Mediagazer: Former BBC technology chief to take legal action over DMI dismissal (Tara Conlan/Guardian)

5:20 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.

Discussion: Poynter, NY1, Politico, Capital New York, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Business Insider, Politicker, @badler, @popehat, @tim_eastman, @dylanbyers, @ryanjreilly, @errollouis, The Daily Beast, @zogblog, @kagrox and @burgessev

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

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

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Mail Online to switch to .com domain name — Publisher thought to have paid potentially as much as £1m-plus in bid to boost international traffic, particularly in the US — Mail Online is switching from a .co.uk to .com homepage address, following protracted negotiations with the US paper …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA

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

Discussion: @marksweney, @flashboy and @buzzfeedben

Jenny Gross / Wall Street Journal:

Witness Says Andy Coulson Heard Message Retrieved From Daniel Craig's Phone — LONDON—A former British-tabloid reporter, in his second day of testimony in the long-running phone-hacking trial, said Tuesday that he played a recording of a voice mail he illegally intercepted from actor Daniel Craig's phone …

Discussion: TIME

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

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

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

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

Alison Frankel / Reuters:

The novel legal issues in Tarantino's copyright suit vs Gawker — I don't usually cover the same cases as TMZ and Entertainment Weekly, but Quentin Tarantino's copyright complaint against Gawker, filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, could well turn out to be one of those extremely …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and PandoDaily

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:
Gawker Fires Back at Quentin Tarantino: We Didn't Leak Your Script

Discussion: Mediaite, @winobs, Pocket-lint and Gawker

Robin Wauters / Tech.eu:

The Kernel acquired by The Daily Dot publisher; founder and editor Milo Yiannopoulos to move on — UK publication The Kernel, the self-described “Internet tabloid” founded by journalist and entrepreneur Milo Yiannopoulos in 2011, has been acquired by Daily Dot Media, publisher of online newspaper The Daily Dot.

Discussion: London Evening Standard, Business Wire, TechCrunch, The Next Web, The Kernel, @nero, @jonrussell and @kernelmag

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, WebProNews and Re/code

Staci D. Kramer / Nieman Journalism Lab:
“I see this as the next CNN”: Jason Calacanis' Inside.com aims to solve news on mobile devices

Discussion: @jessicalessin, @jenny8lee, Business Insider, @niemanlab, @jbenton, The Next Web, Re/code and @peterc

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Q4 2013 Earnings Slide 6% To $1.27B On EPS Of $0.46, Display Ads Down 6% — Yahoo today reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2013, where it reported GAAP revenues of $1.27 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.46. Excluding traffic acquisition costs, revenues were $1.2 billion.

Discussion: Business Wire, @yahooinc, AdExchanger, @jguynn, App Advice, Globe and Mail, AdAge, @dkberman, @samgustin, Re/code, Forbes, CNET, VentureBeat, CNET, Reuters, Re/code, Digits and Business Insider

Ivan Moreno / Associated Press:

Colorado Lawmakers Reject Journalist Protection Proposal — DENVER (AP) — Lawmakers on Monday rejected a proposal to increase legal protections for reporters and their sources in Colorado, an idea that was prompted by the case of a New York reporter who was pressured to divulge sources in the 2012 suburban Denver theater shootings.

Discussion: Poynter and Fox News

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

First Look Media Rethinking Newsroom Structure Ahead Of Launch — NEW YORK — After a couple months on the job, Eric Bates doesn't yet have a title at First Look Media. — “We're all working very collaboratively now,” Bates said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “We're not worried about titles or positions.

Discussion: Mediawire Daily

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

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Journalists offer different perspectives on what to do with audience data — Younger staff in The Atlantic newsroom have a knack for sourcing their stories through social media, and getting them read that way, too, J.J. Gould, executive editor at TheAtlantic.com, said Monday morning at the Poynter Institute.

Discussion: @poynter

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

Comcast Earnings: Profits Up 28 Percent Thanks to Broadcasting, Theme Parks — Comcast's profits spiked 28.6 percent during the cable giant's fourth quarter thanks to its resurgent primetime broadcast line-up and higher attendance at its Universal Studios theme parks.