Mediagazer: What really happened to ‘Reuters Next’ (Hadas Gold/Politico)

5:20 AM ET, September 20, 2013

Top News:

How Can You Miss Us if We Won't Go Away? — First things first: We're keeping the Steelcase hot-seat red chairs. Forever. In fact, we own quite a few now. — And we'll still be scooping and reviewing all things digital right here, at this Web address, for a few more months.

Discussion: New York Times, @starfire2258, @waltmossberg, @danielabarbosa, @felixsalmon and @monkbent

Kevin J. Delaney / Quartz:

AllThingsD founders are in talks to value their new venture at up to $40 million — Preparing to part ways with News Corp, the founders of All Things Digital are looking for investments to reboot their technology news site and events business under a new name, sources say.

Dow Jones:

Dow Jones confirms split with Mossberg and Swisher, plans to launch new tech conference — Wall Street Journal and All Things D Decide Not To Renew Agreement At The End Of the Year — For years, Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal has enjoyed working with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Folio, The Wrap, Forbes, GigaOM, AdAge, LA Observed, Talking Biz News, Bloomberg, @edmundlee, @edbott, @jbflint, @obrien, Mashable, Poynter, @cdixon, @suanzes, Adweek, Variety, @blam, @edwardroussel, @triciad, Business Insider, CNET, @edmundlee, Deadline.com, @wblau, @tim_stevens, The Verge, @vrajeshio, @joepompeo, @sonadelite, TechCrunch, Gawker, @tomgara, @danprimack, @rafat, @obrien, Hollywood Reporter, Talking New Media, @jhlava, @panzer, @dcseifert, @amir, Wall Street Journal and Fortune

Hadas Gold / Politico:

What really happened to ‘Reuters Next’ — On Wednesday Thompson Reuters' new CEO Andrew Rashbass announced the company was canceling the ambitious new digital news product Reuters Next. — Conversations with several Reuters insiders and people with knowledge of the situation show Rashbass …

Discussion: @dylanbyers, @kirabind, @jbenton and Big News Network.com

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Reuters nixes Next: Failed redesigns and the challenge of expanding a digital audience

Discussion: @antderosa, FishbowlDC, Talking Biz News, @jbenton, @jayrosen_nyu, @felixsalmon and BuzzFeed

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Reuters Next: Anatomy Of A Multi-Million-Dollar Misfire

Discussion: @forbestech, @forbes, New York Post, @jeffbercovici and FishbowlNY

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

New York Times Company to Start Paying Dividend — The New York Times Company announced on Thursday that it would pay a dividend to its shareholders for the first time in five years. — After a meeting of its board, the company said the board had voted to approve a dividend of four cents per share …

Discussion: Bloomberg, @nycjim, @edmundlee, Tech Trader Daily, 4-traders.com, Politico and @chcktylr

Jim Romenesko:

Four Gannett newspapers will get a daily USA Today insert — USA Today publisher Larry Kramer tells his employees that an edition of USA Today will go inside four Gannett papers starting Oct. 6. The papers involved in this pilot project — dubbed the Butterfly — are the Indianapolis Star …

Discussion: Guardian, Gannett Blog and @romenesko

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:
Indianapolis Star partners with USA Today to boost national coverage

Discussion: Indianapolis Star and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Wall Street Journal:

China Intensifies Social-Media Crackdown — Campaign Takes Toll on Public Debate, Popular Platform … BEIJING—A forceful campaign of intimidation against China's most influential Internet users has cast a chill over public debate in the country and called into question the long-term viability …

Discussion: Quartz and Digits

Daniel Miller / Los Angeles Times:

Entertainment business IPOs started and stalled — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.'s trademark (MGM) — Call it the summer of the showbiz IPO shakeout. — Over the last several months, a handful of entertainment business companies either took key steps toward or away from initial public stock offerings.

Jeffrey Grubb / VentureBeat:

Microsoft COO: 40 percent of Xbox Live's ‘audience’ are women — People love to watch digital video, and the Xbox 360 is one of the big ways they are doing that. Microsoft revealed today that 42 percent of Xbox Live subscribers watch 30 hours of movie and TV content each month and that 40 percent …

Discussion: VG247

J.K. Trotter / Gawker:

Russia Today Airs Fake Footage of Rebels Using Sarin Gas in Syria — Russia Today is a self-described “news” channel that happens to be owned and operated by the Russian government, and therefore serves as a reliable outlet for whatever Russian President Vladimir Putin would like you to believe is “news.”

Discussion: Politico, @dylanbyers, Brown Moses Blog and The Huffington Post

PJ Vogt / On The Media:

Upworthy Co-Founder Eli Pariser Explains What Upworthy's Doing and Why it Annoys Me So Much — Last week, Upworthy, the website built for viral progressive political content, secured $8 million in funding. I wrote a piece about how annoying I find it. I compared it to San Francisco …

Discussion: @pjvogt, @1uigi and @onthemedia

Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal:

Weinstein Co. Lines Up New Credit Facility — Movie Studio Says Financing Offers Flexibility for Acquisitions — Independent film studio Weinstein Co. is finalizing a credit facility worth around $370 million as it continues deal talks with Miramax, whose owner is seeking to sell or restart production with a partner.

Discussion: Deadline.com

Reuters:

Analysis: Canadian cable TV's ‘a la carte’ menu begins to take hold — (Reuters) - A transformation in how some Canadian cable TV companies sell channels to consumers might be a sign of things to come in the much bigger U.S. market. — With “a la carte” pricing, cable companies …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

DOJ To Reporter: We Can Prove You're Wrong, But We Want To Embarrass You, So We'll Wait — Over at Cryptome today there's an absolutely incredible exchange between the Justice Department's Brian Fallon (from the Office of Public Affairs — basically a PR guy) and Brad Heath, an investigative reporter from USA Today.

Discussion: @froomkin, @trevortimm, @jd_tuccille, @cryptomeorg, @cjciaramella, @froomkin, @felixsalmon, The Huffington Post and @kevharb

Sara Morrison / The Wrap:

Daily Mail Slapped With $3 Million Libel Lawsuit by Porn Actress — A softcore porn actress is suing Daily Mail's parent company Associated Newspapers Ltd. for $3 million, accusing one of the most-read news sites in the world of putting her photo on an article about an HIV positive adult actress without her permission.

Discussion: Gawker and Courthouse News Service

Erik Nielson / The Atlantic Online:

Did the Decline of Sampling Cause the Decline of Political Hip Hop? — Legal and financial limitations have put a damper on a musical tool that once served as an important way for rappers to connect with musical and social history. — Last week, the electronic artist Clive Tanaka filed …

Wall Street Journal:

Nielsen to Add Data for Mobile TV Viewing — Firm Also Will Roll Out Service That Measures TV Tweets — Nielsen has long been a kingmaker in the TV industry. Its ratings data, which tracks viewership of shows, determines how advertisers shell out some $66 billion annually.

Discussion: Variety, The Verge, Deadline.com, @elanazak, CNET, Betabeat and NetNewsCheck Latest

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Time Promotes Three, Hires 11 Staffers — Nancy Gibbs hasn't been managing editor of Time for long, but she has already made some big moves. Gibbs just sent out a memo announcing three promotions and 11 new hires. Below are the details, followed by Gibbs' full note.

Discussion: The New York Observer and FishbowlDC