich, @umairh, The Fix, Guardian, Forbes, Techdirt, @washingtonpost, @davidfrum, Wired.co.uk, @justinbrookman, @zeigor, @xeni, ComPost, @alexjamesfitz, @bartongellman, @petersuderman, @7im, Firedoglake, WebProNews, msnbc.com, @davewiner, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Hit & Run, @samgustin, @laurenweinstein, @astepanovich, The Week, @blakehounshell, @gmarkham, Hillicon Valley, @antderosa, The Daily Caller, TechCrunch, MSNBC, WJLA-TV, Business Insider, @privacyint, Engadget, GigaOM, CNN, New York Magazine, The Dish, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, The Verge, @loteck, VentureBeat, @tonyphyrillas, @occupyoakland, @declanm, Mashable, Mediaite, The Next Web, @feardept, BBC, @onekade, @katecrawford, @mattblaze, @jamilsmith, @d_seaman, Mother Jones, @wiretapped, @quinnnorton, NPR, @dangillmor, ReadWrite, @kristinaribali, @radleybalko, emptywheel, @cmuratori, @boingboing and IRE.org

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Court: Ability to police U.S. spying program limited

Discussion: Techdirt, Electronic Frontier Foundation, @csoghoian, The Switch, The Fix, Hit & Run, @randyebarnett, @ggreenwald, The Verge, @washingtonpost, The Week, @privacyint, Gawker, @inego_, @ramez, @micahflee, @digiphile and @jayrosen_nyu

Zeke J Miller / TIME:

GOP Votes To Punish Networks Over Clinton Projects Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/08/16/ gop-will-vote-to-punish-networks-over- clinton-projects-friday/#ixzz2c985qBdX — The vote to boycott CNN and NBC as debate sponsors is expected to pass easily — Republican leaders will vote Friday …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wrap, Reuters, The Huffington Post, Variety, @poniewozik, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair and TheBlaze.com

Dylan Byers / Politico:

RNC's NBC, CNN boycott win for Univision — In a highly anticipated move, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Friday to deny NBC and CNN the rights to host or sponsor a Republican primary debate unless they cancel their respective Hillary Clinton film projects.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post and @thisisjorge

Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:

Fox TV Studios Won't Produce NBC Hillary Clinton Miniseries (Exclusive) — The project has prompted the Republican National Committee to ban the network from hosting 2016 presidential debates. — The tantalizing spectacle of Fox Television Studios producing a Hillary Clinton miniseries …

Discussion: @jbflint, @hellion1111 and @logandobson

Jack Shafer:

News never made money, and is unlikely to — Sometime in the mid-1990s, the Web began to peel from the daily American newspaper bundle its most commercial elements, essentially the editorial sections against which advertisements could be reliably sold. Coverage of sports, business and market news …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Edward Snowden To HuffPost: Media Being Misled — NEW YORK — National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden wants to set the record straight after individuals associated with his father have, in his words, “misled” journalists into “printing false claims about my situation.”

Discussion: Poynter, CNN, Reuters, msnbc.com, The Huffington Post, FP Passport, @jayrosen_nyu, Wall Street Journal, Techdirt and New York Magazine

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:
When you're in a Fourth Estate situation

Discussion: @jjn1, @ggreenwald and The Drum

Reuters:

Former Sun-Times owner ordered to pay $4.1 million — The Securities and Exchange Commission has banned former Sun-Times owner Conrad Black from acting as a director of a U.S. company and said he must pay $4.1 million in restitution in a settlement that ends a long-standing lawsuit …

Discussion: Guardian, GlobalPost, @kevglobal and Canadian Press

BBC: Conrad Black fined and banned by US

Gavriel Hollander / Press Gazette:

Nick Davies joins Paul Lewis in Guardian's US team as paper bolsters stateside reporting corps — Investigative reporter Nick Davies is set to move to Los Angeles to join The Guardian's burgeoning US team. — Davies, the author of Flat Earth News, shot to prominence with his revelations …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

News UK could face corporate charges in Britain — Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper business is being investigated over complicity with alleged phone-hacking and bribery of police and public officials by its journalists, raising the likelihood that it will face corporate charges in Britain.

Discussion: The Independent

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Bad sign for e-readers? E Ink sales plunge — Here's a sign that e-readers are struggling in the U.S.: E Ink Holdings, the Taiwan-based company that makes e-reader screens for companies such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony, just had its worst quarter in four years.

Discussion: Taipei Times and TechCrunch

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

BBC payoffs will not be investigated by Metropolitan police — Conservative MP Rob Wilson had called for an inquiry into six-figure severance payments to former corporation executives — Scotland Yard has decided not to mount a criminal investigation into severance payments at the BBC …

Rachel Bartlett / Journalism.co.uk:

Medium: One year of publishing ‘things that matter’ — Since launching in private beta last year, Medium has been building up its platform, which aims to offer a simple but ‘beautiful’ reading and writing experience — Read more — Other top stories — Also on Journalism.co.uk...

Discussion: @fmanjoo

Anna Clark / Columbia Journalism Review:

Does Gannett think its own papers matter? — As job cuts hit the chain, coverage—and answers—are in short supply — DETROIT, MI — Want to learn what the deal is with the hundreds of layoffs unfolding at Gannett newspapers across the country? You can get slivers of the story …

Gavin Aronsen / Mother Jones:

Meet the Journalist Spreading Michael Hastings Conspiracy Theories — “Whether it turns out to be true or not, that's a whole other issue,” says Kim Dvorak. — The Los Angeles Police Department has ruled out foul play in journalist Michael Hastings' fatal car crash two months ago in Hollywood …

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

CW launches CW Seed digital studio — The CW television network on Thursday launched with four Web series, including “The P.E.T. Squad Files,” about a group of misfits searching for ghosts. (CW) — CW Seed, an experimental digital entertainment studio and website, launched Thursday with four original Web shows.

Discussion: Examiner, C21Media, TBI Vision, tv.broadwayworld.com and The Wrap

Anadolu Agency:

Foreign journalists not to be accredited without approval of intelligence in Egypt — Egypt will give accreditation to foreign journalists with the approval of Egyptian intelligence and Ministry of Interior as of August 15 ANKARA (AA) - Egyptian authorities Friday made amendments …

Discussion: @katalystprods