Mediagazer: Identity crisis — Why journalists should drop the push … (Joel Simon/Columbia Journalism Review)

10:25 AM ET, September 5, 2013

Top News:

Jeff Bezos to his future Washington Post journalists: Put the readers first — Jeffrey P. Bezos had a simple bit of advice for the staff of the newspaper he'll soon own: Put readers, not advertisers, first. Don't write to impress each other. And above all, “Don't be boring.”

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, Talking Biz News, @kiagregory, @jason_kint, @giner, @bomani_jones, bizjournals, Poynter, The Huffington Post and Dead Tree Edition

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

Bezos courts Washington Post editors, reporters — The Washington Post's new owner Jeffrey P. Bezos, long wary of journalists, held a series of meetings with the paper's editors and reporters Wednesday, saying that he is optimistic about the future of journalism and wants to create a …

Erik Wemple:

Jeff Bezos and the Internet's aggregational appetites — In an interview with The Washington Post's Paul Farhi, Jeff Bezos, The Post's next owner, spoke of a new, reader-centric “golden era” for the newspaper. En route to that era, however, Bezos cited a challenge or two.

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, @dabeard, @jayrosen_nyu, Guardian and Washington Post

Jessica Meyers / Politico:
Jeff Bezos new to journalism — but not free speech issues

Discussion: @tjortenzi and Big News Network.com

Alex Kantrowitz / AdAge:

The New York Post Gets a New Digital Look, And New Ad Units — An Improvement Over a Website That Seemed Stuck In the '90s — After years of operating a website which seemed to belong in the 1990s, the New York Post introduced a revamped, modern version today, and a set of new ad products to boot.

Discussion: Media Wire Daily, FishbowlNY, The Awl, Capital New York, eMedia Vitals, @zseward, @natives and @huffpostmedia

Janis L. Magin / Pacific Business News:

HuffPost Hawaii only adds to the world's distorted view of Paradise — Nearly 20 years ago, I was stuck in the middle seat of a five-seat row on a connecting flight from Chicago to Honolulu. The woman seated to my left, who was from Iowa, asked whether I had been to Hawaii before, and I told her I had.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Janis L. Magin / Pacific Business News:
Huffington, Omidyar launch HuffPost Hawaii website

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @jbenton and Civil Beat

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Is Barrett Brown a journalist or an activist? Regardless of the answer, his case is an outrage — By now, most people have probably heard of Edward Snowden, the former CIA contractor who leaked the NSA's surveillance documents, as well as Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, the Army private who leaked diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

Discussion: @pelyoneast, @annalist, @jeffjohnroberts, @buzzfeedben, Kirk LaPointe's …, Techdirt and The Raw Story

Kevin Krause / Crime Blog:
Federal judge issues gag order on attorneys in criminal case of man tied to hackers

Discussion: Daily Dot

Eric Nicholson / Unfair Park:
Barrett Brown Agrees to Stop Talking to the Media

Discussion: RT, Crime Blog, @freedomofpress, Free Barrett Brown, @apblake, @youranonnews, @dellcam, @dellcam, @douglaslucas, @douglaslucas, @douglaslucas and Guardian

Wall Street Journal:

Dish, Disney Gird for Showdown Over ESPN — Dish Network Corp. chairman Charlie Ergen has long railed against the high cost of sports on TV. Now he has a chance to do something about it. — Dish's agreement to carry ESPN, the highest profile and most expensive of the national sports channels, expires at the end of September.

Discussion: The Desk

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Former Yahoo and Microsoft Media Exec Scott Moore Tapped as Cheezburger President and COO — Cheezburger, the Seattle-based humor site famous for LOLcat photos, has hired well-known former Yahoo and Microsoft exec Scott Moore as its new president and COO. — Moore will be “responsible …

Mike Shields / Adweek:

Pressure Mounts on Yahoo's De Castro — Yahoo finally got its latest ad savior yesterday when the company officially announced that former AOL executive Ned Brody will become svp of Americas, reporting directly to chief operating officer Henrique De Castro.

