Mediagazer: South African journalist arrested, threatened (Committee to Protect Journalists)

7:35 AM ET, January 30, 2014

Top News:

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Major Expansion Ahead at The Washington Post — The Washington Post has significantly increased its budget and plans to make dozens of newsroom hires under its new owner, the Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, the paper's executive editor, Marty Baron, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Discussion: Washington Post, Guardian, Adweek, The Huffington Post, @yarotrof, @ktumulty, @paula_span, @adamnagourney, @pkafka, @abihabib, Mediawire Daily, FishbowlDC and Capital New York

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Tech isn't just a talking point, it's the media's new context — Tech isn't just a talking point, it's the media's new context. — Via youtube.com — If you want to understand Ezra Klein's departure from the Washington Post to Vox Media, as well as the context of the larger conversation about …

Discussion: metamedia, @tcarmody, @mat, @ezraklein, @mattzeitlin, @blakehounshell, @tldr, @yurivictor, @bethshanna, @psmith and @jayrosen_nyu

Harry Jaffe / Washingtonian:
Katharine Weymouth Defends Decision Not to Fund Ezra Klein's New Venture

Discussion: New York Times, @ravisomaiya, bookforum.com, @jayrosen_nyu, @jamesrbuk, @mathewi, Poynter, @raju, @mlcalderone, @harryjaffe, @sophiegg and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Breaking News From Twitter: There's Breaking News on Twitter — News today from Twitter: Twitter would like to provide more of your news. — That's the upshot of a press event in New York today, where Twitter, CNN and Dataminr, a Twitter-blessed data company, announced a new tool designed to help journalists find news on Twitter.

Discussion: @margafret and @edmundlee

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
CNN And Twitter Partner With Dataminr To Create News Tool For Journalists

Discussion: Poynter, Dataminr, @michaelsurtees, @digiphile, @jcstearns, The Verge, Engadget, Pocket-lint, Variety, @willoremus, @jweb and CNET

Vivian Schiller / Twitter blog:
A faster, easier way for newsrooms to find breaking news on Twitter

Discussion: Daily Dot, Wired, Mashable, @vivianschiller, @edmundlee, Kirk LaPointe's …, @ericaamerica, @cpen, @marksluckie, @joannauk, @sladurantaye and CNET

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:
Why CNN partnered with Twitter and Dataminr

Discussion: Capital New York and Gigaom

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Why everyone is starting a news site: free-agent talent, cheap tech, maturing business models — The newsonomics of why everyone seems to be starting a news site — You'd think the new digital printing presses were minting money. — Just within the last month, all kinds of details …

Discussion: @om, @justinnxt, @niemanlab, Economist and Politico

David Carr / New York Times:
As I Was Saying About Web Journalism ... a Bubble, or a Lasting Business?

Discussion: @pximenez, @joshuatopolsky, @benhuh, @brandoncarte, @gregory, @justinnxt, @carltonpurvis, @digiphile, @viceukmedia, @suzykhimm, @dananorak, @dangillmor, @carr2n, @cappiwill, @jonathanwald, @peterlattman and @azi

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Inc. Media Hires Jim Ledbetter from Thomson Reuters — Mansueto Ventures' Inc. Media is hiring Jim Ledbetter from Thomson Reuters as editor of its namesake magazine and website. The veteran business journalist was named the first op-ed editor at Reuters as part of a hiring spree three years ago.

Discussion: @ledbetreuters and @moorehn

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

James Clapper Suggests Journalists Could Be Edward Snowden's ‘Accomplices’ — NEW YORK — Director of National Intelligence James Clapper urged former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and his “accomplices” to return leaked documents during a hearing on Wednesday.

Discussion: UT Documents, Techdirt, TheHill, Politico, Mashable, @trevortimm, @huffpostmedia, The Lede, @mlcalderone and @gaberivera

Jim Romenesko:

Report: Hundreds of Patch employees laid off — I'm told that hundreds — two tipsters claim two-thirds of the editorial staff — have been laid off by Patch's new owner, Hale Global. I have asked the company for confirmation. (It bought Patch from AOL on January 15.)

Jim Romenesko:

Task force recommends Society of Professional Journalists not change its name to Society for Professional Journalism — Some at SPJ wanted to change the focus of the organization to upholding and advocating the principles of professional journalism rather than the people performing it …

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:

Facebook Gets Into The News Business With A New Story Curation App Called Paper — Facebook announced today that's launching a news reading app for iPhone called Paper. — The Paper app pulls in news stories, photos, and videos your friends share in their News Feeds and displays them in a photo-intensive layout.

