Mediagazer: Witness Says Andy Coulson Heard Message Retrieved From Daniel Craig's Phone (Jenny Gross/Wall Street Journal)

9:20 AM ET, January 29, 2014

Top News:

Sarah Wheaton / New York Times:

Rep. Michael Grimm Threatens an NY1 Reporter — The Staten Island lawmaker can be heard telling Michael Scotto, a reporter for NY1, “I'll break you in half” in footage broadcast by the network.

Katerina Eva Matsa / Pew Research Center:

Local TV audiences bounce back — Bucking a long-range trend of declining viewership, the audience for local TV news grew in all three major time slots in 2013. Viewership climbed 6% in the morning (5 to 7 a.m.) and 3% in the early evening (5 to 7 p.m.) newscasts, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.

Discussion: @danharland, @halliejackson, Erik Wemple, Advancing the Story, Poynter, The Huffington Post and TVSpy

Sarah El Deeb / Associated Press:

Egypts refers Al-Jazeera journalists to trial — CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's chief prosecutor on Wednesday referred 20 journalists from the Al-Jazeera TV network, including four foreigners, to trial on charges of allegedly joining or assisting a terrorist group and spreading false news that endangers national security.

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Journalists express solidarity in calling for release of Al-Jazeera five — Journalists in Britain today called on the Egyptian authorities to release five Al-Jazeera staff held in Cairo jails without charge. — Representatives from the BBC, Sky News and the Daily Telegraph joined …

Discussion: BBC, @hazemsika, @hackneylad, @sokkari, Al Jazeera English and The Huffington Post

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

News of the World hacker admits lying as part of ‘enormous conspiracy’ — Dan Evans tells court that 2009 witness statement was ‘drafted by News International lawyers’ and he was ‘toeing the line’ — Dan Evans, the former News of the World hacker, has admitted lying about trying …

BBC:
Andy Coulson called Sienna Miller tape ‘brilliant’, phone-hacking trial hears

Discussion: The Independent, Press Association, TheAustralian, Guardian and The Huffington Post

Tara Conlan / Guardian:

Former BBC technology chief to take legal action over DMI dismissal — Ex-employee accuses corporation of allowing ‘inaccurate statements’ to be made to MPs over failure of digital initiative — The BBC chief technology officer dismissed over the failure of the Digital Media Initiative …

Discussion: Reuters

Guardian: Mark Thompson to face MPs again over failed £99m Digital Media Initiative

Tara Conlan / Guardian:
BBC whistleblower claims staff ‘falsified’ benefits of DMI project

Discussion: bbc.co.uk, Computerworld UK Public Sector, broadcastnow.co.uk, TechRadar.com, TechWeekEurope UK, Daily Mail, The Independent and Financial Times

John Biggs / TechCrunch:

Lance Ulanoff Out As Editor Of Mashable — Lance Ulanoff, former editor-in-chief of PCMag.com, has been moved to an editor-at-large and chief correspondent position at Mashable, effectively removing him from the EIC position at that title. — A source close to the move said Jim Roberts …

Discussion: @jimhanas and Talking Biz News

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:
Mashable expands into climate reporting

Discussion: @mashable

Angela Haggerty / The Drum:

Raft of new digital appointments at Trinity Mirror following Sunday People website axe and departure of Sue Douglas team — Trinity Mirror has announced a series of new digital appointments following the decision to scrap its recently-launched Sunday People website and the departure of its head of Sunday Brands, Sue Douglas.

Discussion: Trinity Mirror plc and thedrum.com

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Sue Douglas leaves Trinity Mirror as People.co.uk closes

Discussion: @marksweney, @flashboy and @buzzfeedben

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Scribd takes aim at Amazon by bringing its subscription ebook app to the Kindle Fire — Scribd has thrown down a gauntlet against the reigning ebook champion Amazon with the release of an app for enjoying its subscription ebook service on Amazon's own Kindle Fire tablet.

Discussion: Digital Journal, Internet Evolution and The Verge

Heather Timmons / Quartz:

An Indian newspaper just introduced a “smellable” ad with an evocative scent — Baby products maker Johnson & Johnson has taken a leap into the brave new world of “smellables” with a full-page advertisement in the world's largest-circulation English-language newspaper—on a page …

Discussion: @heathat

Gillian Wong / Associated Press:

China visa woes for NYT as government ups pressure — You are here — Home » Xi Jinping » China visa woes for NYT as government ups pressure — BEIJING (AP) — The government is intensifying efforts to control foreign media coverage of China, blocking websites …

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Medium, Evan Williams's Post-Twitter Media Startup, Raises $25 Million Round — Medium is about to become large. — The collaborative publishing startup has just closed a $25 million round of financing, the company confirmed, marking its first major funding raise since it launched a little more than a year ago.

Discussion: @al0nd0n, @thinkup, @brendanbaker, VatorNews, Medium, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Verge, @af, @_bsiddiqui, Mashable, @nbj914, @jason, @johnolilly, @goldman, @rsarver and @mg

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

ITV to launch pay-TV drama channel on Sky — Broadcaster continues its strategy of reducing its reliance on free-to-air advertising by announcing rollout of ITV Encore — ITV is to launch a pay-TV channel on Sky showcasing the “best of British drama”, its first major return to pay-TV since …

Discussion: Deadline.com, Reuters, The Independent, Digital Spy, @jaxconrad, Brand Republic and Pocket-lint

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

The FCC will monitor peering fights to ensure innovation prevails — The chairman of the FCC struggles with his Netflix stream too. In a conversation with me at the State of the Net conference in Washington DC, Chairman Tom Wheeler expressed the same frustrations with his Netflix streams …

Discussion: @zseward, TheHill and Re/code

Adam L. Penenberg / PandoDaily:

No second chance for Stephen Glass: The long, strange downfall of a journalistic wunderkind — The California Supreme Court has denied disgraced former journalist Stephen Glass a license to practice law. — Pointing out in its ruling that “Glass's journalistic dishonesty was not a single lapse …

Discussion: @sabrinarerdely, @felixgilman, @jeffreytoobin, @sarahw and Ars Technica

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Is Shutting Down IntoNow, Nearly Three Years After Acquisition — IntoNow — the second-screen app that Yahoo bought in the spring of 2011, just 12 weeks after its launch — is being shut down by its parent company. As of last week, IntoNow was taken off the Apple App Store and Google Play …

Discussion: Variety

Quentin Hardy / NYT Bits:

Jason Calacanis Shoots for Human Moments in News Feeds — This must be the fastest-moving month in the history of new media. The latest entrant features yet one more familiar face. — On Tuesday, Jason Calacanis, who was involved in Web publishing early in its dot-com days, started Inside.com …

Discussion: @journalism2ls, @qhardy, Mashable, @gabrielsnyder, @moorehn and WebProNews