Mediagazer: After Iraq, media skepticism on Syria (Dylan Byers/Reuters)

10:48 PM ET, August 29, 2013

Top News:

Nora Caplan-Bricker / The New Republic:

A Guide to Syria's Best Citizen Journalism — Well before the United States weighed an intervention, Syria had become the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. Legacy media outlets have, understandably, sent fewer and fewer of their reporters into harm's way …

Discussion: Wonkblog

Dylan Byers / Reuters:

After Iraq, media skepticism on Syria — For a moment, it looked like the media were going to follow quietly along as America bombed Syria. — But then the Iraq War — the bad intelligence, the disastrous fallout, the regret — stretched its shadow over the span of 10 long years, and the press sprung into action.

Discussion: @professorjoe33

Committee to Protect Journalists / The Huffington Post: In hopeful sign, two journalists escape Syria

Ben Popper / The Verge:

HuffPost Live laying off staff and shuttering LA office as it expands internationally — According to several sources familiar with the matter, HuffPost Live will be laying off around 20 staffer from its Los Angeles office, not counting stagehands, cutbacks that will essentially shutter the LA outpost.

Discussion: @simonmarksfsn, @alexckaufman, @triercompany, FishbowlNY, TVNewser, Folio, Media Week and AllThingsD

NPR:

Area Man Realizes He's Been Reading Fake News For 25 Years — Before Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert became establishments in news satire, there was The Onion. Thursday, “America's Finest News Source” turns 25. — Two college students founded the fake news organization …

Discussion: @clarajeffery, @imchriskelly, @ruhlman, @opbmorning, Kirk LaPointe's …, The Latest Word, @johnhenrysilva, PopWatch, @davechensky and @aparnamuk

Rosie Gray:
The Onion Denies Taking A Serious Line On Syria

Discussion: @michaelroston, The Onion, @_richardhall and Variety

Bloomberg:

Microsoft Is Said to Be in Talks to Invest in Foursquare — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is in talks with Foursquare Labs Inc. about a potential investment in the social-media company, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. — The talks are at an advanced stage, said two of the people …

Discussion: GigaOM, VentureBeat, Ubergizmo, TechCrunch, @amir, @dcurtis, @edmundlee, The Next Web, CNET, ZDNet, WebProNews and Digits

Dan Trombetto / Folio:

Esquire's Paywall Experiment — Behind the brand's latest attempt at paid content. — Esquire made big news in the world of paid Web content in July, putting one of its magazine features behind a paywall. “The Prophet”—for sale on Esquire.com for $1.99—wasn't the title's first experience with a paywall though.

Nick Bilton / NYT Bits:

A Tale of Two Online Business Models — Over the weekend, the tech blogosphere was in a tizzy over a profile of Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo. — While some readers slurped up the content in the piece, titled “The Truth About Marissa Mayer: An Unauthorized Biography,” …

Discussion: @carlschreck, @olivianuzzi, @slate, @davidsirota, @tonymanfred, @hblodget, @davemorgannyc, @mikeisaac, @kevinroose and @pkafka

Lynne Marek / Chicago Business:

Tribune's operating profit drops — Tribune Co., parent to 42 local TV outlets and eight major newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, said today that second-quarter operating profit fell 28 percent to $90 million, from $125 million for the same period last year, as both broadcast and publishing revenue declined.

Discussion: PR Newswire

Alexander C. Kaufman / International Business Times:

Exclusive: Aereo To Launch On Android In September, Says CEO — Aereo uses tiny antennas to pick up over-the-air signals and beam them to subscribers' iPads and computers. Courtesy of Aereo — Aereo, the upstart television streaming service, plans to launch its product on Android devices in September …

Discussion: CNET, Engadget, The Verge and GigaOM

Al Jazeera English:

Al Jazeera journalists detained in Egypt — Four-man team arrested on Tuesday, while two other staff members have been held for several weeks. — Al Jazeera correspondent Wayne Hay, cameraman Adil Bradlow, producers Russ Finn and Baher Mohammed are currently being detained by Egyptian authorities.

