Mediagazer: Facebook ‘relationships guy’ courts Hollywood, media in new push (Alexei Oreskovic/Reuters)

3:10 AM ET, January 18, 2014

Top News:

Katie Roof / Fox Business:

AOL's Patch May Be Dismantled: Source — AOL (AOL) shopped its Patch news service for more than a year to various media companies before reaching a deal with private equity firm Hale Global for what's been described as a low-ball bid for the money-losing venture, the FOX Business Network has learned.

Discussion: @katie_roof

Steven Jacobs / Street Fight:

The Patch Saga, and Its Implications for Local Media — Aol's decision to unload its struggling hyperlocal network Patch earlier this week may not have been unexpected, but the distressed property's fire sale does carry with it some broader implications, even as many local media companies …

Discussion: Gigaom and Business Insider

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:

Bloomberg Refocuses on News — At editorial meetings in Bloomberg L.P.'s headquarters this week, Michael R. Bloomberg gave clear signs that he would not be taking a hands-off approach as he returned to his old company. — Just two week's removed from City Hall, and in his first days …

Discussion: @daschles, @shirleybrady and @nathanielpopper

Jonathan Stray / The Overview Project:

Algorithms are not enough: lessons bringing computer science to journalism — There are some amazing algorithms coming out the computer science community which promise to revolutionize how journalists deal with large quantities of information. But building a tool that journalists can use …

Discussion: @ganley, @joegermuska, @maxj_k, @ahseeder and @skyedoherty

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Eight Percent of DirecTV Subscribers Would Switch Over Weather Channel Dispute — Fresh data in the ongoing DirecTV, Weather Channel carriage dispute reveals a third of DirecTV subscribers would switch, or consider switching, if The Weather Channel were no longer available on the satellite service.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Dan Levine / Reuters:

Blogger gets same speech protections as traditional press-U.S. court — (Reuters) - A blogger is entitled to the same free speech protections as a traditional journalist and cannot be liable for defamation unless she acted negligently, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

Discussion: Technology & …, E Pluribus Unum, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Verge, Politico, @monicafoster, Law Blog, Hollywood Reporter, @mathewi, @mathewi, @mathewi, @freedomofpress and @adamclarkestes, Thanks:@jaredbkeller

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Time Inc. CEO Ripp Said to be Uninvolved in Son's Promotion — A company spokesman said Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp wasn't involved in his son Brendan Ripp's promotion to publisher of Sports Illustrated. — “The decision to promote Brendan was made by Todd Larsen in consultation with Mark Ford,” the rep emailed.

Discussion: New York Post

Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:

With 60M downloads, BitTorrent's Bundle experiment is paying off — The Internet has created a world where value is determined by virality. — BitTorrent is contributing to the evolution of how content gets shared. The creator of file-sharing technology revealed today that people …

Discussion: Techdirt, TechHive, TechCrunch and The Official BitTorrent Blog

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
And The Most Downloaded Torrent of 2013 is.... Completely Legal

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, Softpedia News and Business Insider

Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times:

End of film: Paramount first studio to stop distributing celluloid — Paramount's “The Wolf of Wall Street” is the first major Hollywood movie to be distributed entirely in digital format — without the use of film or film reels on which the industry has depended since it began.

Discussion: Variety

Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:

Facebook ‘relationships guy’ courts Hollywood, media in new push — (Reuters) - Beyonce fans got a big surprise at midnight on December 13, when the pop star announced her new album from out of the blue. — Just as surprising was her decision to announce the album by posting a 15-second video …

Trevor Timm / Freedom of the Press Foundation:

Freedom of the Press Foundation's Response to Obama's NSA Speech — President Obama addressed NSA reform in a forty minute speech this morning in which he proposed a few welcome reforms and many which could normalize some of the NSA's most dangerous practices.

Discussion: Slate, The New Yorker Blog, Guardian, Washington Post, @janinegibson and @trevortimm

Associated Press:

Gunmen kill 3 TV station employees in Pakistan — KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Police in Pakistan say gunmen have killed three employees of a television news channel. — Police official Javed Odho said the driver, a technician and a security staffer for the private Express News channel …

Discussion: The Express Tribune, @faizanlakhani, Committee to Protect … and The Express Tribune

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

The OC Register's expansion reverses — Trouble for Aaron Kushner's contrarian bet in Southern California — The Orange County Register, the rebuilt Chevelle SS of the newspaper industry, has blue smoke coming from the tailpipe. — On Thursday, owner Freedom Communications laid off …

Discussion: Navel Gazing, @mathewi and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Paul Mozur / Wall Street Journal:

Chinese Microblog Use Fell 9% In 2013, Government Says — The Reduction in Weibo Users Likely Reflects Censorship, Mobile-Messaging Options — BEIJING—The number of Chinese using Twitter -like microblogs fell 9% in 2013 from 2012, according to a new government report …

Discussion: @crtejada

Economist:
Chinese investigative journalist circumvents censors with popular messaging app WeChat

Discussion: @letahong, @stinson, @gadyepstein, Quartz and @zseward

Arif Durrani / Media Week:

London Evening Standard profits double in 2013 — The London Evening Standard has more than doubled its profits in the year to September 2013, to around £2.5 million, while the embattled Independent slashed its losses by 50% in the same period, according to sources. inShare 1 London Evening Standard …

Discussion: @geofinns