Mediagazer: How Digital First Media hopes to transform workflow, culture of ‘newspaper factories’ (Sam Kirkland/Poynter)

10:20 AM ET, January 31, 2014

Top News:

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

How Digital First Media hopes to transform workflow, culture of ‘newspaper factories’ — Digital First Media has unveiled plans to transform its newsrooms and put its money where its name is. “Project Unbolt” aims to address the problem of digital efforts at the mercy of existing newspaper infrastructure.

Discussion: Digital First Media, The Buttry Diary, The Buttry Diary and 10,000 Words

Luke Harding / Guardian:

Footage released of Guardian editors destroying Snowden hard drives — GCHQ technicians watched as journalists took angle grinders and drills to computers after weeks of tense negotiations. New video footage has been released for the first time of the moment Guardian editors destroyed computers used …

Discussion: Guardian, The Huffington Post, Poynter, @timkarr, @paul__johnson, @emptywheel, @mlcalderone and @petersterne

Bloomberg:

Time Inc. Said to Weigh Leaving NYC Time & Life Building — Time Inc., the magazine unit soon to be spun off from Time Warner Inc. (TWX), is considering leaving the Time & Life Building on New York's Avenue of the Americas and moving its offices to lower Manhattan, three people with knowledge of the company's plans said.

Discussion: Mediawire Daily

Erich Schwartzel / Wall Street Journal:

Cable TV is likely to star in contract talks set to begin Monday between Hollywood and the Writers Guild — LOS ANGELES—Cable television is likely to play a starring role in coming contract negotiations between the nation's entertainment producers and the Writers Guild of America.

Discussion: Deadline.com

Dave McNary / Variety:

Writers Guild of America: Companies Seeking $60 Million in Rollbacks (EXCLUSIVE) — Negotiations starting Monday — Setting the stage for contentious bargaining, leaders of the Writers Guild of America have told members that production companies are proposing $60 million in rollbacks at upcoming negotiations.

Discussion: The Wrap

Malcolm Moore / Telegraph:

China kills off discussion on Weibo after internet crackdown — Exclusive: An aggressive crackdown on Sina Weibo has seen numbers of postings on the Twitter-like microblogging site plummet according to research commissioned by the Telegraph — China has succeeded in neutering the country's …

Discussion: Tech in Asia, @marshallmanson, @telegraph, @christinelu and Tech in Asia

Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Sina Weibo users set new messaging record, but is engagement on 'China's Twitter' falling?

Discussion: Telegraph

Lauren Kirchner / Columbia Journalism Review:

Reporting in the post-Snowden era — A panel at Columbia discussed challenges and triumphs — In an auditorium so large that Columbia's Journalism School typically only uses it for its graduation ceremonies, hundreds attended the panel discussion “Journalism After Snowden” on Thursday evening.

Discussion: The Wrap, Tow Center for Digital … and Politico

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

The secret to having a successful paywall around your news is simple — it's about community — Everyone likes to point to the New York Times as the model for a news outlet with a successful paywall or online-subscription model, but as the authors of Columbia University's report on …

Discussion: @marklittlenews and The Dish

Ciara Byrne / Co.Labs:
Inside The Ad-Free, Crowdfunded Publication That Is Upending The Newspaper Business

Discussion: @fastcolabs, @mathewi and @mathewi

Eugene Volokh / Washington Post:

‘Doom’ is for the unprepared — “Is National Review doomed?” asks Damon Linker (The Week). “It's doubtful that National Review could survive” losing Michael Mann's libel lawsuit, or having to settle it out of court. “National Review may be fighting for its life.” The “magazine has now been placed in jeopardy.”

Discussion: @theweek

Damon Linker / The Week:
Is National Review doomed?

Discussion: @sunny_hundal, @theweek, @clarajeffery, @justinraimondo, @unstableisotope, @endhateradio, The Raw Story, @michaelshermer and @bdomenech

Lance Ulanoff / Mashable:

Facebook Paper Is Content — But Don't Call Facebook a Media Company — Is Facebook Paper short for Facebook NewsPaper? — Thursday's unveiling of a new standalone content curation app, Facebook Paper, comes after weeks of speculation and rumors about Facebook hiring editors …

Discussion: Re/code, @agolis, @jason, Ars Technica, Kirk LaPointe's …, Wired, Guardian and Gigaom

Mark Ward / BBC:

UK government tackles wrongly-blocked websites — Net filters that are supposed to prevent children from inappropriate material have blocked access to educational and charity sites — The government is drawing up a list of sites inadvertently blocked by the filters it asked internet service providers (ISPs) to implement.

