Mediagazer: OMG, BuzzFeed Is Investing In Serious News Coverage! Is It FTW? (David Folkenflik/NPR)

9:40 AM ET, December 4, 2013

Top News:

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Newsweek plans return to print in Jan-Feb next year as a subscription based 64 page weekly — Newsweek Plans Return to Print — Newsweek, the struggling weekly magazine that ceased print publication last year, plans to turn the presses back on. — The magazine expects to begin …

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Newsweek's editor-in-chief says subscriber revenues will cover expenses, “ads will be icing” — Newsweek to bring print edition back from the dead — Newsweek's new owners think they can succeed at something its previous owners failed at: printing a weekly magazine in the United States.

Discussion: @justinjm1

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Editor Describes Pressure After Leaks by Snowden — The top editor of the British newspaper The Guardian told Parliament on Tuesday that since it had obtained documents on government surveillance from a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, it had been subjected to measures …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @monahol, @alicedreger, @genn4dy, @timobrien and mUmBRELLA

Guardian:

Guardian will not be intimidated over NSA leaks, Alan Rusbridger tells MPs — Editor tells parliamentary committee that stories revealing mass surveillance by UK and US have prompted global debate — The Guardian has come under concerted pressure and intimidation designed to stop …

Reuters:

Guardian Newspaper Staff May Face Charges For Assisting Terrorists — LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - British police are examining whether Guardian newspaper staff should be investigated for terrorism offences over their handling of data leaked by Edward Snowden, Britain's senior counter-terrorism officer said on Tuesday.

Discussion: Guardian, VentureBeat, Gawker, Techdirt and Talking Points Memo

Jill Lawless / Associated Press:
Guardian: We have published 1 pct of Snowden leak

Discussion: ABC News, The Daily Caller, @gretawire, @davidmwessel, @hackingdave, @freedomofpress, Committee to Protect …, The Drum, TheHill, @amypeikoff, @inteldump, @postbaron, Politico, Guardian and Boing Boing

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

YouTube's Music Subscription Service Won't Show Up This Year — Waiting for YouTube's subscription music service? You're going to have to be patient. — The video service, which is already the biggest free music service in the world, had planned on launching a paid service this year.

Discussion: Complete Music Update, CNET, PhoneArena, @jherskowitz, The Verge, Electronista, Softpedia News, Mashable and Engadget

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Beats Music Targeting January Launch — YouTube's music subscription service was supposed to launch this year, but will be delayed until 2014. Now, Beats Music is playing the same tune. — Beats, the project championed by music executive Jimmy Iovine and backed by $60 million in funding, was supposed to debut in 2013.

Discussion: Gigaom

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Dame Patricia Hodgson favourite to chair Ofcom — Ex-BBC executive selected by Department for Culture, Media and Sport as preferred candidate to succeed Colette Bowe — The government has selected Dame Patricia Hodgson, the former BBC executive and trustee, as its preferred candidate to be the next chairman of Ofcom.

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Sky to open movie rental service to non-subscribers

Discussion: Variety

John Plunkett / Guardian: NUJ apologises to BBC human resources director over false accusation

Pierre Omidyar / The Huffington Post:

WikiLeaks, Press Freedom and Free Expression in the Digital Age — This week, fourteen people charged by the Department of Justice in connection with a coordinated denial of service attack on PayPal's services in 2010 will appear in Federal Court. The “PayPal 14,” as they have been dubbed …

Discussion: @pierre, @astepanovich, @ggreenwald, @pierre, @carwinb, @wikileaks, @dymaxion, @carwinb and Pressing Issues

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
A News Organization That Rejects the View From Nowhere

Discussion: @acarvin, @jayrosen_nyu, @tomgara, @theatlantic and @raju

David Folkenflik / NPR:

OMG, BuzzFeed Is Investing In Serious News Coverage! Is It FTW? … Anyone who has hankered for a list of 10 of the most life-affirming dog rescue stories ever can rely on the social media site BuzzFeed. — That list of 11 classic horror films that should never have been remade? That's from BuzzFeed too.

Discussion: @emilybell and @sheeraf

David Carr / New York Times:

At Peter Kaplan's Funeral, Mourning the Master of the Masters — LARCHMONT, N.Y. — Manhattan publishing took a very sad holiday on Tuesday. Many of its better-known practitioners traveled by train, car and, in some cases, chartered bus, to Larchmont Temple in Westchester County to say farewell …

Discussion: Capital New York, @peterlattman and The New York Observer

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

The Sad Final Demise Of “The Daily Download” — The Daily Download, the much-scrutinized project of media personalities Lauren Ashburn and Howard Kurtz, appears to be no more. The website for the media commentary project hasn't been online in more than a month according to the Internet Web Archive.

Discussion: @buzzfeedandrew

David Weigel / Slate: Howard Kurtz and the Daily Download: The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

A. H. Belo Corporation:

A. H. Belo Corporation Announces Exploration of Sale of Providence Newspaper, Updated Guidance and New Printing Contract — A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE: AHC) today announces that the Company has engaged Stephens Inc. to explore a potential sale of The Providence Journal.

Reuters:

Disney in China digital entertainment venture with BesTV — Walt Disney Co and BesTV New Media are to form a digital joint venture in China as the U.S. company aims for a share of the country's fast-growing entertainment business. — The venture, which will have a registered capital of $4 million …

Discussion: Variety and PR Newswire

John McDermott / Digiday:

Does Web Publishing Have a Looming DVR Problem? — Publishers like to hear that their stories are being read. But at the expense of advertising dollars? Not so fast. — Increasingly popular apps like Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote's Web Clipper have been billed as a way to help publishers combat fragmentation.

Maria Konnikova / The New Yorker Blog:

A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists — These are just some of the lists that the comic strip “XKCD” recently joked would result from retrofitting the twentieth century's most newsworthy events with modern, Internet-style headlines. Despite the growing derision of listicles exemplified by the comic …

The Independent:

UK Attorney General adapts contempt laws for social media, will publish court advisory notes — Twitter and Facebook users threaten justice system, warns Attorney General — After a spate of scandals where careless users have threatened fair trials and jeopardised anonymity orders …

Discussion: Guardian, Sky News, Metro.co.uk, Bloomberg, dna, GOV.UK, National Updates and GOV.UK

BBC:

BBC must tackle diversity ‘problem’ says news director — James Harding, the BBC's news director, has said its output should “look and sound more like its audiences”. — “We are going to have to be very determined to address diversity on air and, equally, off it,” he told staff at New Broadcasting House in London.

Discussion: bbc.co.uk

Erik Wemple:

Media sidelined in coverage of Newtown football squad — Hartford Courant sports reporter Tom Yantz turned in something of a scoop last month. He covers high-school sports in Connecticut and wrote up a profile of the undefeated football team at Newtown High School.

Discussion: Poynter, Christian Science Monitor, Hartford Courant and Associated Press

David Sirota / PandoDaily:

Glenn Greenwald faces attacks from critics because he's an “affront to the news cartel” — The journalist who hacked the old system — With Edward Snowden becoming a leading candidate for Time magazine's Person of the Year, it is important to remember that he is the central character …

Discussion: @jonworth, @trevortimm, @gg, @exiledsurfer, @johncusack, @bill_owen, @barryeisler, @davidsirota and @digiphile

Reuters:

Netflix meets with officials on French launch — (Reuters) - Online video company Netflix met with the French president's staff on Tuesday to discuss a possible launch of its streaming service in Europe's third-largest market, in what would be a blow to traditional television companies.