Mediagazer: Magazine Readership Inches Upward (Emma Bazilian/Adweek)

10:05 AM ET, November 22, 2013

Top News:

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at AJ+, Al Jazeera's upcoming online news network — Across from San Francisco's AT&T Park stadium, a small group of news junkies is working on building a different kind of startup. — The first thing you notice when entering their building …

Rachel Bartlett / Journalism.co.uk:

Long-form publisher Matter stops charging for articles — Matter, which had adopted a micro-payments model when it launched a year ago, was bought by blogging platform Medium earlier this year — Read more — Other top stories — Also on Journalism.co.uk...

Discussion: Medium and Gigaom

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Twitter Adds Advertising Tool to Target TV Conversations — Twitter Inc. (TWTR) added a tool for advertisers that will let them target users who are posting about television shows, seeking to capitalize on the way people use its microblogging service. — The feature will allow networks …

Discussion: AdAge, The Next Web, blog.twitter.com, broadcastnow.co.uk, Digital TV Europe, Business Insider, Variety, Social News Daily, CNET, Digits, Mashable, The Drum and WebProNews

Stuart Kemp / Hollywood Reporter:

James Murdoch Re-Elected to BSkyB Board — Chase Carey, president of 21st Century Fox, which owns a 39 percent stake in the U.K. pay TV giant, is also among the directors retaining their board seats. — LONDON - 21st Century Fox deputy COO James Murdoch is keeping his seat on the board …

Discussion: Politico and Guardian

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Magazine Readership Inches Upward — Despite a slight decline in overall magazine circulation in the first half of this year, the number of magazine readers in the U.S. is actually up slightly, according to the latest GfK MRI's Survey of the American Consumer, which tracks print and digital magazine readership.

Discussion: @yappelbaum

BBC:

Tim Berners-Lee says ‘surveillance threatens web’ — Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned that the democratic nature of the net is threatened by a “growing tide of surveillance and censorship”. — The warning came as he launched his World Wide Web Foundation's annual web index report, tracking global censorship.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Financial Times, Techworld.com, Sky News, The Register, Inquirer, Telegraph, Reuters, Mirror.co.uk, Channel 4, Gizmodo, Malaysia Sun, ComputerWeekly, Associated Press, Guardian, The Drum and The Independent

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

NBCU May Invest in AllThingsD Journalists — Walt Mossberg, Kara Swisher Will Be Starting New Company Next Year … NBCUniversal is close to a deal to take a minority stake in a new company being started by technology journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, say people familiar with the situation.

Discussion: New York Times, TVNewser, @edmundlee and @felixsalmon

Hadas Gold / Politico:

White House press corps spars with deputy press secretary over photo access — White House-media relations hit new low — White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest got aggressive with the White House press corps on Thursday as he defended the administration from allegations …

Discussion: @chucktodd, @dylanbyers and The Huffington Post

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Media urged to stop using WH photos

Discussion: Washington Post and Guardian

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Media protests White House photo ban

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, Poynter, Mediaite, @petesouza, New York Magazine, @passantino, @steveholland1, @steveholland1, The Wire, TheBlaze.com and NPPA

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Time Inc. expected to file IPO offering documents today, revealing detailed financials — Time to lift its veil — Time Warner is expected to file its initial public offering documents for the spinoff of its Time Inc. publishing division Friday, sources said.

Alicia A. Caldwell / Associated Press:

Washington Times Sues Homeland Security Over Reporter's Notes — WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington newspaper has asked a federal judge to force the Coast Guard to return any documents and copies of records it seized from a reporter while searching her home last summer as part of a gun investigation involving her husband.

Discussion: Washington Times and Poynter

AFP:

After a year, no news of US reporter missing in Syria — File photo of US Journalist James Foley. — AFP pic — The family of US journalist James Foley, who today will mark the first anniversary of his disappearance in war-torn Syria, say they have not given up hope of welcoming him home.

