Mediagazer: CEO Of 21st Century Fox Thinks People Aren't Really Asking For A La Carte TV Channels (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

8:45 PM ET, December 12, 2013

Top News:

Writers need a better term for “long-form”, which no longer signals quality — Against ‘Long-Form Journalism’ — I have had it with long-form journalism. By which I mean—don't get me wrong—I'm fed up with the term long-form itself, a label that the people who create …

Discussion: @theatlantic, @paulvieira, @sommermathis, @barryap1, @niemanlab and @stilgherrian

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Martha Stewart to ax 100 staffers — The June 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living — Merry Christmas — you're fired! — Slumping Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is expected to fire up to 100 people on Thursday, in a massive downsizing that is expected to hit the flagship magazine particularly hard.

Discussion: Adweek, FOLIO, AdAge, Poynter, @mike_rondon, @norabarak, USA Today, FishbowlNY, @alexweprin and New York Magazine

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

2013: The Year ‘the Stream’ Crested — The Stream is fun and fast, but don't you miss the sense of an ending? — The Stream has been the organizing metaphor for the web for the past several years. In May 2009, a high-ranking editor of TechCrunch identified and summarized this grand shift …

Discussion: @ezraklein, @wfrick, @sameier12, @nytimesbits, @doingitwrong, @ayjay, @alexismadrigal, @coryhaik, @julesdwit, @dkiesow, @mariemorelli, @grahamdavida, @biglittlethings and @julesdwit

Jose Delreal / Politico:

White House press corps tees off on Jay Carney over access — A frustrated press corps sounded off Thursday against White House press secretary Jay Carney over lack of access to President Barack Obama. — Carney said the White House “is working” to address the concerns …

Discussion: TVNewser, The Fix and @aprildryan

Brian Resnick / NationalJournal.com:
White House Blames Internet for Lack of Media Access, and the Press Cries Foul

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, @stephieintexas, Latest News & Headlines and Erik Wemple

Los Angeles Times:

LAFD halts popular Twitter feed, blocks access to 911 call records — A tweet by the Los Angeles Fire Department early Thursday morning. — The Los Angeles Fire Department put its social media accounts on “hiatus” Thursday and announced it was refusing access to 911 audio recordings …

Discussion: @latreadersrep, @katelinthicum, @lajourno and @digiphile

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:
LAFD fumbles on Twitter and 911 info

Discussion: @laobserved

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Aereo Won't Oppose Supreme Court Battle — The digital streaming company responds to broadcasters' attempts to interest the high court in a battle that could reshape the TV industry. — In papers filed at the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, Aereo says it is ready for the high court to review its legality.

Discussion: The Wrap, Capital New York, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times, Variety and @eriqgardner

Dan Levine / Reuters:
Cablevision says broadcasters overreaching in Aereo case

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, Consumerist and Engadget

Yoree Koh / Digits:

Twitter MoPub Opens Up Native Advertising — Twitter pulled the covers back on how it plans to make money off mobile apps besides its own. The strategy: take its native advertising playbook to the wider mobile world. — MoPub - a Twitter-owned mobile-advertising exchange …

Discussion: MoPub, TechCrunch, blog.twitter.com, Bloomberg, MediaPost, Adweek, @scottthurm and Venture Capital Dispatch

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Ann Curry's Options Dwindle as $12 Million NBC News Contract Nears Window — UPDATED: The former “Today” host is testing the waters as her NBC deal ends, but a high-profile gig at a place like Al Jazeera could prove elusive. — What will Ann Curry do next?

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @brianstelter, TVNewser and The Huffington Post

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Google Play Movies and Google Play Music websites get native Chromecast support — Google Play Music and Google Play Movies just got a bit more tightly integrated with Chromecast: Users of Google's TV dongle can now launch music and video streams straight from the websites of the two services …

Discussion: The Verge and The Next Web

Reuters:

Exclusive: NFL, DirecTV agree to framework for Sunday Ticket deal — (Reuters) - The National Football League and DirecTV have agreed on a framework for negotiations to renew the satellite TV operator's contract to offer the popular NFL Sunday Ticket football package the company uses to attract subscribers …

Discussion: Multichannel.com and @lucas_shaw

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

CEO Of 21st Century Fox Thinks People Aren't Really Asking For A La Carte TV Channels — There are two subjects that seem to keep TV execs in complete denial: cord cutting and the demand for a la carte TV packages. Both are very real (and, frankly, the increase in the former is somewhat driven …

Matthew Waite / Al Jazeera English:

Journalists: good early drone adopters — Professional journalists could use drones, but a code of ethics must be devised. — The recent news that Amazon plans to use mini-drones to fly small packages to consumers in just 30 minutes raised an important question: what could a journalist do with a small drone?

Discussion: @mattwaite

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

Time Warner prepares to dump a dangerous debt load on its publishing spinoff — Time Warner prepares to dump a dangerous debt load on its publishing spinoff — Keith Kelly of the New York Post reports some inauspicious news for the soon-to-be-spun-off Time Inc.

Discussion: @brucebartlett, @edmundlee and New York Post

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Simple.tv to launch its DVR for cord cutters in Europe in early 2014 — Bay Area-based digital video startup Simple.tv is looking to launch its DVR for cord cutters in the U.K. in March of 2014, and target continental Europe soon after. Simple.tv CEO Mark Ely told me during an interview Wednesday …

Sarah Homewood / The Newspaper Works:

Time spent on news sites doubles — The time that Australians are spending on news sites has doubled in the past year, according to data released by Nielsen online, and online is becoming a larger part of news consumption. — The data highlights that during the December quarter …