Mediagazer: Nielsen's New Consumer App Is Really a Market Research Tool (Katy Bachman/Adweek)

3:25 AM ET, September 17, 2013

Top News:

Navy Yard shooting: CNN really, really cautious on ID'ing suspect — It was 3:54:15 p.m. CNN host Brooke Baldwin was talking with security expert Anthony Roman about how the authorities dealt with the suspect in today's Navy Yard shooting. She cut off her guest and announced some news …

Discussion: Washington Post, Gawker, Mashable, Mediaite and @carr2n

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

News outlets often stumble in quest for speed and accuracy — So much was misreported in the first few hours after the shooting rampage at Washington's Navy Yard. — Initial reports said that as many as three gunmen were involved. Then two. Then one. Then back to three. That four people were dead.

Discussion: USA Today, @tanyavea, @romenesko and PandoDaily

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: AllThingsD, Mediaite, The New Yorker Blog, New Yorker, This Just In, NetNewsCheck Latest and Poynter

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
The media's mistakes in covering Navy Yard shooting

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

Thomas Erdbrink / New York Times:

Iranians Gain Access to Facebook and Twitter — TEHRAN — Internet users in Iran were surprised on Monday to find that they could access Facebook and Twitter without having to evade the government's firewall, which had blocked direct access to the Web sites for years.

Discussion: New York Magazine, @katrinanation and @zenjournalist

Jason Rezaian / WorldViews:

Four years later, Twitter and Facebook flash back online in parts of Iran — TEHRAN - Facebook and Twitter were accessible to some Internet users in Tehran on Monday night without the aid of anti-filtering software, a very rare occurrence since just after the 2009 reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad …

Discussion: qz.com, @thomaserdbrink, AllThingsD, @bbcmonitoring, CNET, @ijournalista, @gordonmacmillan, The Verge, Digits, @tsimonite and @rhodes44

Lizzie Widdicombe / New Yorker:

Bryan Goldberg's adventures in women's publishing. — This spring, Jenny Hollander, a twenty-three-year-old Columbia Journalism School student, sent out her résumé for summer internships. “Where didn't I apply?” Hollander, who is from the U.K., said recently.

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

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.

Barry Levine / CMSWire.com:

Adobe, Major Magazines Release New Industry-Standard for Digital Readership — As magazines go digital, how is readership measured? This week, Adobe, the Association of Magazine Media (MPA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) is answering that question with the announcement …

Discussion: Folio, NetNewsCheck.com and Talking New Media

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

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: CNET, PR Newswire, @jherskowitz, @pkafka, New York Times and @sandonet

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

Nielsen's New Consumer App Is Really a Market Research Tool — Nielsen's new “topten” app seems harmless enough: offer consumers a quick and easy way to find out the most popular TV shows, books, songs, video games, movies and more. You know, the kind of rankings found in publications like Entertainment Weekly or the local newspaper.

Toronto Star:

Former journalists win Liberal, NDP nominations in Toronto Centre — Toronto, no stranger to newspaper wars, now has a whole new kind of media war looming in the Toronto Centre byelection — the battle of the former journalists. On Sunday afternoon, only blocks away from each other in downtown Toronto …

Discussion: Poynter

Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer / FP Passport:

Is Al Jazeera America Simply CNN, Minus Wolf Blitzer? — It's been just under a month since Al Jazeera America first hit the airwaves, and what a month it's been — with the Syria story lurching from seemingly imminent U.S. strikes to a looming congressional vote to this weekend's chemical weapons deal.

Discussion: Journalism.org, USA Today, The Atlantic Wire, Los Angeles Times, Politico, TheBlaze.com, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap and The Huffington Post

Geoffrey York / Globe and Mail:

Why China is making a big play to control Africa's media — When one of South Africa's biggest newspaper chains was sold last month, an odd name was buried in the list of new owners: China International Television Corp. — A major stake in a South African newspaper group might seem …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

Jasper Jackson / TheMediaBriefing:

How does the music industry get people to pay for digital content? — Music and news are very different businesses, but the digital age presented them both with a very similar problem: how do you get someone to pay for something they can get for free? — It's a question the music industry …

Discussion: @rajunarisetti

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 …

Sheera Frenkel / BuzzFeed:

Women Are Covering The Hell Out Of The Syria War — So Why Haven't You Noticed? — Female journalists are behind some of the most important reporting from the most dangerous place in the world for the press. Woman, promote thyself! — A woman looks on as a Syrian rebel poses for the camera near Aleppo, Syria.

Discussion: @jillfilipovic, @nicoletung6, FishbowlDC and BAGnewsNotes

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

How Syria Media Advisers Decided Who Would Speak to President Assad — Last Monday, ABC's George Stephanopoulos got the call that virtually every journalist wanted to get this week. Come to Syria, he was told, and President Bashar al-Assad will talk to you about the country's civil war and the West's threats to attack.

Discussion: @agusmoralespuga, Mediaite, TVNewser, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Libel proposals will have ‘chilling effect’ on newspaper investigations — Plans to cut cost of taking libel action against publishers or broadcasters risk vexatious claims, say campaigners — Government proposals to cut the cost of taking libel action against publishers or broadcasters will have a …