Mediagazer: Belgian Racist Uses Spurious Copyright Claim to Censor Libertarian Websites (Jesse Walker/Hit & Run)

2:55 PM ET, September 25, 2013

Top News:

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Lloyd's List, the world's oldest newspaper, to give up on print — Lloyd's List, which lays claim to be the world's oldest continuously published newspaper, is to become a totally digital entity by the end of this year. — The paper, founded in 1734, is regarded as the leading news …

Discussion: Lloyd's List, FishbowlNY, Informa News and The Huffington Post

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

If Popular Science cares about science, why not try to fix comments instead of killing them? — Popular Science magazine says it is shutting down comments because they are “bad for science,” but what's really bad for science is closing off a potential avenue for informed debate around the topics the site is writing about.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Slate, Yahoo! News, ComPost, @talkingnewmedia, The Week, Guardian, Geekosystem, Rhetorica, Boing Boing, @michaelshermer, The Daily Caller, @616earth and Popular Science

Liam Corcoran / Wannabe Hacks:

EXCLUSIVE - Guardian and Cardiff scrap plans for Journalism MA — The Guardian and Cardiff University have scrapped their plans to launch a journalism masters degree. — There was much publicity last year when the joint venture, for a course in Journalism with Digital Media …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

How many people really pay for digital news? — Now that roughly a third of the nation's newspapers are charging for access to their web and mobile content, the early evidence suggests that digital audiences aren't nearly as enthusiastic about paying for news as publishers are about charging for it.

Discussion: @emilysteel

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Twitter Debuts Emergency Alerts Service — Here's another use case for Twitter, the social network that wants to be everywhere: Emergency service aid. — The company on Wednesday unveiled its Alerts service, a way for agencies to deliver “accurate information from credible organizations” during times of crisis.

Discussion: TechCrunch, blog.twitter.com, Mashable and The Next Web

Leslie Picker / Bloomberg:

Belo Said to Have 70% Shareholder Support for Gannett Offer — Belo Corp. (BLC), the TV station owner that is the target of a $1.5 billion takeover bid by Gannett Co., has support from more than 70 percent of its shareholders for the deal, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: Radio & Television … and Gannett Blog

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

A Comcast-Fox Deal for Catalog TV Rights Could Hurt Netflix — Potential Fox-Comcast pact portends a troubling trend for SVOD biz — With three Emmy statuettes now on its mantle, this should be a carefree time at Netflix. Were it only that simple. — A Wall Street Journal story hit …

Discussion: @pkafka, @simonowens and Yahoo! News

P.J. Bednarski / mediapost.com:
Iger Sees Little Cord-Cutting, Says Netflix is Good, Not Dominant

Discussion: MediaPost, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Home Media Magazine and Deadline.com

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

As Goodreads grows up, it can't please everyone. Should it try? — Goodreads, a social networking site for book lovers, has grown a lot since its acquisition by Amazon earlier this year. And as it adds members, it's facing some of the same challenges that big online communities like Twitter and Reddit have experienced before it.

Discussion: Dear Author, Melville House Books, ComPost, Book Binge and AppNewser

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Amazon Tries Breaking From the Streaming-Video Pack With Offline Viewing for New Kindles — Amazon has been spending a lot of time and money trying to catch up to Netflix in the subscription-video race. So far, not much luck: Many more people seem to be watching video via Reed Hastings's service.

Discussion: GigaOM, PublishersWeekly.com, GigaOM, Variety, CNET, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and ZDNet

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:

USA Today's Larry Kramer: Newspapers must aid discovery and deliver unique content to survive — TheGrill: USA Today Publisher - Newspapers Must Be Conversation-Starters in the Digital Age (Video) — Unique content and the reader's process of discovery are the key to the survival …

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

YouTube rolls out a new royalty-free music library — The number of songs you're legally allowed to mix into the personal videos you upload to YouTube is understandably low when it comes to well-known songs. — For this reason, YouTube is launching a new royalty-free audio library …

Discussion: TechCrunch, youtubecreator.blogspot.ch, Engadget, NYT Bits, Inquirer, Geekosystem, Mashable, The Verge, Softpedia News and Pocket-lint

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

Jeff Bezos: Washington Post Purchase ‘Is A Personal Investment’ — Jeff Bezos spoke out about buying the Washington Post on television for the first time on Wednesday's “New Day.” — Speaking to CNN correspondent Dan Simon, he said that that he was hopeful about the road ahead and his ability to contribute to the organization.

