Mediagazer: Transparency Report: Government removal requests continue to rise (Susan Infantino/The Official Google Blog)

12:35 PM ET, December 19, 2013

Top News:

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

A First Look at NewCo's structure — Today Pierre Omidyar announced some details about how his new venture in news will be organized. My summary and explanation... First, the official release: … As I previously explained to readers of PressThink, I am an adviser to Omidyar's company …

Discussion: Poynter, @jayrosen_nyu and @bbhorne

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

Greenwald hints at future of Omidyar enterprise — Glenn Greenwald still has a lot of work left to do—and a new $250 million news enterprise to build—with the font of material leaked to him by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. — “We've certainly released less …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and Omidyar Group

Jonathan Kaiman / Guardian:

Beginning next year, Chinese reporters must pass ideology exam to retain press credentials — Chinese journalists face Marxist ideology exam — Exam to be based on 700-page manual that prohibits published reports from featuring comments that go against party line

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @mlcalderone, Kirk LaPointe's … and @raju

Reuters:
China renews press cards for Bloomberg, several New York Times reporters

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Post, Associated Press, Associated Press and Wall Street Journal

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Times Will Study Potential Changes to Its Sunday Magazine — The New York Times Magazine will be reassessed by the newspaper's managing editor, Dean Baquet, and Deborah Needleman, the editor of T Magazine, for the next three months before a new editor is appointed, according to a memo sent to staff.

Discussion: Gawker, WWD, The Huffington Post, The New York Observer, Capital New York and @romenesko

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Hackers break into Washington Post servers — Hackers broke into The Washington Post's servers and gained access to employee user names and passwords, marking at least the third intrusion over the past three years, company officials said Wednesday. — The extent of the loss of company data …

Discussion: AllThingsD, The Huffington Post, @repmikerogers, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, The Wrap, darkREADING, The Verge, Mashable, @digiphile, CNET, Yahoo! News and TIME

Mike Deri Smith / BBC:

Porn filters block sex education websites — The new filters are designed to block sites unsuitable for children — Pornography filters used by major internet service providers are blocking websites offering sex education and advice on sexual health and porn addiction, the BBC has learned.

Discussion: @thomasfuchs, Electronista, Digital Spy, The Independent, TechRadar.com, Telegraph, Yahoo! News, Crave, @codepo8, @refugecharity, @jackschofield, @hvklav, @dickmandrake and Gigaom

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Shows aren't in the future for Washington Post's PostTV — The Washington Post's PostTV video initiative will stop presenting information as shows and move to “easily digestible segments,” Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti tells Poynter in an email.

Lauren Rabaino / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The year we contextualize the news — My prediction isn't particularly snazzy. It doesn't require drones or sensors or wearables. It gets back to common sense, highlighting our role as an industry in creating informed citizens. 2014 will be the year of contextualization.

Discussion: @niemanlab and @jayrosen_nyu

Erin Griffith / PandoDaily:

One snapshot of how the Forbes contributor network works, from a writer asked to be a source — The ouroboros is complete: Forbes outsourced contributor outsources journalism to actual journalists — A curious “interview request” arrived in my inbox today: A Forbes contributor …

Discussion: @raju, @ledbetreuters, Talking Biz News and Forbes

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Brooks denies all knowledge of the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone — Former News of the World editor told police that she had never met private investigator Glenn Mulcaire — Rebekah Brooks has denied all knowledge of the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone and told police she found the act “abhorrent”, a court heard today.

John McDermott / Digiday:

The Sporting News Throws Mobile Hail Mary Against ESPN — Sporting News is throwing a mobile Hail Mary in its bid to gain ground on ESPN. In order to level the playing field with the self-styled Worldwide Leader in Sports, Sporting News is hoping to enlist teammates in the form of aggregation.

Rob Gillies / Associated Press:

Toronto Star Reporter Drops Lawsuit Against Rob Ford — TORONTO (AP) — A Toronto Star reporter dropped his defamation lawsuit against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Wednesday after Ford issued a more expansive apology for suggesting the journalist is a pedophile.

Discussion: Poynter

Susan Infantino / The Official Google Blog:

Transparency Report: Government removal requests continue to rise — We launched the Transparency Report in 2010 to provide hard evidence of how laws and policies affect access to information online. Today, for the eighth time, we're releasing new numbers showing requests from governments to remove content from our services.

Discussion: Gigaom and Guardian

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Prismatic Social News App Overhauls for a Better Personal Interest Graph — These days visiting sites like Facebook and Twitter seems to result in homework: heart-tugging videos to watch, silly listicles to read, essays to contemplate. Now here's another startup, Prismatic, that wants to collect content for you to consume.

Discussion: Gigaom, The Next Web and CNET

Laura Bennett / The New Republic:

Bloomberg View Has Big Names, Small Influence — Inside the billionaire's quixotic, costly, and strangely milquetoast foray into opinion journalism — On a leafy stretch of East 78th Street, behind a locked, unmarked door with wrought-iron detailing, the office that housed Bloomberg View …

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, Capital New York and Gawker