Mediagazer: Two Swedish reporters missing in Syria freed: ICRC, diplomatic sources (Agence France-Presse)

9:10 AM ET, January 8, 2014

Top News:

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

At CES, Yahoo shows its plans to compete as a media company — Yahoo doubles down with new tech, food sites — Executives say it's just the beginning, and more initiatives are in the offing. — Yahoo is doubling down on content as it launches ambitious websites covering technology and food.

Discussion: Guardian, ReadWrite, Yahoo, Softpedia News, The Switch, VentureBeat, Digits and Gigaom

Mike Shields / Adweek:

Yahoo Reboots Ad Business in Attempt to Own Ad Tech — It's getting harder to accuse Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer of not caring much for the ad business. — In fact, Yahoo wants to place itself at the center of the online ad ecosystem—the same monster ambition held by Google, AOL and half a dozen other digital titans.

Discussion: Yahoo, NetNewsCheck Latest, Softpedia News, NYT Bits, TechCrunch and @digitalshields

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Yahoo's sleek News Digest app swims against the stream — Summly is reborn as a digital homage to the newspaper — When the news-summarizing startup Summly shut down last March, it was easy to imagine the company had simply been swallowed by the Yahoo machine.

Discussion: @drmattcarlson, @mikeisaac, Betabeat, Business Insider, Cult of Mac, ZDNet, @tapbot_paul and @jeffsonderman

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Launches News Digest, Its First App Based On Summly

Discussion: Yahoo, @dannysullivan, @jason, @rafe, Softpedia News, 9to5Mac and VentureBeat

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
David Pogue Slams Traditional Tech Blogs To Announce His New Site On Yahoo

Discussion: @stevekovach, @gaberivera, CNET, @thestalwart and Daring Fireball

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Courts Mainstream Audiences With Vertical Sites, Launches Yahoo Food And Yahoo Tech

Discussion: Yahoo, @alecperkins, Variety, Gizmodo, @mikeisaac, GeekWire, Re/code and WebProNews

New York Times:

New bio of Fox News Chief Roger Ailes details power struggles, desire for political influence — Biography Casts Critical Light on Fox News Chief — Roger Ailes was so eager to influence national politics that in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, he told fellow Fox News executives point-blank …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Capital New York, Talking Points Memo, @tripgabriel, @rudepundit, @moorehn, Gawker, @clarajeffery, @blakehounshell, @speechboy71, @jbenton, The Raw Story, @joshsternberg, @joemuto, @johnjcook, Business Insider and @katherinemiller

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Sony Doesn't Have the Deals It Needs for Web TV — But That's Not Its Real Problem — Last year, Intel said it was going to deliver pay TV over the Web by the end of 2013. That didn't work out. — Now Sony says it will deliver pay TV over the Web sometime in 2014. Can it deliver? — Maybe!

Discussion: @jessicalessin

Ina Fried / Re/code:
Kaz Hirai on Why Sony's Pay TV Bid Can Succeed Where Intel and Others Stumbled

Discussion: CNNMoney.com, CNET, The Verge and Variety

New York Times:

Janice Min to be named co-president, chief creative officer for Hollywood Reporter, Billboard — New Leader at Billboard Sees Future in Visuals — Janice Min, who gave The Hollywood Reporter a renewed relevance by transforming the daily trade paper into a much-read weekly magazine and website …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, @jmbooyah and @janicebmin

Chris Taylor / Mashable:

Newspaper to Put All Reporters Through Social Media Boot Camp — One of the country's oldest remaining big city newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle, is set to announce a radical plan to arrest circulation decline and remain relevant in the digital age, Mashable has learned.

Discussion: @audreycoopersf

Agence France-Presse:

Two Swedish reporters missing in Syria freed: ICRC, diplomatic sources — Two Swedish journalists reported missing in Syria in November have been freed, diplomatic sources and an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday. — “A Swedish journalist missing …

Discussion: Poynter and Associated Press

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

With Redesign, NYTimes.com Unveils Native Ad Platform — The New York Times recently detailed plans to introduce a native advertising product to its website, and on Wednesday, readers will get to see its first appearance. — Dell is the charter advertiser of the new ad platform …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, New York Times, Business Insider, Refinery29 and Capital New York

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Bob Costas Says NBC's Olympics Broadcast Won't Ignore Russia's Anti-Gay Laws — NEW YORK — Bob Costas, the face of NBC's primetime Sochi Olympics coverage, recently made headlines by telling the Associated Press that he was more interested in interviewing President Vladimir Putin …

Discussion: Mediaite

David Kenner / Foreign Policy:

The Controversial Death of a Teenage Stringer — Reuters gave this Syrian kid a camera. Seven months later he was dead.

Felix Salmon:

Why movie studios happily violate journalists' copyright — The white-goods queen of Eighth Avenue asks my opinion on @aoscott agate. I take requests, over here, so: is it kosher for a movie producer to selectively quote from the Twitter feed of the NYT's movie reviewer, in a print ad …

Discussion: @gabrielsnyder, Gigaom, @jeffjarvis, @aoscott, Daring Fireball and Kirk LaPointe's …

Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:

Aereo Raises $34 Million to Grow Online-Television Service — Aereo Inc., the controversial streaming-television service, has raised $34 million in funding as it looks to expand into additional cities. — Investors in the round include Himalaya Capital Management and Gordon Crawford …

Discussion: CNET, Business Insider, Digital Journal, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Deadline.com, Variety and Gigaom

Michael Cieply / New York Times:

ThinkFilm, a Short-Lived but Wily Distributor, Still Influences Industry — LOS ANGELES — In two weeks, the feisty operatives of an ever tighter, tougher independent film business will gather at the annual Sundance Film Festival. — Perhaps the toughest of the lot are the survivors of ThinkFilm.

Maggie McGrath / Forbes:

Amazon And Hulu Could Slow Netflix Growth In 2014, Morgan Stanley Says — Original series like House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black may have helped lift Netflix to new heights in 2013, but could the fever start to fade in 2014? According to a new report from Morgan Stanley …

Discussion: Variety, Deadline.com, TheStreet.com, Fox Business, USA Today and MoneyBeat