Discussion: Today, Poynter, The Verge, ABC News, FishbowlDC, CNN, Businessweek and International Business Times

Jesse Walker / Hit & Run:

Belgian Racist Uses Spurious Copyright Claim to Censor Libertarian Websites — Two left-libertarian organizations, the Center for a Stateless Society and Students for a Stateless Society, are fending off a bigot who believes his critics don't have a right to quote his words while criticizing him.

Discussion: Techdirt

Mahesh Sharma / TechCrunch:

Verdict On Pakistan YouTube Ban Delayed As Case Is Moved To High Court Full Bench — The year-long saga of the Pakistan government's YouTube ban has just taken another twist, as a case to unblock the website has been referred to a panel of Lahore High Court justices who will now decide whether …

Discussion: Softpedia News, VentureBeat and The Next Web

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:

Sudan loses Internet access — and it looks like the government is behind it — Internet intelligence corporation Renesys confirmed reports Wednesday that Sudan has been cut off from the Internet. Al Arabiya reported earlier Wednesday morning that Internet access was cut and schools …

Discussion: @antderosa, Guardian, Mashable and Softpedia News

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

AOL CEO Leads Charge to Pry Ad Dollars From TV — Automated Ad Exchanges Are Key to AOL Strategy to Woo TV Dollars to Online Video — AOL Inc. Chief Executive Tim Armstrong stood on stage Monday amid thumping music and arty projections, once again playing cheerleader for an online video industry …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Al Jazeera English:

Egypt shuts down Brotherhood newspaper — Office of Freedom and Justice daily raided and contents seized, days after court ordered movement's funds frozen. — Egyptian authorities have shut down the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice newspaper in Cairo.

Discussion: Gulf News, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Huffington Post

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Roku updates its set-top box line with new features and sweetheart content deals — Roku is today refreshing its family of set-top streaming boxes with a modest set of improvements and new features. The Roku 3 remains unchanged as the company's flagship box, but every model beneath it has been refreshed …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Bloomberg, GigaOM, Variety and Wired

Ted Johnson / Variety:

FCC to Propose Rule That May Limit Media Ownership — The never-ending debate over media consolidation this week will focus on an esoteric rule that involving how the FCC calculates whether groups like Sinclair, Univision and Fox meet or exceed caps on station ownership.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Wall Street Journal’ editor Gerard Baker decries native advertising as a ‘Faustian pact’ — Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker took to a podium last night and warned of the dangers of “native advertising,” a big buzzword these days describing the practice of presenting brand-generated content in the style of editorial.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Malone Says Reaching Time Warner Cable Deal Still Makes Sense — Billionaire John Malone, the largest investor in Charter (CHTR) Communications Inc., is still aiming to convince Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) that teaming up is in both companies' best interests.

Christopher Arns / Sacramento Business Journal:

California governor signs anti-paparazzi bill into law — The Kim Kardashians of the world can rest easy now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed an anti-paparazzi bill into law. Senate Bill 606, authored by Los Angeles Democrat Kevin De León, would protect the children of public figures …

Discussion: Associated Press, Business Standard, Los Angeles Times and Celebrity-gossip.net

Agence France-Presse:

Morocco journalist charged with inciting ‘terrorism’ — A Moroccan journalist arrested last week for posting a link to an Al-Qaeda video threatening Morocco has been charged with defending and inciting “terrorism”, his lawyers said on Wednesday. Ali Anouzla, director of the Arabic version …

Discussion: Reuters

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC rated UK's top source for news — Media regulator Ofcom's report shows television is the most important platform for news, with 34% of adults turning to BBC1 — More than half of people in the UK regard the BBC as their single most important source of news, according to new figures released by media regulator Ofcom.

Discussion: @marcsettle