Mediagazer: Educational Publisher's Charity, Accused of Seeking Profits, Will Pay Millions (Javier C. Hernández/New York Times)

8:35 AM ET, December 13, 2013

Top News:

Mary Ann Milbourn / Orange County Register:

Register owner to launch daily L.A. newspaper — Register Connect Customer Service eRegister Subscribe — The co-owner and publisher of the Orange County Register announced Thursday that the company will move broadly into Los Angeles County early next year and publish a new, seven-day-a-week newspaper, the Los Angeles Register.

Discussion: LA Observed, Poynter, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Business … and Associated Press

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Associated Press Held CIA Scoop For 3 Years At The Government's Request — NEW YORK — The Associated Press revealed Thursday that retired FBI agent Robert Levinson was working with the CIA at the time he went missing in Iran in 2007. The AP's explosive report on Levinson's CIA ties contradicted …

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, @mightyobvious_ and Gawker

Paul Colford / The Definitive Source:

Why AP is publishing story about missing American tied to CIA — The Associated Press today is publishing an article about serious blunders at the Central Intelligence Agency and an effort to cover them up. At the heart of the story is a retired FBI agent, Robert Levinson …

Discussion: Poynter, @freedomofpress, Riptide 2.0, @ggreenwald, @rosiegray, @kevinliptakcnn, @saeedkd, @bahmankalbasi, @ggreenwald, @ron_fournier, @pdcolford_ap, @markknoller, @sunny_hundal, @ase, Business Insider, Mediaite and Pressing Issues

Javier C. Hernández / New York Times:

Educational Publisher's Charity, Accused of Seeking Profits, Will Pay Millions — The Pearson Foundation, the charitable arm of one of the nation's largest educational publishers, will pay $7.7 million to settle accusations that it repeatedly broke New York State law by assisting in for-profit ventures.

Discussion: Capital New York, Bookseller news, @katemessner, @scottpwaldman, @nikhilgoya_l and Metropolis

James Bennet / The Atlantic Online:

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: @mysecondempire, @theatlantic, @jackshafer, @stilgherrian, @paulvieira, @barryap1, @dvnjr, @sommermathis and @niemanlab

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, @aprildryan and The Fix

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

Discussion: Poynter, @stephieintexas, The Huffington Post and Mediaite

David Kravets / Wired:

AOL Tightens CrunchBase's Licensing to Block Competitors — AOL is legally locking down its crowdsourced CrunchBase database of tech companies, in response to a commercial iPhone app that used the database to compete with AOL. — The new CrunchBase license will continue to allow free use …

Discussion: The Switch, Info @ CrunchBase and TechCrunch

Parker Higgins / Mediashift:

WordPress Goes to Court to Defend Censored Bloggers — The blogging platform WordPress.com has taken the unusual — and welcome — step of going to court to defend its users against bogus copyright claims aimed at silencing their speech on the platform. Automattic, WordPress's parent company …

Discussion: @pbsmediashift, Thanks:@mediatwit

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

‘Invisible Child’: Behind the Scenes, Before and After — Andrea Elliott's moving and exhaustively reported five-part series, “Invisible Child,” was 15 months in the making. At 28,738 words, and accompanied by affecting images by Ruth Fremson, a staff photographer, this story of a homeless girl …

Discussion: @tedhartii, @mattapuzzo, @longreads, @palafo, @sulliview, @richarddeitsch and Politicker

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

Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:

YouTube releases list of 2013's top videos — © Shohei Miyano / Reuters - YouTube has released its list of the top-trending videos of 2013. Above, visitors stand in front of a logo of YouTube at the YouTube Space Tokyo, operated by Google, in Tokyo February 14, 2013. REUTERS/Shohei Miyano

Discussion: Washington Post, The Next Web, Forbes and The Hairpin

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Ken Li, once Reuters.com editor, leaving news organization — Kenneth Li, who had been the global editor of Reuters.com and is now an editor at large of the news organization, is leaving. — In a Twitter post, Li wrote, “Working on something hot/cool. Or whatever the millenials call it these days.”

Discussion: @nycjim, @shaneferro, @nytfridge and @kenli729

Hannah Beech / TIME:

Foreign Correspondents in China Do Not Censor Themselves to Get Visas — Let's just clear up that little misunderstanding, shall we? — Over the past couple of days, I — as TIME's Beijing bureau chief — and other members of the foreign-journalist corps in China have been asked …

Discussion: @meghara, @emilyrauhala, @_jlam and FishbowlNY

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, Los Angeles Times, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Variety and @eriqgardner

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

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, Consumerist and Engadget

Los Angeles Times:

In turnabout, LAFD will release 911 call records and return to Twitter — The LAFD announced Thursday afternoon that it would resume releasing 911 call records and updating its Twitter feed with response details, just hours after saying it would be halting the release of such information.

Discussion: LA Observed, @lajourno, CBS Los Angeles, @palewire, @latreadersrep and @katelinthicum