Mediagazer: The Onion Is The Country's Best Op-Ed Page. Seriously. (Noreen Malone/The New Republic)

9:50 AM ET, September 2, 2013

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Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

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Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

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Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Esquire to launch weekly tablet edition — Esquire is aiming to shake up the monthly magazine market with the launch of weekly tablet edition designed to appeal to a younger generation of readers who grew up on digital content. The title, Esquire Weekly, launches on 5 September …

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Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Japan's Rakuten Acquires Viki Video Site for $200 Million — Japan's Internet e-commerce giant Rakuten is set to purchase Viki, a premium video site that has been described as “Hulu for the rest of the world.” — The deal was set to be announced next week …

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Spiegel Online:

NSA Spied On Al Jazeera Communications — Arab news broadcaster Al Jazeera was spied on by the National Security Agency, according to documents seen by SPIEGEL. The US intelligence agency hacked into protected communication, a feat that was considered a particular success.

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Ami Sedghi / Guardian:

Vogue, Tatler and other high-end women's magazines target teen market — Observers say move is attempt to secure future generation of readers in industry suffering endemic declines in print sales — With parted blonde locks, bubblegum pink lips and a knitted jumper thrown over a denim shirt …

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines

Al Jazeera English:

Egypt frees four-member Al Jazeera team — Four-man team set free after being detained for five days without charge, as three other staff are still in custody. — Egyptian authorities have freed a four-member team of Al Jazeera journalists after holding them in detention for five days without charge.

Discussion: @antderosa, Globe and Mail and The Huffington Post

Noreen Malone / The New Republic:

The Onion Is The Country's Best Op-Ed Page. Seriously. — I largely dislike reading op-ed columnists. All too often, columnists hem and haw and posture and drop references to their famous friends and fancy trips. They make points that are obvious. They are overly pious. They hew to the party line.

Discussion: @honourablehusba and @tnr

Alissa J. Rubin / New York Times:

Press Adds ‘What if?’ to Five W's in France — PARIS — What does a newspaper do over the summer in a country where nearly everybody goes on vacation at the same time? — With many French journalists (and their sources) away from late July to late August and many vacationing readers less inclined …

Discussion: @bachikarkaria, @africasacountry and @ibidibid

Felix Salmon:

Do online business models matter? — Nick Bilton has an odd column up about Business Insider and NSFWCorp — two publications which he has picked to represent the “reliant on ad revenue” and “reliant on subscription revenue” business models, respectively. He's particularly interested …

Discussion: @thelepathy and @mathewi

John Wihbey / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What's New in Digital Scholarship: Reporters ignoring technology, the continuing power of print, and booze on Facebook — Editor's note: There's a lot of interesting academic research going on in digital media — but who has time to sift through all those journals and papers?