Discussion: The Verge, TechCrunch, Gigaom, NYT Bits, Digits, Re/code, The Next Web, Engadget and ReadWrite

Megan Reynolds / mUmBRELLA:

The Global Mail faces closure after Wood withdraws funding — The Global Mail faces the closure of its online operation after its philanthropist funder withdrew his financial commitment for the website Businessman Graeme Wood had pledged $15 to $20m to fund the site over five years …

Discussion: @matt_levinson, The Global Mail and Guardian

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers — Project Would Give E-Commerce Firm Access to More Customer Data — Amazon.com Inc. plans to offer brick-and-mortar retailers a checkout system that uses Kindle tablets as soon as this summer, people briefed on the company's plans said.

Discussion: @karaswisher, Softpedia News, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, The Verge and Mashable

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Fox Sports president on planning the Big Game — This week is arguably one of the biggest in the history of Fox Sports. — On Sunday, the network will broadcast Super Bowl XLVIII, but leading up to it Fox has made sure to saturate the lineup of its cable channel, Fox Sports 1, with Super Bowl coverage.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Variety, The Big Lead and The Verge

Committee to Protect Journalists:

South African journalist arrested, threatened — South African authorities should drop charges against a journalist who was roughed up and detained after photographing police officers allegedly involved in bribery, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Discussion: Guardian, Mail&Guardian and Times LIVE

Max Seddon / BuzzFeed:

Russia's Only Independent News Channel Faces Closure Under Kremlin Pressure — Several cable networks abruptly dropped Dozhd TV under apparent orders from powerful figures. “There's only one way things happen that quickly in this country,” the channel's owner says. — Via facebook.com

Discussion: @rusalgbt

Hanna Rosin / Slate:

Melissa Harris-Perry, tenured professor, progressive hero, TV star. — Melissa Harris-Perry, tenured professor, progressive hero, TV star. — Even serious journalists covered Michelle Obama's 50th birthday earlier this month People-style, writing about the first lady's hair, her trip to Hawaii, and her latest thoughts about Botox.

Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times:

The O.C. Register's supremely ghoulish financial strategy — The Orange County Register building in Santa Ana is shown. The company is seeking to buy life insurance on its employees, not to benefit the employees' families, but to benefit the company's pension plan. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @jimmyorr, @froomkin, @romenesko and @bgrueskin

Jim Romenesko:
Orange County Register owner blasts Los Angeles Times' story on his ‘ghoulish strategy’

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, LA Observed and The Newspaper Guild

Clair Lorell / Digiday:

FTW: How USA Today Mastered Viral Sports Content — Who said old dogs can't learn new tricks — and get them shared on Facebook millions of times. — USA Today has looked for inspiration in the current crop of viral media darlings, BuzzFeed and Upworthy, for a sports section that mixes original …

Discussion: Capital New York, Forbes and Mashable, Thanks:@bmorrissey

Diego Cruz / Journalism in the Americas Blog:

Killing of Mexican journalist sparks human rights ombudsman's investigation — Mexico's National Human Rights Commission will investigate the Jan. 23 murder of a journalist in Guerrero. It is the first killing of a journalist in Mexico this year. — Miguel Ángel Guzmán Garduño …

Discussion: Guardian

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Guggenheim Digital CEO Ross Levinsohn: All Tech, No Action — Digital media vet was hired to build an ambitious portfolio. But all that's emerged is expectations of his exit — A year ago, financial services giant Guggenheim Partners trumpeted an ambitious new strategy …

Amanda Holpuch / Guardian:

Academic group proposes editor blogging ban to keep ‘professional’ tone — Professors criticise the International Studies Association's suggested ban as ‘antithetical to the entire academic enterprise’ — A major academic body is proposing that editors of its journals be banned from blogging …

Discussion: Guardian, Inside Higher Ed, Washington Post, @smsaideman, @dandrezner, @anon1990, @mathewi, @fonnesbeck and @oliverburkeman

Nitasha Tiku / Valleywag:

Today's News, Brought to You By Tech Giants — The lines have gotten even blurrier since the Internet kneecapped newspapers. — In the past few years, media companies called themselves tech companies, then that distinction became meaningless. In between, tech honchos spent their loose change …

Discussion: @nitashatiku

Rebecca Ballhaus / Washington Wire:

Solid Gains for White House's SOTU Web Effort — The White House made a big push this year to draw more State of the Union viewers to its own website, where it broadcast charts, graphics and data designed to back up key points in President Barack Obama's speech.

Discussion: TVNewser, Inside TV, Politico, Post Politics and Los Angeles Times

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:

BSkyB Revenue Increases as It Signs Up Record TV Customers — British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (BSY)'s first-half sales rose 6.3 percent as the U.K.'s largest pay-TV broadcaster signed up more customers for broadband and TV services, fending off increased competition from BT Group Plc.

Discussion: Guardian, Hollywood Reporter, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal and Proactiveinvestors …