Discussion: Beyond Search, AdExchanger, @jyarow and Business Insider

Yahoo!:

Introducing Our New Logo! — We're excited to share the new Yahoo logo with you. It will begin appearing across Yahoo properties globally tonight. — We wanted a logo that stayed true to our roots (whimsical, purple, with an exclamation point) yet embraced the evolution of our products.

Discussion: Marissa's Tumblr, AdAge, Forbes, Betabeat, NetNewsCheck Latest, Fast Company, Digits, AllThingsD, Co.Design, FishbowlNY, TechCrunch, ZDNet, Digital Trends, @jesusdiaz, Engadget, Mashable, The Verge, @rsg, VentureBeat, Softpedia News, Business Insider, The Next Web, Philly.com, GigaOM and Gizmodo

Joel Simon / Columbia Journalism Review:

Identity crisis — Why journalists should drop the push for special protection and just defend freedom of expression — Are you a journalist? A Turkish police officer fires tear gas during an anti-government rally near Taksim Square in Istanbul in July.

Discussion: @freedomofpress and @jcstearns

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti Says The Site Is Profitable, With 85M Uniques And 300+ Employees — BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti published a memo to employees today that laid out some details about the site's growth, as well as its plans for the coming year.

Discussion: LinkedIn, paidContent, Beet.TV, @dubois, @chrislhayes, @derekwillis, @fmanjoo, @keithrhernandez, @buzzfeedben, @tobyharnden, @michaeldweiss, @emilybell, @adrianlurssen, @tolles and @danswright

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

25% of people have posted anonymous comments, Pew finds — A quarter of all Internet users have posted anonymous comments, a Pew study about online anonymity says. — But when it comes to posting any material online, people “are more likely than not to attach their name or a recognizable screenname …

Discussion: Fast Company, TechCrunch and 24/7 Wall St.

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

NSA Media Coverage Skyrocketed In The Wake Of Snowden Leaks — Media coverage of the National Security Agency has exploded, according to a new report by Dow Jones. The wire service crunched the numbers from its Factiva service, which archives news stories from thousands of outlets around the world …

Discussion: Mashable

David Yanofsky / Quartz:

Pandora claims not to be particularly worried about the launch of iTunes Radio — Apple will add to a long list of online music services next week when it launches iTunes Radio. While many companies would tremble at the thought of Apple planting a flag in their market, Pandora hasn't flinched …

Associated Press:

Second Journalist Killed in Philippines in a Week — Philippine police say a newspaper editor who wrote about illegal gambling has been killed, the second journalist slain in the country in a week. — Police chief D'Artagnan Katalbas of Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental province …

Andrew Leonard / Salon:

The Internet's next victim: Advertising — What the story of AdBlock Plus tells us: The online economy is broken, and won't be easy to fix — “Everyone agrees that advertising on the Internet is broken,” says Till Faida, CEO of Adblock Plus, creator of by far the most popular ad-blocking software on the Web.

Discussion: AdAge, @salon and @ecitydave

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Sony 4K TV Internet Video Service Will Bump Into Bandwidth Caps — Want to watch “Breaking Bad” in glorious Ultra HD, which offers four times the resolution of typical high-def? Today, getting the bleeding edge in home-video entertainment requires a pricier Sony 4K TV and media player …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Pocket-lint and Gizmodo

Digits:

Manjoo Joins Wall Street Journal as Technology Columnist — Farhad Manjoo, a leading and influential Silicon Valley voice, is joining the Wall Street Journal as a columnist writing about technology companies, issues, people, products and trends. — Manjoo, who currently writes for Slate …

Discussion: @lheron, @anthonyha, @sarahcuda, @felixsalmon, @beneisen, @scottmaustin, @fmanjoo, @dangillmor, @geoffreyfowler and @evelynrusli

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

The Sun's stolen mobile ‘conspiracy’: They were just reporters doing their jobs — One of the unexpected consequences of the various police inquiries stemming from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal was the exposure of what the Met Police described as a “suspected conspiracy involving …

Discussion: Guardian

Michelle Clancy / Rapid TV News:

ITV opens ITV Studios US — UK broadcaster ITV has appointed Paul Buccieri to lead a new ITV Studios US group. — The formation of the stateside group, which will house ITV Studios America, comes after the acquisition of US producers Thinkfactory Media, High Noon Entertainment and Gurney Productions.