Discussion: The Independent, DailyTech, UK News and Opinion, Softpedia News, CNET and The Next Web

Alexandra Wake / Nieman Journalism Lab:

In Australia, an ambitious nonprofit news outlet has its funding pulled out from under it — Editor's note: When I speak to journalists or news executives from other countries, there's one part of the American news ecosystem they're always amazed by: our nonprofit news outlets.

Discussion: @niemanlab, @davidc7, @wakeinfright, The Conversation, The Global Mail, Sydney Morning Herald, mUmBRELLA and Guardian

Martin Fackler / New York Times:

Japan's Public Broadcaster Faces Accusations of Shift to the Right — TOKYO — First, there was the abrupt resignation of a president accused by governing party politicians of allowing an overly liberal tone to news coverage. Then, his newly appointed successor immediately drew public ire …

Discussion: Channel NewsAsia, RT, Japan Real Time, Japan Times latest, GlobalPost, The Japan Daily Press and The Japan Daily Press

Donna Tam / CNET:

Amazon considers $40 increase in Prime subscription fee — Amazon may increase its US Amazon Prime membership fee by $40 dollars more, the company's chief financial officer announced Thursday during an earnings call. — CFO Tom Szkutak said growing transportation costs may cause …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, @gregbensinger, @fmanjoo, Home Media Magazine and Digits

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Amazon's Stock Price Stumbles After Hours On Revenue, Earnings Miss And Weak Guidance

Discussion: Amazon.com, Forbes, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, ZDNet, The Verge, Digits, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Business Insider

Reed Albergotti / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Uses Data to Charm Advertisers — Facebook Refined its Tools that Allow Advertisers to Target Users Based on Spending Habits in Brick and Mortar Stores — To make the journey from underachiever to advertising juggernaut, Facebook Inc. had to do some advertising of its own.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and @reedalbergotti

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Be Careful at the Book Club, the Author Might Be There — The living room in the plush apartment on Central Park West was filled with all the trappings of a traditional book club. — A dozen people, mostly women, perched on sofas and armchairs with paperbacks on their laps.

Discussion: Melville House Books

Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:

Facebook Steps Onto Twitter's TV Data Turf — What's This? — Twitter's firehose of data is about to meet a tsunami from Facebook. — After announcing its news reader app, Paper, on Thursday, Facebook has also announced that it will begin to publish anonymized data …

Discussion: Facebook, AdNews, thedrum.com, NASDAQ.com, B&T and The Next Web

Beth Healy / Boston Globe:

John Henry appoints Mike Sheehan CEO of the Globe, names himself publisher — Well-known Boston advertising executive Mike Sheehan will become chief executive officer of The Boston Globe, and the newspaper company's new owner, John Henry, will assume the role of publisher …

Discussion: Poynter, Associated Press and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Kazuaki Nagata / The Japan Times:

SKY Perfect JSAT plans all-Japan channel in Indonesia — SKY Perfect JSAT Corp. announced Thursday it will launch a channel next month in Indonesia that will show Japanese programs around the clock to popularize Japanese content in the growing economy and promote Japan itself.

Discussion: AJW and Variety

Dylan Byers / Politico:

MSNBC president apologizes to RNC — MSNBC President Phil Griffin apologized to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Thursday for a tweet that suggested conservatives “hate” interracial marriages. — “The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable.

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Purdue student paper, NPPA request investigation after a photographer is detained by police — Both the National Press Photographers Association and the Purdue Exponet have written letters to Purdue University asking for an investigation into the Jan. 21 detainment and treatment of a student photo editor …

Discussion: @poynter and splc.org

Agence France-Presse:

China hits back at US criticism over foreign journalists — China on Friday hit back at Washington's condemnation of its treatment of foreign journalists, as tensions rise over a New York Times reporter who left Beijing after not receiving a visa. — PHOTOS

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Egypt Tries to Reassure Journalists From Abroad — CAIRO — The government on Thursday tried to reassure foreign correspondents that they are free to report in Egypt after prosecutors filed criminal charges accusing 20 journalists for Al Jazeera television of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Discussion: @williamsjon and @mlcalderone

BBC:

BT revenues up on demand for broadband and sports TV — BT's sales and profits have risen, driven by record broadband demand and its new sports television service. — The company reported pre-tax profits of £617m for the last three months of 2013, on revenues of £4.6bn.

Discussion: This is Money, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, RTTNews, London News, Guardian and Telegraph