Discussion: ABC News, WGBH News and The Daily Northwestern

Todd Spangler / Variety:

How Bravo Is Crunching Facebook Data to Lift ‘Real Housewives’ Repeat Ratings — Cabler uses social giant's new keyword search feature to glean factoids for ‘social edition’ rebroadcasts — Bravo is one of the first TV networks to drink from Facebook's data fire hose …

Alexandra Steigrad / WWD:

Speculation Mounts for Hugo Lindgren's Successor — TIMES IN FOR A CHANGE: It's very rare when a slew of high-profile journalism jobs open up at the same time at arguably the highest-profile newspaper in the country. It's even more unusual when two of those jobs relate to fashion journalism.

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:

Why Cable Networks Will Keep Paying Through the Nose for Broadcast Reruns — FXX's deal last week to show “The Simpsons” in syndication set a record for the market in TV reruns with a cost in the ballpark of $750 million. — Cable networks have never been shy to pay top dollar for broadcast hits.

Jeff Stein / Newsweek:

The discredited ‘60 Minutes’ report on Benghazi has kicked off an intriguing game of Whodunit? — Nobody at 60 Minutes has been fired or even publicly disciplined for its odd, inflammatory and dead-wrong November 10 story on the Islamist assault in Benghazi that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Discussion: @jktrotter

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Nate Silver on How to Build a Better News Site: Quality Over Clicks (Video) — ESPN President John Skipper says he hasn't given Nate Silver any traffic targets for his new blog, FiveThirtyEight.com. — In their first appearance together since Skipper hired Silver from the New York Times in July …

Discussion: The New York Observer and Kirk LaPointe's …

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Leonhardt resists Nate Silver comparison

Discussion: Guardian

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Barton Gellman Hits Back At Bob Woodward For ‘Insult’ About Snowden Coverage — NEW YORK — Barton Gellman fired back Thursday at Washington Post colleague Bob Woodward over Woodward's remarks that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should have come to him first with documents …

Discussion: Poynter, @tonyromm, @trevortimm, @noahshachtman, Business Insider, Hit & Run, Mediaite, Politico and @timkarr

Darren Boyle / Press Gazette:

Kieron Bryan freed this morning after two months in Russian prison cell — Kieron Bryan today vowed to never again do Soduku following his release from a Russian prison cell. — The 29 year old freelance journalist was arrested in September while filming a Greenpeace protest aboard …

Discussion: Mirror.co.uk, The Independent, BBC, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Associated Press, Guardian and BBC

Hiawatha Bray / The Boston Globe:

TVs get smarter, but not smart enough — It makes sense on paper: Add a microprocessor to a television set, throw in high-speed Internet, and you've got a TV for surfing the Web, playing video games, and streaming favorite shows. That's the idea behind the “smart TV,” …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Cincinnati TV station plans paywall on its website — WCPO will introduce a paywall for much of its website content early next year, NetNewsCheck reports. … Paywalls are increasingly common for newspaper sites — 41 percent of U.S. dailies will have them after Digital First Media puts …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, NetNewsCheck and Broadcasting & Cable

Justin Peters / Slate:

Winamp: The death of the iconic MP3 player says a lot about the tech world's vicious utilitarianism — I was distressed to read Wednesday afternoon that AOL plans to shut down its venerable music player Winamp come Dec. 20. (According to TechCrunch's Frederic Lardinois …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Firstpost, Corporate Intelligence, The Week, FishbowlNY, Us Vs Th3m, Mashable, PC World and CNNMoney.com

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Moby Not Just Giving Away His New Album For Free On BitTorrent, He's Okay With You Profiting From It — The musician Moby has long been an outspoken critic of the old recording industry. He's been a big fan of giving away works for free (and noting that he's made quite a bit of money …

Discussion: TeleRead

Daniel Miller / Los Angeles Times:

Sony Pictures outlines budget cuts, trims film slate — Sony Corp. headquarters in Tokyo. (Akio Kon / Bloomberg) — Sony Pictures Entertainment, reeling from several box office disappointments and under assault from an activist shareholder, said at a Thursday morning meeting for investors …

Discussion: Forbes and Wall Street Journal