Mediagazer: Twitter's Mobile Apps Begin to Look a Bit More Like Instagram (Mike Isaac/AllThingsD)

8:25 AM ET, October 30, 2013

Top News:

Senate confirms Wheeler to lead FCC — The Senate unanimously confirmed Tom Wheeler, an investor and former industry lobbyist, to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday. — The vote was delayed for two weeks by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who expressed concern about Wheeler's views on political disclosure rules.

Discussion: Gigaom, CNET, TIME, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Broadcasting & Cable, New York Times, The Verge, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and The Wrap

Glenn Greenwald / Omidyar Group:

Dan Froomkin and Liliana Segura join Glenn Greenwald's new news venture — Two New Journalists Join the Team — We're very excited to announce two new members joining our team: Dan Froomkin and Liliana Segura. Dan and Liliana will work alongside Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill …

Discussion: @sulliview, @ggreenwald, Politico, @brianstelter, @trevortimm, @sharifkouddous, @davidkaib, @alexbkane, @mlcalderone, @allisonkilkenny and Erik Wemple

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

New York Times Ad Chief: Branded Content Units Coming Soon — Redesigned Times Website Will Include New Ad Units — The New York Times is planning to step off the sidelines and into the world of native advertising online, where a growing list of traditional publishers have thrown their arms around sponsored or branded content.

Thanks:@steverubel

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
New York Times Struggles to Replace Print Ads With Digital Sales

Discussion: Guardian, @joepompeo, @raju, @abeaujon, @felixgillette and @edmundlee

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

Exclusive: CBS News In Talks With Distributors For 24-Hour Digital Video Service — The company's news and interactive units are developing a digital programming service to be distributed on mobile phones, tablets, game consoles and over-the-top TV distribution systems. — CBS headquarters.

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Deadline.com, TVNewser and @brianstelter

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

AP's new Lingofy plugin is like a robot copy editor — Lingofy is a browser plugin that “checks website content for AP Stylebook's spelling, language, punctuation, usage and journalistic style guidelines,” the Associated Press says in a press release. The for-purchase plugin also checks …

Discussion: ap.org

Wayne Friedman / MediaPost:

Consumers Remain Indifferent To Smart TVs — A majority of consumers aren't interested in buying a new smart TV over the next 12 months — but advertising its strong attributes could help turn that indifference around. — Some 73% of consumers have given a thumbs down to buying a new smart TV …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

No Amazon TV Box for Christmas — Amazon is going to sell a lot of stuff in the next couple of months. * But it is very unlikely to be selling its own Web video box. — Jeff Bezos and company have been prepping a set-top box meant to compete with Roku and Apple's Apple TV device …

Discussion: Pocket-lint, AppleInsider and CNET

Alan Rusbridger / The New York Review of Books:

The Snowden Leaks and the Public — 1. — It is harder than you might think to destroy an Apple MacBook Pro according to British government standards. In a perfect world the officials who want to destroy such machines prefer them to be dropped into a kind of giant food mixer that reduces them to dust.

Discussion: @smithsam and @nybooks

Karen Fratti / 10,000 Words:

On the Media Asks Listeners to ‘Be the Journalist,’ With Web Tool — On The Media, the NPR podcast, is part media reporting, part commentary, and part investigative journalism organization. And I'm not just saying that because the pledge drive is going on. — Sometimes they just fall into it.

Discussion: AppNewser and Techdirt

Arti Patel / Folio:

In Keynote, Elisabeth DeMarse Addresses TheStreet Inc.'s Turnaround — The company has $60 million earmarked for acquisitions. — New York—Transitioning from one model to another is a difficult undertaking for any media publishing company. However, morphing within an industry in constant tumult is an entirely different situation.

Jim Romenesko:

Salt Lake Tribune retirees call for a U.S. Department of Justice probe of JOA revisions — Salt Lake Tribune retirees and other former employees have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the recent Tribune-Deseret News joint operation agreement revisions.

Harry McCracken / TIME:

With New Nook GlowLight, Barnes & Noble Gets Back in the E-Reading Game — The last twelve months have been a heck of a roller-coaster ride for venerable bookseller and gadget-maker-come-lately Barnes & Noble. A year ago, it released nice new Nook HD tablets which offered, among other things, movies from B&N's own new video store.

Discussion: Fast Company, USA Today, CNET, Good E-Reader, Associated Press, ZDNet, Mashable, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch and The Verge

Dru Sefton / Current:

Bill Moyers ending Moyers & Company in January — Bill Moyers announced today to his colleagues in public TV that the last broadcast of his Moyers & Company public-affairs show will air Jan. 3, 2014, when current funding commitments end. — He also said that his production company is …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast to Stream 35 Live TV Channels to Mobile Apps Outside the Home — Renamed Xfinity TV Go app lineup includes live feeds of ESPN, CNN, Fox News and other cablers — Comcast has inked deals to let subscribers tune in to 35 live cable channels through its updated video-player app …

Discussion: The Wrap and The Verge