Mediagazer: Time Warner CEO Bewkes: Only Comcast and Verizon Do VOD Right (Todd Spangler/Variety)

10:45 AM ET, December 11, 2013

Top News:

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Why Twitter Just Joined The Backchannel Wars — Direct messages to the forefront, big photos in tow. Twitter knows: The service that controls messaging controls the world. — Another day, another new messaging app. The only difference: This one is already installed on your phone.

Discussion: Mashable

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Twitter's new head of news explains why she left NBC — Twitter may have been born out of San Francisco's fast-moving startup culture, but its latest leader comes from a place far from it. Vivian Schiller, who will start as Twitter's first news partnerships leader in January …

Discussion: LinkedIn Pulse

Jeremy Gordon / The Twitter Blog:
Photos in direct messages and swipe between timelines

Discussion: Business Insider, AppNewser, SocialTimes, TechCrunch, The Atlantic Online, Mashable, The Next Web, Digits, Electronista, ReadWrite, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Wired, VentureBeat, The Verge, MacRumors, Pocket-lint, CNET, App Advice, Yahoo! News and Newsy

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Vice Media Buys a Tech Company to Experiment With Content Distribution — ADVERTISING, journalism and technology continue to converge. The latest example: Vice Media's acquisition of Carrot Creative, a digital agency that creates apps, websites and games for media companies and brands.

Discussion: Capital New York, @rafat and @jamesnord

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Time Criticized For Choosing Pope Francis Over Edward Snowden As Person Of The Year — Time chose the widely popular Pope Francis as its Person of the Year for 2013, sparking criticism from many who thought that the magazine's choice for runner-up, Edward Snowden, deserved the top prize.

Discussion: TIME, TIME, Capital New York, Forbes, Latest News & Headlines, Talking Points Memo, The Switch, Gothamist, Softpedia News and Newsy

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

New York Times Expects Digital Ad Growth in 2014 — New York Times CEO Mark Thompson intends to restore growth to the company's digital advertising revenue next year after recent declines, he told a meeting of investors Tuesday. — To spur growth, the Times is introducing branded content solutions …

Discussion: @laureni and @adage

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: NYT CEO Mark Thompson aims to create global news brand, says international audiences are key

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Warner Takes Netflix-Style Service for Old Movies to iPads — Studio says Warner Instant Archive now supports closed captioning — Warner Bros. has launched an iPad tablet app for its subscription-streaming service for classic film and TV titles, a sign the premium-priced offering …

Discussion: @willmckinley

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Time Warner CEO Bewkes: Only Comcast and Verizon Do VOD Right

Discussion: Media Money …, The Wrap, Home Media Magazine, Deadline.com, Capital New York, AdAge and MediaPost

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

News organisations plead with Syrian rebels to stop abducting journalists — Thirteen news organisations, including The Guardian, have signed a letter calling on rebel groups in Syria to desist from kidnapping journalists and asking for the release of those currently being held hostage.

Tim McDonald / The Huffington Post:

Turning the Page on Anonymity: The Future of HuffPost Comments — Maintaining a civil environment for real conversation and community has always been key to The Huffington Post. From day one, our comments were pre-moderated, and we invested in the most advanced moderation technology along with human moderators.

Discussion: @adrianshort and @jayrosen_nyu

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Gannett to Add USA Today to Local Papers — Gannett Company, one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, will try to expand its advertising and circulation revenue by inserting parts of its flagship newspaper, USA Today, into its local newspapers. — The company is expected to announce …

Discussion: @susanpage

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Conservative consolidation: New ‘Twitchy’ owner in talks to buy RedState, Regnery — Salem Communications, the parent company of right-wing sites HotAir.com and Townhall.com, is considering a series of acquisitions that would consolidate several of the conservative blogosphere's …

Discussion: @johntabin

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:
Twitchy Sold To Owners Of Townhall And Hotair

Discussion: The Wire, @guypbenson, Mediaite, Townhall.com, @gatewaypundit, @katiepavlich and @seanagnew

Guardian:

BBC to axe more than half of its management boards — Review of corporation's governance also includes appointment of two new non-executive directors and changes to trust's remit — The BBC will on Wednesday announce a series of changes to its system of governance and the appointment …

Discussion: @uk_radio and Financial Times

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Facebook Wants to Be a Newspaper. Facebook Users Have Their Own Ideas. — Most people think of Facebook in a similar way: It's a place to share photos of your kids. It's a way to keep up with friends and family members. It's a place to share a funny, viral story or LOLcat picture you've stumbled upon on the Web.

Discussion: metamedia, @raju, @jasonkincaid, Mashable, @jenny8lee, WebProNews, @nytimesbits, @qhardy, @bryfitz, Business Insider, @mattbuchanan and @jvitak

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:

Spotify brings free music to all devices (with caveats) — NEW YORK CITY — In its quest to entice more users, Spotify is finally bringing its free music listening service to more devices — though not all devices will get the same free access. — Today at a press event in Manhattan …

Discussion: New York Times, TechCrunch, CNET, CNET, Hollywood Reporter, Mashable, The Verge and Telegraph

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Sign of the Time is written in red ink: $1.5B — Since Time Warner announced its spinoff plan for Time Inc. in mid-March, the biggest guessing game in town has been how much debt will be loaded onto the publishing enterprise. — They were still guessing after the preliminary documents …

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Discovery Mulling Bid for Owner of Food Network, HGTV (Exclusive) — Scripps Networks Interactive seen as prime acquistion target as cable consolidation heats up — Discovery Communications is mulling a bid for Scripps Networks Interactive, parent company of Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel and other lifestyle-oriented cablers.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, C21Media, Wall Street Journal, Deadline.com, AllThingsD, @joshdlondon and @brianstelter

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Beastie Boys countersue as fair use fight over “Girls” song escalates — A copyright case between the Beastie Boys and toy maker GoldieBlox just got nastier: the rap group claims in a court filing that rewriting its “Girls” song for a video commercial does not count as “fair use,” …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Gothamist and The Verge

Lenore Taylor / Guardian:

Australia's national public broadcaster, ABC, plans editorial audit after claims of bias — ABC to conduct external audit over bias claims — Process starts with analysis of all interviews with then prime minister and opposition leader in 2013 election campaign

Discussion: Crikey, @lenoretaylor and @jayrosen_nyu

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Rdio Launches In 20 New Countries, As 57% Of New Users Come From Outside U.S. — Streaming music provider Rdio has just launched its services in 20 new countries, making for a total reach of 51 different international markets. That's more than rival Spotify, for those counting …

Discussion: Softpedia News and The Next Web

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Twitter TV ratings heading to Japan next year in move to attract more advertisers — Twitter TV ratings are landing in Japan, the company announced today, as it seeks to provide further statistics that can persuade advertisers to place its money on the social networking service.

Discussion: Softpedia News

Doug Halonen / TVNewsCheck.com:

U.S. FCC plans field study of local news sources; U.S. House Republicans want it stopped — House Republicans Want News Study Stopped — The members of Congress say a proposed study by the FCC seeking information about how all local news outlets — whether regulated by the FCC or not …

Discussion: Adweek and Broadcasting & Cable

Sandra Oshiro / Poynter:

Another journalist killed in India's Bijapur district — Local protests in India this week follow the killing last Friday of India journalist Sai Reddy in the Bijapur district in south Chhattisgarh, The Hindu reported. — The 51-year-old journalist was attacked at a weekly market.

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, Guardian and The Hindu