Mediagazer: New York Times Benghazi Investigation Confirms Paper's Early Reporting On Video's Role (Michael Calderone/The Huffington Post)

6:20 PM ET, December 29, 2013

Top News:

An interview with the Washington Post publisher in the Post Bezos Era — Katharine Weymouth, seated beneath a photo of her famous grandmother, Katharine Graham (left), says she wished she had “understood earlier how critical technology is” to success in today's media world.

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: Laura Halminen, UPROXX, @glynmoody and @saramorrison

RT:
Greenwald: US and British media are servants of security apparatus

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite and The Register

Jim Finkle / Reuters:

Exclusive: Hacker took over BBC server, tried to ‘sell’ access on Christmas Day — (Reuters) - A hacker secretly took over a computer server at the BBC, Britain's public broadcaster, and then launched a Christmas Day campaign to convince other cyber criminals to pay him for access to the system.

Discussion: SlashGear and Mashable

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

New York Times Benghazi Investigation Confirms Paper's Early Reporting On Video's Role — NEW YORK — Following a months-long investigation, The New York Times reported Saturday that it had found no evidence that al-Qaeda, or any international terrorist group, was involved in the Sept. 11 …

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Daily Caller, Post Politics and The Huffington Post

Nathaniel Mott / PandoDaily:

Amazon's tablets had a 24x bump in activations on Christmas compared to other December days — Yuletide Kindle: Amazon's best sales catalog dominates Christmas — Flurry today reported that Christmas belonged to Amazon's tablets, which were activated 24-times more often during the holiday than they were on a typical December day.

Discussion: GeekWire and Flurry

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Google received 235 million DMCA takedown requests in 2013, discarded 9% — Google Discarded 21,000,000 Takedown Requests in 2013 — Since last year copyright holders have started to increase the number of DMCA takedown requests they send to Google. — In 2011 Google was asked …

Discussion: SlashGear, Softpedia News and BGR

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.

Discussion: @themediaisdying, @cheeky_geeky and @whatescapes

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Loyal Subscribers Keep Hobby Magazines Afloat — Lance Prucnal's family, like others in the digital age, has canceled most of its newspaper and magazine subscriptions. — Mr. Prucnal's wife dumped Family Circle, Taste of Home and Better Homes & Gardens because she no longer found enough interesting recipes.

Discussion: @buzzfeedben, @mlcalderone, @chaughney, @jmikelyons and @peterlattman

John Stanton / BuzzFeed:

Meet One Of The Most Badass Reporters In Mexico — Despite the murder of dozens of journalists and constant intimidation from the police and drug cartels, Ciudad Juarez's reporters aren't backing down. “We don't have time to put on a hero's T-shirt. We have to do our work each and every day …

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

DirecTV issues veiled threat in talks with Weather Channel — Satellite broadcaster DirecTV has begun distributing WeatherNation, a network with very little reach or viewership, just as its deal to carry the Weather Channel is set to expire. — Ratings for the Weather Channel …

Discussion: @jbflint and @bryandfischer

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: @davidc7, @raju, @dangillmor and @jayrosen_nyu

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.

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