Mediagazer: China Foreign Press Crackdown Prompts Calls For Visa Retaliation (Michael Calderone/The Huffington Post)

9:30 PM ET, December 10, 2013

Top News:

Photos in direct messages and swipe between timelines — Every day, people come to Twitter to find out what's happening in the world and talk about it. Today, we're updating our mobile apps to make this even easier. … Direct messages: Now with photos — For the first time …

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

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

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.

Marcella Bombardieri / The Boston Globe:

New York Times columnist David Carr to join Boston University faculty — Boston University has landed star New York Times media columnist David Carr to fill a new endowed chair dedicated to exploring creative business models to support journalism in the digital era.

Discussion: Poynter, @bretteats, The Wire, @natives, @mmckinnon, FishbowlNY, @jayrosen_nyu, @jbenton, @jenniferpreston, @melissaadan_, @jeffjarvis, @craigsilverman, @hblodget, @brianstelter, @dankennedy_nu, @cynthianeedham and Capital New York

John Cook / Gawker:
The New York Times' Media Columnist Sits in a Bloomberg Chair

Discussion: @silviakillings and Talking Biz News

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:

Twitchy Sold To Owners Of Townhall And Hotair — “Media Matters types would like to paint conservatives as boring, old white guys. Twitchy ads more fun and humor to our platform,” Townhall's general manager says. — Twitchy, the conservative Twitter aggregation site …

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

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

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

NYT CEO Mark Thompson aims to create global news brand, says international audiences are key — The global ‘New York Times’ — First The New York Times became the national paper of record for the United States. Now it is aiming to become a leading news brand globally.

Discussion: AdAge

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: @jenny8lee, Mashable, Gigaom, @qhardy, Business Insider, @bryfitz, WebProNews, @jvitak, @mattbuchanan and @nytimesbits

Fox News:

New York's top court rules Fox reporter cannot be forced to reveal sources in Colorado — In a ruling likely to be hailed as an affirmation of laws protecting journalists, New York's top court ruled that FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter cannot be forced to reveal to a Colorado court her sources …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Poynter, FishbowlNY, SPJ News, The Desk, The Wrap, @peterjohnsonjr, Business Insider, Hollywood Reporter, @howardkurtz, @marykissel, Hit & Run, @jmfreespeech, @alexweprin, @jaredbkeller, Mediaite and Newsy

Oliver Laughland / Guardian:

Murdoch is evil: the message hidden in a children's puzzle in one of his papers — Third line down says LIVESIHCODRUM (read it backwards) as puzzlemaster has a laugh at paymaster's expense — Harry the Dog's weekly kids' word search in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph tabloid

Discussion: Sydney Morning Herald, The Desk, Agence France Presse, Mediaite, FishbowlNY, @davidfolkenflik, @eriqgardner, @paullewismoney, Business Insider, Gawker, Junkee, @ravisomaiya and mUmBRELLA

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The OJR.org saga has a happy ending, with the domain headed back to USC Annenberg — OJR.org is going back to its original home. — A quick recap for those who haven't been following this tale of wayward domain names (one, two, three): The Online Journalism Review was, starting in the late 1990s …

Discussion: @jbenton

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: Deadline.com, @brianstelter and @joshdlondon

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:

Brian Stelter's CNN Debut Gets Bumpy Ratings Start — Stelter's premiere as “Reliable Sources” host drops sharply from most recent airing — Brian Stelter's debut as the new host of CNN's “Reliable Sources” drew less than stellar numbers on Sunday, drawing an underwhelming 400,000 total viewers …

Discussion: TVNewser, Deadline.com, Mediaite and JIMROMENESKO.COM

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Time Warner CEO Bewkes: Only Comcast and Verizon Do VOD Right — Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes gave credit to Comcast and Verizon FiOS for doing a good job of promoting and delivering video-on-demand services — and he criticized other pay-TV operators for failing to deliver on the potential of VOD.

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Deadline.com, Capital New York, The Wrap, AdAge, MediaPost, The Verge, App Advice and Electronista

Jordan Chariton / Lost Remote:

The Washington Post Debuts Chromecast Integration — The Washington Post debuted their Chromecast integration today, becoming the first news organization to allow users to access their content through the growing second screen device. — Washingtonpost.com, PostTV.com, The Washington Post iPad app …

Discussion: International Business Times, GalleyCat, AppNewser and SocialTimes

Jose Pagliery / CNNMoney:

Snowden docs had NYTimes exec fearing for his life — Informing the American people about how their government spies on them can be risky business for journalists. — Rajiv Pant, chief technology officer at The New York Times ( NYT), thought he could be killed for it. — It was the IT help request from hell.

Discussion: @tbridis and @jesselynradack

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

China Foreign Press Crackdown Prompts Calls For Visa Retaliation — NEW YORK — When Vice President Joe Biden recently addressed China's crackdown on foreign press and the government's refusal to renew journalists' visas, he turned the spotlight on a challenge that news organizations have traditionally dealt with behind closed doors.

Discussion: The New Republic and Kirk LaPointe's<br …

The Nabe:

Police Restore Access to Crime Reports — Last week, The Nabe reported that the city's police precincts would no longer directly provide journalists with the forms detailing crime reports. On Monday, shortly after CUNY Graduate Graduate School of Journalism Dean Stephen B. Shepard sent …

Discussion: Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, @thenabecuny, @mitchelltrinka, Poynter and Techdirt

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 … and The Hindu