Mediagazer: Penguin Ebooks Return to OverDrive, Go National on Axis 360 (Library Journal)

7:25 AM ET, September 26, 2013

Top News:

Liberty Media CEO Sees Benefits in A La Carte Proposal — Greg Maffei says a bill from Sen. John McCain has “many positive attributes” and discusses Charter's cable consolidation plans. — While most TV network owners have spoken out against a la carte pricing of pay TV channels …

Bryan Bishop / The Verge:

Time Warner CEO open to bundling online HBO subscription with broadband plans — Despite the rampant piracy of its shows and the proliferation of its streaming app across multiple devices, HBO has continued to rule out the possibility of an a la carte subscription for online viewers.

Discussion: Deadline.com, @reckless, @backlon, Home Media Magazine and Variety

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Netflix exec: HBO would have many more customers if it sold online-only subscriptions — HBO has long said that it has no plans to sell subscriptions directly over the internet, but Netflix CFO David Wells suggested Wednesday at a Goldman Sachs conference that the cable channel should rethink that decision.

Discussion: Consumerist and WebProNews

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

Rieder: Support crucial for non-profit journalism — Steve Waldman has a modest proposal for securing the future of non-profit news outlets. How about if companies that have flourished in the new economy — think Apple, Google, Verizon — stepped up to the plate and subsidized …

Discussion: @steve_katz and Big News Network.com

Library Journal:

Penguin Ebooks Return to OverDrive, Go National on Axis 360 — “Penguin will resume doing business with OverDrive as of this morning,” Penguin spokesperson Erica Glass told LJ on September 25. According to a blog post by Karen Estrovich, collection development manager for OverDrive …

Discussion: OverDrive's Digital …, Publishers Lunch, paidContent, Dear Author, Melville House Books, GeekWire, AppNewser and Digital Book World

Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:

Twitter Strikes Deal With NFL — Football League Will Produce Short, Ad-Supported Highlights Site — The National Football League has reached a deal with Twitter Inc. to make football highlights and other content available on the social- media service, the latest big partnership aimed …

Discussion: The Verge, Reuters, AdAge, Mashable, @besvinick, CNET, Engadget, Bloomberg and AllThingsD

Sam Thielman / Adweek:

The Web Is a Lab for Marketable TV Content, and Vice Versa Shows are increasingly ping-ponging between platforms By Sam Thielman — The lines between digital and linear distribution are a lot less blurry than advertised when it comes to the business models of cable television and the online space …

Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:

Internet radio services becoming more mainstream, survey says — More than half of online Americans now listen to Internet radio, and a lot of them do so through mobile devices including Apple Inc.'s iPhone. (Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg / September 17, 2013) — Internet radio's drumbeat is getting louder.

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

From Syria, On Spec: Wary of Staff in Harm's Way, Editors Leave War Coverage to $70 Stringers — Anna Therese Day had just returned from Northern Syria when The Observer met her at a coffee shop near Union Square on a recent afternoon. — A 25-year-old in pearl earrings and a filmy white top …

Adam Taylor / Business Insider:

Iranian News Agency Accuses CNN Of Fabricating Translation In Which President Rouhani Acknowledged The Holocaust — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly has been observed closely, with many wondering if he will take the same hardline approach …

Discussion: Fars News Agency, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Amanpour, New York Times, Amanpour, Amanpour, Erik Wemple, @jeffreygoldberg, @jaketapper, @jeffreygoldberg, @mcmoynihan, @camanpour, CAMERA Snapshots, Mediaite and Guardian

Katelyn Belyus / Folio:

Winning the Paywall Debate — Paywalls have their detractors, but here's one publisher's case in favor. — We're doing something revolutionary at The Nation: we're finally testing different paywall strategies. Sharing this is like dumping my purse on the table of a restaurant—it's a mixed bag of embarrassment and pride.

Randall Palmer / Reuters:

Canadian regulators team up to watch telecoms pricing — (Reuters) - Two of Canada's top regulators said on Wednesday they would cooperate to ensure affordable prices for telecommunications and broadcasting services, a key platform of the federal government's telecommunications policy.

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Jeff Bezos: Are You Throwing a Party for Your Guests — or for Yourself? — Amazon CEO Talks with ABC News about The Washington Post and Customer-Centricity — Amazon founder-CEO Jeff Bezos has some new Kindles to sell — which, so far, have been well-received.

Discussion: Today, The Wrap and AllThingsD

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Branded and owned by GE, run by Atlantic Media Strategies, Ideas Lab is a test for brand journalism — Brock Meeks remembers a time when online journalism of any stripe made media types as wary and disgruntled as sponsored content makes them today. Meeks, a ten-year veteran of MSNBC …

Discussion: @niemanlab and Ideas Lab

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Is Newt Gingrich breaking CNN's rules? — Just weeks into his new role, CNN Crossfire host Newt Gingrich has already broken some ethical rules set forth by the network's executive vice president of standards and practices, according to a new report from Media Matters For America, the liberal watchdog group.

Discussion: Mother Jones, @peterfhart, @ellnmllr and TheBlaze.com

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Pinterest sees growing number of journalists using the site, makes related changes — Oh, How Pinteresting! — Pinterest introduced new article pins Tuesday; links to articles you've pinned can include a story's headline and byline, plus a description as well as a link.

Discussion: Audience Development, Forbes and VatorNews

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

This American Watchdog? CIR and PRX pilot a radio show highlighting investigative reporting — The Center for Investigative Reporting is partnering with PRX to produce a pilot for a radio show called Reveal. The hour-long show will focus on investigative reporting and the behind-the-scenes process of producing it.

Discussion: @cironline and @niemanlab

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: Fast Company, blog.twitter.com, TechCrunch, VatorNews, ZDNet, Mashable and Pocket-lint

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: @niemanlab and @emilysteel

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: @gigaom, Mashable, Book Binge, Dear Author and Melville House Books

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.