Mediagazer: Online piracy of entertainment content keeps soaring (Richard Verrier/Los Angeles Times)

4:33 PM ET, September 18, 2013

Top News:

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Reuters Next Canceled — Reuters has decided to cancel Next, the consumer facing website that had been in the works for more than two years, Chief Executive Andrew Rashbass announced this morning in a staff email. — “Next is a long way from achieving either commercial viability or strategic success.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, New York Times, @nycjim, FishbowlNY, The Wrap, @felixsalmon, @kylestanding, @jbenton, @poynter, @stefanjbecket, @niemanlab, @justinnxt, @jayrosen_nyu, @hblodget, @henryjfoy, @jwherrman, @ryanchittum and Talking Biz News

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

NBC Universal Funded Study Shows, Yet Again, How Infringement Is Hollywood's Own Damn Fault — While we already discussed the MPAA's questionable new study trying to pin the blame for infringement on Google, MPAA member NBC Universal has released its “Digital Piracy Universe” study as well.

Discussion: Forbes and Disruptive Competition Project

Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times:

Online piracy of entertainment content keeps soaring — The amount of Internet bandwidth used to illegally download movies, TV shows, music, books and video games has jumped 160% since November 2011, a study says. — Measuring infringement content and more.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable and Plagiarism Today

Ted Johnson / Variety:
Showbiz Lobby Puts Capitol Hill Pressure on Google to Take Action on Piracy

Discussion: The Wrap, Home Media Magazine, Broadcasting & Cable, The Verge, Digits, WebProNews, TorrentFreak and Techdirt

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

BBC presenter does live broadcast clutching stack of paper instead of iPad — Simon McCoy baffles viewers by presenting news item after accidentally picking up refill pack of A4 — BBC News presenter Simon McCoy mistook a ream of paper for a tablet computer while presenting a report, to the bafflement of viewers

Discussion: Gawker, The Independent, The Huffington Post, Erik Wemple, @svaughanbrown, @charlesarthur and The Next Web

Jim Romenesko:

Star Tribune editor Nancy Barnes is named Houston Chronicle editor — Nancy Barnes, who has led the Star Tribune newsroom for six years, is heading to Houston to become editor of Hearst's Chronicle. The paper has been without an editor for a year. Managing editor Steve Proctor was put …

Discussion: Minneapolis Star Tribune, Houston Chronicle and The Blotter

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

BBC faces major review by MPs following recent scandals — Culture, media and sport select committee chairman John Whittingdale says payoffs row has given inquiry ‘more urgency’ — The BBC is facing a major review of its governance by MPs after a series of scandals that have beset the corporation in the past year.

Padraig Reidy / Index on Censorship:
Daily Mail backs the BBC Trust

Discussion: @batman101, @marshdavies, @paulreset, @marcashdown, @carlwaring and Daily Mail

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Modern Farmer Magazine Capitalizes on a Trend — HUDSON, N.Y. — When a fledgling magazine gets former President Bill Clinton to contribute an article, you would think he would be featured on the cover. But the cover model for the current issue of the quarterly Modern Farmer is a sleepy-looking goat.

Discussion: @niemanlab, @davidtamarkin, The Rural Blog, @harmancipants and @blakehounshell

Curt Woodward / Xconomy:

How Did Newspapers Blow It? Not Enough Engineers, NYT Publisher Says — It would be hard to single out just one mistake from the news industry's fumbled transition to the Internet era. But the most important newspaper publisher in America—Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. of the New York Times—says one stumble sticks out among the rest.

Discussion: @grady_booch, Thanks:@xconomy

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Shane Smith, Vice's $400 Million Man, Is New York's Newest Media Mogul — Who will be the next member of New York's media elite to join the FORBES 400, our list of the richest Americans? A few months ago, the obvious answer would have been David Karp, whose social blogging startup, Tumblr, was worth $800 million and rising.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Associated Press:

Azerbaijan journalist arrested 3 weeks before vote — BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A journalist in Azerbaijan will be held in custody for two months after being charged with illegal possession of a pistol, three weeks before the presidential election. — Parviz Qashimli's lawyer says his client denies …

Discussion: Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Agence France-Presse and GlobalPost

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Justin Smith on his new mission at Bloomberg — Justin Smith's “mission” as C.E.O. of the Bloomberg Media Group will be to “marry the incredible assets” the company's journalists have built over the past several decades with “emerging strategies for winning in the new global media landscape …

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

New York Judge Won't Stop Dish's Ad-Skipping Hopper — On Wednesday, a New York federal judge weighed in on the ongoing copyright and contract fight over Dish's AutoHop, an ad-skipping DVR service that television broadcasters have likened to an unauthorized VOD service that “will ultimately destroy the advertiser-supported ecosystem.”

Discussion: GigaOM

John McDermott / AdAge:

SpinMedia Revives Vibe as Quarterly, Considers the Same for Spin — Quarterly Theme Issues Will be Less Topical But More In-depth and Evergreen — Vibe magazine is celebrating its 20th birthday by announcing it plans to live to see 21. — Despite numerous reports this year that the magazine's …

Discussion: Media Wire Daily and FishbowlNY

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

The best magazine on the Internet? — If “slow media” needs a poster child, it can find one in Aeon Magazine, an online publication about culture and ideas that marks its first birthday tomorrow. In the space of a year, the magazine, started by a London-based Australian couple …

Josh Stearns / Index on Censorship:

The US shield law's dangerous precedent - and how to fix it — Josh Stearns argues that the US shield law sets a dangerous precedent by allowing the government to decide who is a journalist. (Photo: Wikipedia) — The Free Flow of Information Act - also known as the “Shield Law” …

Discussion: @jcstearns

Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:

Slacker launches Songza-like music stations tailored to activities — Screenshots of Slacker's new iOS 7 app. — Slacker Inc., a music streaming service, has introduced a new feature that it hopes will be a more personalized way to discover music through its app for Apple Inc.'s iOS devices.

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

Twitter's IPO Will Reveal How Many Fake Or Inactive Users It Has — And It May Not Be Pretty — When Twitter files its S-1 papers for its IPO, it will answer a simple question that has been a bit of a mystery for observers and fans of the company: How many users are on Twitter?

Discussion: The Next Web and VatorNews

Nancy Gibbs / TIME:

New Editor Nancy Gibbs Maps Out What's Next For Time — Every new editor of TIME gets the chance to reimagine it, and there has never been a more exciting time to do that. — TIME now reaches an audience its founders could have only dreamed of: 50 million people around the world, in print, online, on mobile.