Mediagazer: Iraq bans local printing and distribution of Saudi daily (Reporters Without Borders)

11:45 AM ET, January 16, 2014

Top News:

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

The Independent seeks buyer — The Independent is up for sale. The paper's founder, and current chairman of its publishing company, Andreas Whittam Smith, has been authorised to seek out a buyer. — The owners, Alexander Lebedev and his son, Evgeny, have been indicating …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, @raju, @bounder, @adambienkov, @samirashackle, @scottygb, Management Today and The Drum

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

The Independent's future in jeopardy as sales fall to alarming level — It is hard to imagine anyone buying The Independent and therefore places the paper's future existence in jeopardy. The fact that its owner has failed to find a buyer after months of seeking one suggest that its newsprint days are coming to an end.

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Independent owners decline to comment on report that title is again up for sale — The publishers of The Independent declined to comment this morning on a report that the title is again up for sale - nearly four years after it was sold by Independent News and Media to Alexander Lebedev.

Chris Elliott / Guardian:

Open door: Why an article on Lisa Bonchek Adams was removed from the Guardian site — I don't think it is wrong to frame a question about how those with incurable illnesses use social media, but the Guardian was wrong in the way it went about it — Lisa Bonchek Adams is a woman …

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post, Capital New York, @louisemensch, @emilynussbaum, The Daily Caller, @johnmcquaid, @jenseniorny, @jayrosen_nyu, @poniewozik, @scottros, @mathewi, @stuartmillar159 and SocialTimes

Josh Stearns / Free Press Blog:

Net Neutrality and the Future of Journalism — Tuesday's court decision, which struck down the FCC's Open Internet Order and threatened the future of Net Neutrality, has huge implications for the future of journalism and press freedom. — According to the Pew Research Center …

Discussion: @jcstearns, Gigaom and Consumerist

Bloomberg:
Tallying the Cost to Netflix in Verizon's Victory Over FCC

Discussion: @harrisj and @harrisj

Tim Wu / The New Yorker Blog:
FCC's Wheeler can preserve net neutrality by taking back its authority over broadband

Discussion: Gigaom, @somebadideas, The Switch, The Huffington Post, Crikey, Forbes, The New Republic, Free Press Blog, Globe and Mail, Ars Technica, TheHill, @superwuster, NYT Bits, @mathewi, Home Media Magazine, Kirk LaPointe's … and ABC

Mark Stencel / Poynter:

Tech reporter Brian Krebs hacks it on his own, one scoop at a time … Few news stories in the past month landed on homepages and front pages with a louder thud than the theft of credit and debit card information from millions of Target customers. — The Target break-in was the latest scoop …

Discussion: @amzam, @ktoughill, @ezraklein, @poynter, @jayrosen_nyu and Talking Biz News

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

He Was Fired: Here's Marissa Mayer's De Castro Buh-Bye Memo to Yahoo Staff — Here it is, the internal memo to Yahoo staff about the sudden — though it was not sudden, by any means — leave-taking today of its COO, Henrique De Castro, courtesy of one of my 10,563 sources left at Yahoo!

Discussion: Capital New York, @alexia, Softpedia News, AdAge, Business Insider, VentureBeat, @danprimack, @moorehn and @ashleymayer

Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Yahoo COO Henrique De Castro, Mayer's No. 2, to depart after failing to move lagging ad business

Discussion: Forbes, TechCrunch, Business Insider, WebProNews, Adweek, Los Angeles Times, Media Wire Daily, GeekWire, CNET, Wall Street Journal, Valleywag, Fortune, Quartz and The Wrap

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

Netflix ‘original’ documentary lands Oscar nomination — “The Square,” a Netflix-backed film about the 2011 Egyptian revolution, secured an Oscar nomination for documentary feature on Thursday, fulfilling the Academy Awards buzz it drummed up at film festivals.

