Top News:
Erik Wemple:
Omidyar news venture: Where's the leadership? — In November, First Look Media, the startup general-interest news project bankrolled by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, announced it had hired former Rolling Stone Executive Editor Eric Bates. The announcement carried some trademark features of a job memo …
Discussion:
@nbj914, @jayrosen_nyu, @janinegibson and @carloslozadawp
Craig Silverman / Poynter:
In Pennsylvania and Alaska, a publisher takes infringement to another level — Near the end of last year, a small publishing company made a big bet: it purchased a a group of 19 regional papers servicing remote areas of Alaska. The purchase included a printing plant, but the plan …
Discussion:
Toronto Star
Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:
Giving Credit: A Work in Progress at The Times — Curtis Tate, a reporter for McClatchy News's Washington bureau, spent a recent weekend generating spreadsheets from a data base on hazardous materials for his story on the increasing amount of crude oil spilled in rail accidents.
Discussion:
@kateaurthur, @normative, @bartongellman, @jimasher, @mlcalderone, @buzzfeedben, @mathewi and @fmanjoo
Owen Bowcott / Guardian:
Secret hearings could allow police to seize journalists' notes if bill passes — Requests for notebooks and files must currently be made in open court - but clause in deregulation bill could change that — The seizure of journalists' notebooks, photographs and digital files could be conducted …
Discussion:
@dangillmor
Jonathan Bill / Plugged India LLC:
Pricing Piracy Out Of India Film and Music — The grey market for content in India has never been healthier - burgeoning middle class income and lower priced tv's and mobile / mp3 are driving it upwards. On the supply side, mass digital storage means proliferation of pirated content and sellers is unencumbered.
Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
The Daily Mail will join Buzzfeed, the Guardian and Business Insider in expansion to Australia — Why is everybody opening up shop in Australia now? — A growing number of American and British news outlets are setting up shop in Australia, where the newspapers and broadcast outlets …
Discussion:
Nieman Journalism Lab
Reuters:
Canada strips former publisher Conrad Black of honors — Canada has canceled two prestigious honors for Conrad Black, who once ran a newspaper empire stretching from the Chicago Sun-Times to Britain's Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post but who ended up in U.S. prison for fraud.
Jack Shafer:
Dear Obama, spare us the press-freedom lecturing — Wearing his best straight face, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney lectured China on press freedom yesterday. In a redundant official statement, he accused Beijing of restricting “the ability of journalists to do their work” and “imped[ing] their ability to do their jobs.”
Discussion:
CNNMoney.com and Guardian
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Who wants competition? Big cable tries outlawing municipal broadband in Kansas — Lobbyist for Comcast, Cox, TWC wrote bill to stifle rivals like Google Fiber. — Legislation introduced in the Kansas state legislature by a lobby for cable companies would make it almost impossible …
Discussion:
@lexalexander, WebProNews, DSLreports and Boing Boing
Rebecca J. Rosen / The Atlantic Online:
Forgotify: The Tool for Discovering Spotify's 4 Million Unheard Tracks — The idea first came to Lane Jordan when he heard an odd little fact: Around 20 percent of tracks on Spotify—some four million songs—had been played exactly zero times. — Four million songs! That got Jordan thinking.
Discussion:
BetaNews, Adverblog and Wired.co.uk
Chris Welch / The Verge:
President Obama pledges he ‘will continue to support’ net neutrality — During his latest Google+ Hangouts session today, President Obama provided his most direct response yet to the recent court ruling that dealt a major blow to net neutrality. On the topic of net neutrality itself …
Discussion:
Associated Press and Ars Technica
Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost:
Click-Fraud Costs Marketers $11B, IAB Issues Key Report — The Interactive Advertising Bureau on Thursday announced its latest attack on click fraud, which has never been a bigger threat to the industry. — Led by its Traffic of Good Intent Task Force, the IAB issued the final version of its click fraud best practices today.
Discussion:
@chasnote