Mediagazer: Kirshbaum to Leave Amazon Publishing (Publishers Weekly)

7:55 PM ET, October 25, 2013

Top News:

DirecTV, Time Warner Cable Said to Consider Aereo-Type Services — DirecTV (DTV), Time Warner Cable (TWC) Inc. and Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR), taking a page from Aereo Inc., are considering capturing free broadcast signals from TV networks to avoid paying billions of dollars …

Discussion: Deadline.com, Business Insider, The Verge, @pkafka and Engadget

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Aereo Hit With Second Lawsuit in Utah — The company tells a judge not to let TV broadcasters bully “on litigation cost, rather than the merits” of copyright claims. — Aereo is backed by Barry Diller — The latest in the Aereo legal front... Nextar Broadcasting …

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, @moorehn and @kelseyproud

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government 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: @jadomian, @steveklabnik and @trevortimm

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

Discussion: Washington Post, Guardian, @krmaher, The New Yorker Blog, New York Times, @timkarr, Techdirt, New York Magazine and @johnmcquaid

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: Gigaom, CNET, AllThingsD, Media & Entertainment, GalleyCat, Digital Book World, New York Times, Slate, @gigaom, GeekWire, Bookseller news, Businessweek and @scalzi

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.

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?

Discussion: @ajsummit

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 …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Comcast's latest bundle, Internet Plus, still requires you to pay for TV to receive HBO — Dear Internet: You Still Can't Get HBO Without Paying for Cable — Lots of people who read sites like this site love the idea of paying for HBO without paying for cable.

Discussion: Reuters, Variety and ThinkProgress

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

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

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