Discussion: Guardian, @monica_vv, @ajelive, @claytonswisher, @syedazman, TVNewser, @sosalam, @ajecathturner, @rosjordanaje, @thinink, @brianstelter, @afshinrattansi, @aymanm, @andrewchappelle and @erinmcunningham

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Domino to Relaunch as Quarterly Publication and E-Commerce Site — Domino, the decor magazine that Condé Nast folded in 2009, is staging a comeback. According to WWD, Project Décor — a social media platform for design fans — is relaunching the magazine as a quarterly print publication and e-commerce site.

Jason Zaragoza / AAN:

Small Market, Big Storytelling: A Multimedia Opus for the Rest of Us — C-Ville Weekly is out to prove that even smaller-market publications without an in-house development team can produce digital journalism that is attractive, accessible, and affordable. — Yesterday the Charlottesville …

Discussion: Mashable, Thanks:@jzaragoza1

Quentin Hardy / NYT Bits:

Troubles Ahead for Internet Advertising — When it comes to advertising, the Internet is at war with itself. — Much of the Web relies on advertising income, but anti-ad technology could put a dent in that revenue. A recent report from the Web service PageFair said that on average 22.7 percent …

Lara Setrakian / Tow Center for Digital Journalism:

The Rise of The Single Subject Platform — The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University — News has never been more readily available, to users and to the journalists who serve them. Any reporter with an Internet connection can set up a web-based media outlet, covering a unique beat.

Discussion: @syriadeeply and @digiphile

Joseph O'Halloran / Rapid TV News:

Akamai dominates cloud video service market — Even though some retrenching is expected, the cloud video service market is expected to be worth $2.36 billion by the end of 2013 according to a new survey from ABI Research. — The analyst's Cloud Video and Video Hardware Research Service report described …

Alex Kantrowitz / AdAge:

Gawker Tries Native Ads in Comments, With Help From Bill Nye — The science guy will take your questions, on behalf of State Farm — Sometime next Wednesday, celebrity scientist Bill Nye will take a seat in front of a computer and invite the internet to ask him whatever it wants.

Terry Heaton / Street Fight:

Joe Trippi: Local TV's Biennial Political Cash Bonanza Is Going to Fall Off a Cliff — If there was one thing that newspapers could count on to keep their margins high while serving as a buffer against potential problems, it was classified advertising. This automatic and assumed cash cow …

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Upvote with your remote: Reddit gets a Roku app — Reddit, meet Roku: An Austin, Tx.-based Reddit user has launched a Roku app to access the site's posts on a TV. — The unofficial Reddit Roku app, which is available for $5 in the Roku channel store, works best to consume photo-heavy subreddits …

Discussion: AdAge

Mark Walsh / MediaPost:

Tumblr's Coatney Joins Al Jazeera America — Al Jazeera America today announced former Tumblr media director Mark Coatney has been named the channel's first SVP, digital media. In that role, he'll oversee the network's Web site and be the “senior decision maker” for all things digital, according to a spokesperson.

Discussion: Poynter, The New York Observer, Fast Company and Mediabistro

Gavin O'Malley / mediapost.com:

CBS Interactive Adds 40 Sites To MaxPreps Franchise — Just because AOL is gutting Patch doesn't mean every publisher is second-guessing its “hyper-local” media strategy. Take CBS Interactive, which plans to expand its high school sports coverage by adding 40 new metro areas to its MaxPreps franchise.

Discussion: @mtoney, @edelauna and @maxpreps

Sarah Laskow / Columbia Journalism Review:

The lawyers hackers call — Tor Ekeland works out of the smallest office I've ever seen, in the kind of Brooklyn coworking space where a guy is inexplicably asleep in the common area at 2:30 in the afternoon. The office has three chairs and glass walls and is not much wider than the doorway.