Mediagazer: Patch's Biggest Blunder: Ignoring Cities (Merril Brown/Forbes)

9:40 AM ET, December 27, 2013

Top News:

ESPN received $260M in tax breaks and credits over 12 years to remain in Connecticut — For ESPN, Millions to Remain in Connecticut — BRISTOL, Conn. — The governor of Connecticut arrived at ESPN's expansive campus here to celebrate the groundbreaking of the sports media giant's 19th building …

Discussion: @morningmoneyben, @richsandomir, @tomandersen, @pkafka, @davidfolkenflik, @romenesko, @dangillmor and @pkafka

Paul Carr / PandoDaily:

Look Who's Gawking: Inside Nick Denton's phony, hypocritical class war against tech workers … Last Friday morning, a shuttle bus transporting Google workers from Oakland to Mountain View was surrounded by a mob. A banner was unfurled - “F**k off Google” — and several of the protesters began hurling rocks …

Discussion: Capital New York, @ansciath, @chuckglp, @joshsternberg, @realmattforney, @jason_pontin, @glennf, @jonsteinberg31, @tolles, @paulcarr, @susie_c, @esten and @tomcoates

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Game of Thrones tops 2013 BitTorrent downloads as piracy debate continues within TV networks — ‘Game of Thrones’ Most Pirated TV-Show of 2013 — Game of Thrones has the honor of becoming the most downloaded TV-show for the second year in a row. — With 5.9 million downloads via BitTorrent …

Discussion: Quartz, Hollywood Reporter, @sims, Variety, Softpedia News, BGR, BetaNews, UPROXX, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, The Verge, PopWatch, ArtsBeat and TIME

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

It's official: CBS News correspondent John Miller joining NYPD — CBS News correspondent John Miller has made it official: he is re-joining the NYPD in a high-level counterterrorism role. Miller announced the move on WCBS shortly after 5:30 P.M. — “If you take the L.A. experience …

Discussion: CBS New York, TVNewser, Variety, Mediaite, @charliekayecbs, Associated Press, @alexweprin, @alexweprin, @brianstelter, The Wire, Daily Mail and @kbandersen

Merril Brown / Forbes:

Patch's Biggest Blunder: Ignoring Cities — Guest post by Merrill Brown, director of the school of communication and media at Montclair State University. A member of the founding team of Court TV and the founding Editor in Chief of MSNBC.com, Brown advises digital media start-ups and is a Venture Partner at DFJ Frontier.

Discussion: Street Fight

Aleksandar Vasovic / Reuters:

Bomb targets Montenegrin newspaper critical of government — (Reuters) - A bomb blast overnight shook the offices of Montenegro's leading daily Vijesti in the latest attack on a newspaper known for its criticism of the authorities under the country's long-term leader Milo Djukanovic.

Muhammad Saleem / VentureBeat:

Why ‘viral mills’ like Buzzfeed & Upworthy are content marketing at its worst — Original virus image via Peshkova/Shutterstock — Not a day goes by without another viral content mill popping up, or announcing how many millions of page views it has managed to accumulate within a short span of time.

Discussion: @smcdc

Ethan Smith / Wall Street Journal:

Dollar-and-Cents Secrets of Music Streaming — Staying Power Is More Important Than Bursting on the Scene — In the good old days of the CD boom, the music industry was all about the first week. Prime the pump with endless airplay on pop radio and MTV, blanket major markets with billboard ads …

Discussion: @billboardglenn and @alisternburg

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:

Greenwald Snarks at MSNBC: I Defend Snowden Like You Defend Obama ‘24 Hours a Day’ — Journalist Glenn Greenwald appeared on MSNBC Thursday, one day after Edward Snowden delivered a Christmas address to television viewers in the UK and around the world from Russia.

Discussion: TVNewser, @kgosztola, Business Insider, The Wrap, Mediaite, TheHill, Gawker and New York Magazine

Antony Loewenstein / Guardian:

Reporters have a choice: to either continue being regarded as untrustworthy, or to be seen as willing to hold the powerful into account. — 2013 was the year of Edward Snowden. The former NSA contractor, voted the Guardian's person of the year (after Chelsea Manning the year before) …

Discussion: @ggreenwald and @antloewenstein

Anna Nemtsova / Guardian:

Ukrainian activist-journalist Tetyana Chernovil in intensive care after beating — Protesters rally in Kiev holding photos of reporter, who says she was pulled from car after criticising minister's alleged corruption — The streets of Kiev were plastered with images of a young woman's bruised and swollen face on Thursday morning.

Discussion: CNN, Voice of America, CNN, @jayrosen_nyu and kyivpost.com

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

As New Services Track Habits, the E-Books Are Reading You — SAN FRANCISCO — Before the Internet, books were written — and published — blindly, hopefully. Sometimes they sold, usually they did not, but no one had a clue what readers did when they opened them up. Did they skip or skim?

Discussion: Mediashift, Slate and GalleyCat