Mediagazer: Yahoo Acquires Team Behind Dreamworks Animation Incubated Mobile Video App Ptch (Matthew Panzarino/TechCrunch)

8:25 PM ET, December 4, 2013

Top News:

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

Martin Bashir Resigns From MSNBC — Just over two weeks ago, MSNBC host Martin Bashir delivered a harsh piece of commentary that culminated in the suggestion that someone should “s-h-i-t” in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's (R-AK) mouth. Bashir offered an abject apology on his next broadcast …

Alex Kantrowitz / AdAge:

Arguments Fly During FTC Workshop on Native Advertising — Ad Industry Mounts Vigorous Defense in D.C.; Detractors Including Bob Garfield Blast Practice — The advertising industry descended on Washington, D.C. today, mounting a vigorous defense of so-called “native” …

Discussion: Forbes

Diane Bartz / Reuters:
U.S. says online ads should be clearly marked, undeceptive

Discussion: New York Times, @raju, @ftc, @elanazak, @raju, @raju, @jeffjarvis and @rafat

IAB:
IAB Releases Native Advertising Playbook To Establish Common Industry Lexicon, Evaluation …

Discussion: AdAge, @michaelpilla, @raju and Audience Development

Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:

Former Wall Street Journal reporter launches The Information, a tech news site with a $399 annual subscription — Letter From the Editor — Technology news needs a reboot. There are more stories and outlets than ever, but a troubling cycle is playing out:

Discussion: AllThingsD, Silicon Valley Watcher, PandoDaily, Talking Biz News, Valleywag, @edmundlee and @benparr

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Media Insiders Are Laughing About New Site ‘The Information,’ But Founder Jessica Lessin Will Laugh Last

Discussion: @realdanlyons, @bencasselman, @rafat, @amir and The Michael Report

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Publishing Platform Medium Keeps Iterating With New Photo, Layout Tools And Collection Controls — Medium, the blog publishing platform from Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, has today released new features and a few design changes. — Medium has sprouted from a seedling to a full-fledged media tool …

Discussion: Medium, Fast Company, @dangillmor, @saila, The Verge, @yurivictor, @designhawg and @evanatmedium

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

News Corp. names Clinton White House vet as new communications chief — The new News Corp. is still getting its house in order, and has recruited a new executive to its senior team. — Jim Kennedy, a veteran of the Clinton White House, has been appointed chief communications officer …

Discussion: New York Times, News Corp, The Wrap and Variety

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:

Joel Johnson named Gawker editorial director — Joel Johnson, founding editor of Kotaku, Gizmodo and The Consumerist, has been named editorial director of Gawker, Nick Denton told staff in a memo Wednesday. — Johnson, currently an editor-at-large of Gawker and contributing editor at The Wirecutter, will report for duty in January.

Discussion: The New York Observer, Poynter and FishbowlNY

Abigail Edge / Journalism.co.uk:

BBC News to introduce ‘NewsLabs team’ to drive innovation — Managing editor James Harding told staff that BBC News will assemble a NewsLabs team to establish ‘new formats’ for telling and sharing stories — Credit: By Horia Varlan on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Discussion: bbc.co.uk and Guardian

BBC:
BBC must tackle diversity ‘problem’ says news director

Discussion: @sunny_hundal, @emmajtracey, @narco_sam and @t_mcconnell

Jill Lawless / Associated Press:

Guardian: We have published 1 pct of Snowden leak — You are here — Home » Edward Snowden » Guardian: We have published 1 pct of Snowden leak … LONDON (AP) — The editor of the Guardian said Tuesday his newspaper has published just 1 percent of the material it received …

Discussion: USA Today, @sulliview, Associated Press, TheBlaze.com, Committee to Protect …, The Drum, TheHill, Guardian and The Daily Caller

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:
Editor Describes Pressure After Leaks by Snowden

Discussion: Guardian, Kirk LaPointe's …, Talking Biz News, @genn4dy, @timobrien, @alicedreger, @monahol, Gawker and mUmBRELLA

Dylan Byers / Politico:

CBS News chairman defends Lara Logan in staff meeting — CBS News chairman and ‘60 Minutes’ EP Jeff Fager held a meeting with CBS News staff on Tuesday and took questions about the fate of Lara Logan and Max McClellan, the journalists currently on a leave of absence in the wake …

CNN:

Media outlets cautious as Newtown 911 recordings released — (CNN) — Wednesday's release of audio recordings of the 911 calls from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings will force news organizations to make difficult — and probably unpopular — decisions about what to broadcast and what to hold back.

