Mediagazer: How Syria Media Advisers Decided Who Would Speak to President Assad (Brian Stelter/New York Times)

6:15 PM ET, September 16, 2013

Top News:

Will Oremus / Slate:

NBC, CBS Remind Us You Don't Have to Be on Reddit or Twitter to Misidentify a Mass Killer — Lest we think that Redditors, tweeters, and bloggers have a monopoly on rushing to judgment when tragedies are unfolding, a pair of network news stations today provided a reminder that premature reports are as old as the news itself.

Discussion: The Switch, Politico, Mediaite, @timkarr, Mashable, USA Today and @willoremus

Desiree Everts DeNunzio / CNET:

Washington Post drops paywall in wake of DC shooting — The Washington Post is suspending its pay gate in an effort to get information out to all readers. — The Washington Post has dropped its paywall for readers seeking more information about the shootings Monday morning in the Washington Navy Yard …

Discussion: Mediaite, NetNewsCheck Latest, New Yorker and The New Yorker Blog

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

The media's mistakes in covering Navy Yard shooting — Breaking news is never pretty — anyone who hungers for facts and speed during a story as fluid as Monday's shootings in Washington, D.C., is asking for a lot. Still, there were some notable screwups today, like...

Discussion: Gawker, The Huffington Post, Mediaite and @eelarson

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Navy Shooting Coverage Feels Depressingly Familiar

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Post, Gawker, Erik Wemple and @jcstearns

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Twitter's Third Act: A New Design to Court the Mainstream — Twitter has lots of users. It wants a lot more. — That is, in part, why it is planning a massive overhaul of its mobile apps, designed to make the service more appealing to mainstream users.

Discussion: Fast Company, VentureBeat, CNET, AppleInsider, @niemanlab, GigaOM, @crowdbooster, Pocket-lint, Yahoo! News, @pkafka, @miriamgottfried, MacRumors and App Advice

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Guardian Story on Israel and N.S.A. Is Not ‘Surprising’ Enough to Cover — Many Times readers have been writing to me for several days about a story The Guardian broke last week, describing how the United States routinely shares with Israel intelligence information that the National Security Agency gathers on American citizens.

Discussion: Politico, The Huffington Post, @ewenmacaskill, @kansasalps, @mlcalderone, @onekade, @sulliview, @erikwemple, @arusbridger, @mondoweiss, @ggreenwald, @emptywheel and Pressing Issues

Lizzie Widdicombe / New Yorker:

Bryan Goldberg's adventures in women's publishing. — A young man's adventures in women's publishing.

Discussion: @nicknotned, The New Republic, @scalzi, @whet, @newyorker, Gawker, @tasneemraja, @mbaratz, @mbaratz, Betabeat, @alexhern, Mashable, @tcarmody and The Huffington Post

David Carr / New York Times:

Storytelling Ads May Be Journalism's New Peril — When the guy who ruined the Internet with banner ads tells you that a new kind of advertising might destroy journalism, it tends to get your attention. — That's not entirely fair. Joe McCambley, founder of The Wonderfactory …

Discussion: @niemanlab, The Dish, @jeffjarvis, @hawkt, Kirk LaPointe's …, @carr2n, @jeremyzilar, eMedia Vitals, Canadian Magazines, @rajunarisetti, @brianstelter and @hunterwalk

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:
FTC to take closer look at “native advertising” trend

Discussion: Federal Trade Commission, cir.ca and Talking Biz News

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Politico Plans for New York Are Drawing Some Doubt — Until last week, Capital New York was an obscure Web publication that covered New York City culture and politics with a handful of staff members. It produced long, thoughtful pieces on topics like the Metropolitan Opera and the finances …

Discussion: @mikevilensky, @mlcalderone, @niemanlab, @escarry, @meriwetherk and @rachelsklar

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Netflix Uses Pirate Sites to Determine What Shows to Buy — Video streaming giant Netflix sees itself as one of the most prominent competitors to the many pirate sites that offer video content without owners' permission. — However, these pirate sites also offer Netflix valuable information …

Discussion: BBC, Techdirt, Businessweek, Business Insider, Wired.co.uk, Forbes, @jjloa, @skwerl, The Week, Softpedia News, WebProNews, @mindcrash, @codinghorror, CNET, The FJP, Daily Mail, Electronista, The Raw Story and Boing Boing

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

CNN Wins First Primetime Emmys with ‘Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown’ — CNN's “Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown” took home two Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards last night. This is the first time CNN has been awarded a primetime Emmy. (The network has won several News & Documentary Emmy awards).

Discussion: Deadline.com and CNN

Brian Anthony Hernandez / Mashable:
Netflix Wins Two Emmys for ‘House of Cards’ Over Major TV Dramas

Discussion: themusic.com.au, Hispanic Business Magazine and Deadline.com

Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:

Video isn't breaking the internet: The industry giants are — The web can't handle video, goes the common refrain. For example, Comcast estimates that if people wanted to watch the television content they watch on its pay TV service using the web, each home would consume 648 gigabytes per month.

Anya Kamenetz / Fast Company:

Upworthy is doubling its staff after $8 million Series A funding round — Upworthy, a content aggregator focused on emotionally hard-hitting “stuff that matters,” has announced an $8 million Series A funding round led by Spark Capital (early investors in Tumblr and Twitter) …

Discussion: Forbes, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, paidContent, Digits and @tomgara

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Tumblr Inks Firehose Deal With DataSift To Tumble Further Into The World Of Big Media Advertising — When Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion earlier this year, Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer and CFO Ken Goldman both pointed out that advertising on the site (and revenues from those ads) …

Discussion: CIOL, CNET, @eric_andersen, The Next Web, Softpedia News and WebProNews

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Eclipsed by rivals, Rhapsody reduces staff and ousts key managers — Rhapsody's managers were right in predicting more than a decade ago that consumers would one day flock to subscription music services. The only problem is, Rhapsody isn't one of the services they're choosing.

Discussion: @sandonet

Michael Malone / Broadcasting & Cable:

Nexstar to Acquire Citadel's Iowa Stations for $88 Million — Partner Mission Broadcasting swings deal to buy stations in Binghamton, N.Y. — Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Mission Broadcasting are teaming up to acquire five stations for a combined $103.25 million.

Discussion: Radio & Television …