Discussion: Forbes, FishbowlNY, VentureBeat, Variety, Rolling Stone, The Next Web, The Verge and UPROXX

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Spotify introduces unlimited free music on the web just days before Beats Music launch — The nice thing about raising $250 million is that it lets you offer your customers services that few competitors can match. Spotify, which is riding high after completing a massive fundraising round in November …

Discussion: Spotify Blog, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Washington Post, Business Insider, Mashable, @gighub_, @vanessa_lgd and Gizmodo

Helienne Lindvall / Guardian:
Will Beats Music trump Spotify with its artist charm offensive?

Discussion: Pocket-lint

Susan Currie Sivek / Mediashift:

Digital Technology Remodels Women's Magazines — Women's magazines are full of fashion, beauty and relationship tips. However, studying them has also taught one researcher a lot about their future, and about the future of the magazine industry as a whole.

Discussion: @pbsmediashift and @brookeerinduffy

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Top editors at Washington Post, Politico talk after Wemple scrutinizes Mike Allen's Playbook — Washington Post and Politico Talk About a Rift — Top editors at The Washington Post and Politico tried on Wednesday to mend a rift between the two news organizations.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @jayrosen_nyu, @buzzfeedandrew, @romenesko, @ravisomaiya, @ericboehlert, @erik_hayden, Poynter and The Dish

Reporters Without Borders:

Iraq bans local printing and distribution of Saudi daily — Reporters Without Borders condemns the Iraqi government's decision to ban the printing and distribution in Iraq of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily newspaper. — On 14 January, Iraqi security forces raided …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

Pew Internet:

E-Reading Rises as Device Ownership Jumps — The proportion of Americans who read e-books is growing, but few have completely replaced print books for electronic versions. — The percentage of adults who read an e-book in the past year has risen to 28%, up from 23% at the end of 2012.

Discussion: @geoffreyfowler, @lrainie, The Next Web and @pewresearch

Ed Christman / Billboard:

FCC Shelves Pandora's Bid For South Dakota Radio Station … Questions? Comments? Let us know: @billboardbiz

Discussion: Gigaom, Radio Ink Magazine, Billboard and Music Week

BBC:

Egypt charges three al-Jazeera English journalists — The three journalists detained in Egypt last month while working for al-Jazeera English have been charged. State prosecutors accused them of using unlicensed equipment, broadcasting false news to disturb public order, and possessing fake footage.

Discussion: Associated Press, Daily News Egypt and @bbcbreaking

John Plunkett / Guardian:

Tony Hall urged to intervene to ensure Savile reforms implemented at BBC — National Union of Journalists ‘disappointed’ recommendations over bullying have not been followed up — The BBC director general, Tony Hall, is being urged to intervene to ensure internal reforms proposed …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Maker Studios Hires Ex-AOL Exec Rene Rechtman to Lead International Operations — Exec also will take a stake in the multichannel network operator eyeing expansion outside the U.S. — @xpangler — Rene Rechtman, who resigned as CEO of AOL's branded content division last fall …

Discussion: Re/code

Brian Braiker / Digiday:

A Tale of Two Daily Mails — Online readers of the Charleston Daily Mail received a bit of a surprise this week when they went to the West Virginia paper's homepage. The paper's address, dailymail.com, took readers to a letter announcing that the Daily Mail had changed its Web address to the somewhat clunkier charlestondailymail.com.

Discussion: @michaelroston

Publishers Weekly:

Simon & Schuster Expands Library E-Book Program — After jumping into the library e-book market last April with a limited pilot, Simon & Schuster is expanding its program to more libraries, and adding OverDrive to its list of vendors. The publisher and OverDrive today announced …

Discussion: GalleyCat, Good E-Reader and Digital Book World

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

AOL hands over control of Patch to investment fund Hale Global, keeps small stake — AOL Finds a Home — Off Its Books — For Patch — Patch isn't dead, and AOL isn't officially done with it. But Tim Armstrong's big bet on local news has come to an end: The AOL CEO is handing over Patch …