Discussion: New York Times, TVNewser, @brianstelter, @thedailybeast and Columbia Journalism Review

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Acquires Team Behind Dreamworks Animation Incubated Mobile Video App Ptch — Ptch, the DreamWorks Animation-incubated mobile video startup, has been acquired by Yahoo. The app was launched just over a year ago and will shut down on January 2, 2014. Until then, you'll be able …

Discussion: Ptch Blog, The Next Web, Digital Media Wire, bizjournals, VatorNews, App Advice, Engadget, Business Insider and AllThingsD

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Daily Download founder confirms site has ended publication — “Ashburn Media Company has decided to stop publishing Daily-download.com,” Lauren Ashburn tells Poynter in an emailed statement. … Andrew Kaczynski wrote about the site's apparent demise Tuesday.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Gawker, FishbowlNY, Slate and BuzzFeed

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Analyst Says Unbundling Would Destroy TV Value — Needham & Co.'s Laura Martin says that TV unbundling would put $80 billion to $113 billion in consumer value at risk — With the price of pay TV rising, increasing consumer choice through replacing the current bundle of channels with an a la system becomes a more popular idea.

Discussion: MediaPost, Deadline.com, BuzzFeed and Los Angeles Times

Addis Ababa / Associated Press:

International rights group appeals for the release of Ethiopian reporter jailed for 18 years — ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - A rights group is making a global appeal for the release from prison of an award-winning journalist in Ethiopia. — Amnesty International this week is trying …

Discussion: afriquejet.com, ZegabiZegabi and allAfrica.com

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:

Disney Increases Annual Dividend by 15% to 86 Cents — Walt Disney Co. (DIS), the world's largest entertainment company, raised its annual dividend by 15 percent to 86 cents a share, the fourth straight yearly increase after posting record sales and profit.

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadline.com, Hollywood Reporter and @benfritz

Jim Romenesko:

Alt-weekly publisher: I hear Aaron Kushner is losing millions on the Orange County Register — Stephen Mindich, who closed the Boston Phoenix in March, said at a panel discussion on newspapers Tuesday that he hears Aaron Kushner's investment in the Orange County Register and other publications isn't paying off.

Discussion: CommonWealth Magazine

BuzzFeed:

Dueling Arafat Reports Divide Palestinians — And Al Jazeera — Was the late Palestinian leader poisoned? “This is going to look biased.” — A new French report has found that contrary to recent Swiss findings, Yasser Arafat was likely not killed by polonium poisoning …

Discussion: @joshmitnick, @sheeraf and @miriamelder

Todd Spangler / Variety:

DirecTV Invests in Two Digital Entertainment Startups — Satcaster takes stakes in second-screen app developer i.TV and video aggregator LiveClips — DirecTV announced that it has made strategic investments in two digital entertainment startups — video-aggregation provider LiveClips …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Andrew Berg / Wireless Week:

New Rules Hasten FCC Approval of Verizon's Vodafone Buy — The FCC Wednesday approved Verizon's petition for a declaratory ruling on its acquistion of Vodafone's 45 percent stake in the Verizon Wireless joint venture. — The ruling, which involved the International Bureau …

Discussion: PR Newswire and @eggerton

Michael Weinberg / Policy Blog:

Did the FCC Chairman Just Endorse a Pay-for-Play Internet Fast Lane? — Chairman Wheeler endorsed both two-sided markets and net neutrality. There seems to be a conflict. — Yesterday, new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler delivered his first formal public address.

Discussion: DSLreports, Motherboard, The Verge, @karlbode, @dweinberger, @notaaroncraig, TheHill, Fortune, Light Reading and Free Press Blog

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.

Discussion: TeleRead

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.