Mediagazer: Amazon Publishing reportedly retreating in NYC. Thank (or blame) Barnes & Noble (Laura Hazard Owen/Gigaom)

4:45 PM ET, October 25, 2013

Top News:

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

As Europe erupts over spying, NSA chief says US must stop media — With General Alexander calling for NSA reporting to be halted, US and UK credibility as guardians of press freedom is crushed — The most under-discussed aspect of the NSA story has long been its international scope.

Discussion: @trevortimm

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
NSA chief: Stop reporters ‘selling’ spy documents

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, @timkarr, Techdirt, New York Magazine and @johnmcquaid

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Amazon Publishing reportedly retreating in NYC. Thank (or blame) Barnes & Noble — When Amazon Publishing launched its general trade imprint in New York in 2011, the goal was to go head-to-head with the big traditional publishers here. The company announced in May of that year …

Discussion: CNET, Media & Entertainment, New York Times, GalleyCat, Slate, GeekWire, @scalzi and Bookseller news

Publishers Weekly:

Kirshbaum to Leave Amazon Publishing — Amazon has confirmed to PW a story in Friday's Shelf Awareness that Larry Kirshbaum will step down as head of Amazon Publishing's general publishing program early next year. Amazon said Kirshbaum's last day will be January 17 and that he plans to return to agenting.

Discussion: Businessweek, Digital Book World and @gigaom

Capital New York:

Atlantic Wire to relaunch, with a new(-ish) name: The Wire — Atlantic Media is gearing up for a relaunch of its prodigious news aggregator, The Atlantic Wire, Capital has learned. — As part of the change, which is slated for sometime in November, the site will shed its titular association …

Discussion: @rubinafillion, @kelseyproud and @moorehn

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

YouTube Takes on The News — Much like the Google News homepage, YouTube's news channel aggregates video news content from some of the biggest - and smallest - broadcasters on earth. Also, like Google News, the channel does not actually produce its own journalism.

Discussion: @niemanlab

Rory Carroll / Guardian:

Nikki Finke to leave Deadline and set up own Hollywood gossip site — Rift with media mogul Jay Penske behind inflammatory tweets claiming website has become ‘bland and boring’ — Nikki Finke, the grand dame of Hollywood news and gossip, has said the once-feared website Deadline.com has become …

Discussion: Deadline.com, bizjournals, @nikkifinke, @sdkstl and The Atlantic Wire

Sara Morrison / The Wrap:
Nikki Finke Claims to Be Leaving Deadline, Announces NikkiFinke.com (Updated)

Discussion: LA Observed, BuzzFeed, Vulture, FishbowlNY, LA Observed, Gawker and @thewrap

Tim Wu / New Yorker:

Is Ad Avoidance a Problem? — Back in the twentieth century, people were roughly equal in their power to avoid advertising. Only desert hermits and commune dwellers could truly live ad-free. But today, many people cheerfully claim to be total ad-avoiders, and it has become possible …

Karis Hustad / Christian Science Monitor:

Kickstarting journalism: Is crowdfunding the answer? — Outlets from National Public Radio to ProPublica have turned to crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Spot.Us to help solve journalism's funding woes and make a bit of online buzz. But is this solution sustainable?

Tom Simonite / MIT Technology Review:

The Decline of Wikipedia — The sixth most widely used website in the world is not run anything like the others in the top 10. It is not operated by a sophisticated corporation but by a leaderless collection of volunteers who generally work under pseudonyms and habitually bicker with each other.

Discussion: Gigaom, The Verge, @eegilbert, @jonfortt, @legalnomads, SlashGear, The Next Web, @bryanappleyard, Techdirt, The Raw Story and Business Insider

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Hulu Hires Disney's Elaine Paul as CFO — Internet TV joint venture's current CFO, Tom Fuelling, will leave the company — Newly appointed Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins has made his first senior hire: Elaine Paul, previously head of strategy and business development at Disney …

Discussion: Hulu Blog, The Wrap and Hollywood Reporter

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams' Blogging Platform Medium Opens Signups To All — Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has a new blogging platform called Medium, which has been a closed-signup affair since its introduction. Today, the platform sent out an email with the news that anyone can now sign in and start writing.

Discussion: The Next Web, @panzer and WebProNews

Josef Adalian / Vulture:

FX, Turner, and Netflix Face Off in a Battle of the Binge — Let's say that your friends have become increasingly obsessed with a new TV show that's already on episode eleven of a thirteen-episode season. You finally realize that you are missing out on something great and want to quickly catch …

Discussion: @nymag

Guardian:

‘Substantial’ changes to press charter promised — Three main parties discussing changes on ‘parliamentary lock’ that is supposed to protect press from political interference — The three main political parties are expected to make some concessions to the newspaper industry by altering proposals …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Guardian, Guardian and The Drum

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

MTV Releases Show's Whole Season on App - a Week Before It Premieres — MTV has found a middle ground between the typical TV strategy of rolling out episodes a week at a time and the Netflix approach of giving viewers a season all at once: It's doing both. — Starting today …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Variety and Broadcasting & Cable