Mediagazer: Disney once again considering sale of local TV stations (Claire Atkinson/New York Post)

4:30 PM ET, October 18, 2013

Top News:

Raju Narisetti / Digiday:

To Save Journalism, News Needs to Buy Into Data — Smart news organizations will move from a “tracking” mentality that simply lists what audiences are doing to focus on what any such insight could mean for both journalism and the business of journalism. Newsrooms need to embrace the kind of number-crunching more common to marketers.

Discussion: @owenthomas and @albertocairo

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab: The newsonomics of “Little Data,” data scientists, and conversion specialists

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Disney once again considering sale of local TV stations — Walt Disney Co. is looking to hire an investment bank to explore a possible sale of its eight owned and operated television stations, a move that could reap billions, The Post has learned. — Disney's ABC-affiliated stations …

Discussion: Digits, Los Angeles Times and TVSpy

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

YouTube Becoming a Mobile First Company — Remember last year, when the YouTube app disappeared from iPhones, then returned, as part of YouTube's effort to overhaul all of its mobile apps? — Now we can see why YouTube placed such high importance on controlling its mobile experience …

Discussion: TechCrunch, @newswhip, @pkafka, Softpedia News and Yahoo! News

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BBC Worldwide to take on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu with new strategy — Commercial arm to fold plans for global iPlayer into BBC.com, roll out digital store and boost programming spend by £30m — BBC Worldwide chief Tim Davie has unveiled his vision for the future of the corporation's commercial arm …

Discussion: GigaOM, Broadcasting & Cable and Variety

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Associated Press Is the Latest News Organization to Try Sponsored Content — The Associated Press is planning to introduce sponsored articles into the stream of news stories on its mobile apps and hosted websites. The rollout is expected in early 2014, with potential sponsorship deals …

Discussion: @bgrey, Thanks:@steverubel

Guardian:

UK's top prosecutor defends journalists who break law in public interest — Keir Starmer says his guidelines are drafted to let journalists pursue difficult stories without fear of prosecution — Britain's most senior prosecutor has launched a robust defence of journalists who break …

Discussion: @arusbridger, @suigenerisjen and GigaOM

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Aereo comes to Detroit on October 28. Can it really hit 22 cities by the end of 2013? — Aereo is coming to Detroit and surrounding counties on October 28, the company announced Friday. — Detroit is the thirteenth city where Aereo has announced plans to launch this year.

Discussion: All Aereo, Broadcasting & Cable, Radio & Television …, The Wrap, TechCrunch and Softpedia News

Evan Dashevsky / TechHive:

BitTorrent teams up with Vice to distribute original video content for hipsters — In a further bid to re-brand itself as a legit medium rather than a mere playground for content pirates, Bit Torrent has teamed up with Brooklyn-based youth culture juggernaut Vice Media to distribute original video content.

Discussion: The Wrap, Betabeat and Variety

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Former BBC boss Mark Thompson to face MPs over £100m DMI fiasco — Current New York Times chief executive to be asked if he misled parliamentary committee about Digital Media Initiative in 2011 — Former BBC director general Mark Thompson has been recalled to parliament …

Discussion: BBC, The Huffington Post and Financial Times

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Pierre Omidyar, Investigative Journalism's New Patron Saint — The Iranian-American founder of eBay plans to sink millions into a new investigative media project with journalist Glenn Greenwald. Friends and employees tell Lloyd Grove his big move into media is driven by his passion for American democracy.

Discussion: The Week UK, USA Today and paidContent

Henry Farrell / The Monkey Cage:
Why Glenn Greenwald's new media venture is a big deal

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Jack Shafer, @ageis, @ethanz, @jayrosen_nyu and TheBlaze.com

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

New book: ‘Wall Street Journal’ reporters stymied on News Corp. phone-hack scandal — During the height of News Corp.'s phone-hacking drama in 2011, journalists at the company's blue-chip American broadsheet grappled with efforts from higher-ups to muzzle their coverage of the scandal …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Guardian, The Huffington Post, ZDNet, @matthewwells, @ryanchittum, @joepompeo and Techdirt

Cassell Bryan-Low / Wall Street Journal:
British judge forbids WSJ from publishing names in Libor fraud probe

Discussion: International Business Times, @fieldproducer, @samcoatestimes, @evanperez, @johngapper, @charlesforelle, @raju, @bruceorwall, @kevinjdelaney, @murraymatt, City A.M. Feed, @murraymatt, @johnmcquaid and @scottmaustin

Dylan Byers / Politico:

AP's Bob Lewis suspended after McAuliffe flub — Bob Lewis, the Associated Press political reporter who last week published an erroneous report about Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, has been temporarily suspended, POLITICO has learned. — Lewis, a highly respected veteran …

Discussion: @wyethwire

Reuters:

Al Jazeera-AT&T lawsuit to stay under wraps during appeal — * Delaware high court to decide if filings to be made public — * Appeal of unsealing order could take a year — * Case stems from AT&T refusal to carry Al Jazeera news channel — A legal fight over AT&T Inc's refusal …

Chi Chi Izundu / BBC:

Breaking Bad creator says online piracy ‘helped’ show — The creator of Breaking Bad says piracy “helped” the show to become popular and increase “brand awareness”. — Vince Gilligan said: “[It] led to a lot of people watching the series who otherwise would not have.

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap, The Verge, TorrentFreak and Softpedia News

Travis Winkler / Thirty-Five Millimeter Bytes:

The Twitter TV Bet Limits Company Valuation — Since Twitter filed for its initial public offering, a day has not gone by without an article about the company. Facebook vs. Twitter's battle for the second screen, NYSE vs. Nasdaq for the IPO (spoiler: NYSE wins), XYZ media company strategic …

Discussion: bookforum.com

Tim Sampson / Daily Dot:

Where does your Wikipedia donation go? Outgoing chief warns of corruption — When Wikipedia decided to roll out an aggressive fundraising effort a few years ago, the free encyclopedia came with a remarkably effective battle plan. For the entirety of the campaign, cofounder Jimmy Wales stared visitors …