Mediagazer: Powerhouses Behind ‘Big Brother,’ ‘American Idol’ Ramp Up Web Programs (Tim Peterson/AdAge)

7:50 AM ET, December 28, 2013

Top News:

John Borland / Wired:

Glenn Greenwald: ‘A Lot’ More NSA Documents to Come — Nearly seven months after journalist and privacy activist Glenn Greenwald publicized Edward Snowden's first revelations of the vast scope of the NSA's digital surveillance, his life has changed absolutely. — Living in Brazil, he is advised not to travel.

Discussion: @saramorrison

RT:

Greenwald: US and British media are servants of security apparatus — Journalist Glenn Greenwald condemned the mainstream media during an address at a German computer conference on Friday and accused his colleagues of failing to challenge erroneous remarks routinely made by government officials around the globe.

Discussion: Mediaite and The Register

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:

Vice teases Vice News channel with trailer for 2014 launch — WATCH: VICE Joining 24-Hour News Game in 2014 — VICE Media captured national attention in a big way this year when it orchestrated Dennis Rodman's fateful trip to North Korea for its HBO documentary series.

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune closes $2.7B Local TV acquisition … Tribune Co. has closed on its $2.73 billion acquisition of Local TV, making it one of the country's largest television station owners, the company announced Friday. — The deal, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission last week …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal and TVSpy

Tribune Company:
Tribune Closes Acquisition of Local TV Holdings

Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch and FOX6Now.com

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

With Angel Funding From Top Media Veterans, The News Lens Wants To Reshape Journalism In Taiwan — Earlier this month, The News Lens, an independent media startup in Taiwan, announced that it had received angel funding from Marcus Brauchli, whose resume includes top editing positions …

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Powerhouses Behind ‘Big Brother,’ ‘American Idol’ Ramp Up Web Programs — Endemol, FremantleMedia Look to Migrate TV Advertisers Online — Two of the world's-largest TV production companies, Endemol and FremantleMedia, are plotting online programming assaults for 2014.

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

TV blackout wars in a quiet period — The TV industry has a holiday tradition straight out of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas:” End of year feuds that lead to channel blackouts for viewers. — But this year, everybody is playing nice. (It's almost as if the hearts of television executives have collectively grown three sizes.)

Dan Gillmor / Guardian:

Call me an optimist, but the future of journalism isn't bleak — Even as today's major journalistic institutions struggle to adapt, media startups and investigative outlets carry the torch — As we head into 2014, the 20th anniversary of the first popular web browser, we are awash in media.

Discussion: @raju, @dangillmor and @jayrosen_nyu

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Rdio Shuts Down Video-Streaming Site Vdio, Offers Amazon Credits As Reimbursement For Purchases — It's only been six months since Rdio launched its video-streaming platform Vdio to the world, but it appears that the company has already decided to give up on that experiment.

Discussion: Variety, Pocket-lint, Gigaom, The Verge, The Next Web, App Advice, FierceOnlineVideo News, Home Media Magazine and Engadget

Barbara Ortutay / Associated Press:

Bye bye, bile? Websites try to nix nasty comments — NEW YORK (AP) — Mix blatant bigotry with poor spelling. Add a dash of ALL CAPS. Top it off with a violent threat. And there you have it: A recipe for the worst of online comments, scourge of the Internet. — Blame anonymity, blame politicians, blame human nature.

Discussion: bizjournals and Mediaite

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson aren't protected by copyright, US court rules — Sherlock Holmes' status as a copyrighted character is easily as complicated as any of the cases he's had to solve. Created over 125 years ago, Holmes would remain a fixture in author Arthur Conan Doyle's work until the late 1920s.

Discussion: ArtsBeat, Open Culture and Guardian

Andy Carvin / Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth:

Andy Carvin, noted Twitter curator and NPR's senior social media strategist, says farewell — This...Was NPR. — It's my last day at NPR. — I can't believe how seven years have gone by so quickly. It feels like it was just yesterday that I first began chatting with then-VP …

Discussion: Andy Carvin's Waste …, @acarvin, @acarvin, @acarvin, @nprnews and @ninaism

Andy / TorrentFreak:

Major Recording Labels Prepare to Sue Russia's Facebook — For several years, vKontakte, Russia's social networking giant, has been marked as a piracy enabler by rightsholders and even the U.S. Government. — In several Special 301 Reports published by the United States Trade Representative …

Discussion: The Switch, The Moscow Times, TechCrunch and Softpedia News