Mediagazer: Netflix plans to spend $3 billion on content this year (Janko Roettgers/Gigaom)

2:25 PM ET, February 4, 2014

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Andy Carvin, a pioneer in using Twitter for real-time journalism, joins Omidyar's First Look Media — First Look Media — the new media entity that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is building and has promised to fund to the tune of at least $250 million — is still in its formative stages …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Andy Carvin's Waste …, Washington Post, Poynter, @jasonleopold, @davidbauer, @michaelwolffnyc, @_arianna and @antderosa

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Pierre Omidyar's First Look Media Names Michael Rosen Chief Revenue Officer — Andy Carvin Joins to Work on Social Media — First Look Media, the journalism venture from eBay founder and Chairman Pierre Omidyar, has hired Michael Rosen as its chief revenue officer, making him the startup's first hire on its business side.

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Video of Journalists' Arrest in Egypt Seen as Threat to Media — CAIRO — A leaked video of the arrest of two journalists offered a cinematic close-up on Monday of the new military-backed government's crackdown on dissent: slow-moving footage of a hotel room full of telecommunications equipment set …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, @kfahim, @kenroth and @mostafasalem8

Maxime Zech / NL Times:
Dutch journalist flees Egypt after being accused of aiding terrorist network linked to Al Jazeera

Discussion: @jmalsin, TheBlot and Digits

Darren Boyle / Press Gazette:
Journalists protest at Egypt's Nairobi embassy over detention of Al Jazeera staff

Discussion: BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Netflix plans to spend $3 billion on content this year — Good news for Netflix subscribers looking to burn through more movies and TV shows: The company declared in its 2013 Annual Report this week that it intends to spend close to $3 billion on content in 2014.

Discussion: VatorNews

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix to Raise $400 Mil in Additional Debt to Fund Original Content, Euro Expansion

Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, CNET, The Verge, WebProNews and Business Insider

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Video News Aggregator Watchup Raises $1M From Microsoft Ventures, Others — Video news startup Watchup, is announcing that it has raised $1 million in additional funding. — Co-founder Adriano Farano, a former journalist himself, has said that his goal is to create a new version of the daily newscast.

Discussion: @ibarguen, @xdamman, @farano and Watchup

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

News UK chief exec Mike Darcey: 'Don't confuse Mail Online with a business that is based on professional journalism' — News UK chief executive Mike Darcey today revealed that The Times and Sunday Times were on the brink of turning a profit as he condemned The Guardian and Mail Online …

Discussion: Capital New York and Guardian

Nikki Usher / Nieman Journalism Lab:

In Des Moines, the Register's new newsroom space aims to be a symbol of its digital future — The Des Moines Register said goodbye to almost a century worth of memories in June when it left its 13-story home for a floor-and-a-half of commercial real estate in what had been vacant office space.

Discussion: @niemanlab and The Newspaper Guild

Roger Yu / USA Today:

Gannett Q4 income falls 12% due to lower ad sales — Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY, said Tuesday its net earnings for the fourth quarter fell 12% from the quarter a year ago to $90.7 million due to the absence of political advertising from a year ago and a decline in print ad sales.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Poynter and Gannett Company, Inc.

Joseph Ax / Reuters:

Apple, U.S. clash in court over e-books antitrust monitor — (Reuters) - Apple Inc urged a federal appeals court on Tuesday to put a court-appointed antitrust monitor on hold, arguing that his efforts were harming the company's business. — The iPhone maker asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court …

Discussion: SiliconBeat

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Source says Time Inc to lay off 500 employees globally — Time Inc CEO restructures ahead of spin-off; layoffs ahead — Time Inc Chief Executive Officer Joe Ripp is reorganizing the structure of the world's largest magazine publisher and consolidating oversight as it prepares to spin off …

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY, Folio, New York Times, FishbowlNY, New York Post, @daveweigel, National Sports …, The Huffington Post and Los Angeles Times

Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:

Reuters' Jonathan Weber joins The Information as Managing Editor — Exciting News @The Information: Jonathan Weber joins as Managing Editor — I am delighted to announce that Jonathan Weber, a veteran editor and journalism entrepreneur and who is currently West Coast Bureau Chief for Reuters News …

Discussion: @amir, @mattsf, @rafat, @jessicalessin and @weberwest, Thanks:@theinformation

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Adobe Partners With Microsoft's Azure To Power NBC's Sochi Olympics Video Streaming — NBC caught a lot of flak for its live video streams during the London Olympics, but for Sochi, the network promises to stream every event live. Just like during the London Olympics …

Discussion: Latest News & Headlines, Forbes and Gigaom

Jim Romenesko:

Cord Jefferson quits Gawker to write for LeBron James' Starz TV show — Cord Jefferson is leaving Gawker to write for LeBron James's new Starz TV show. Editor John Cook's memo also announces that Gawker has hired Jay Hathaway, Daily Dot news editor and one of “Twelve People Actually Worth Following On Twitter.”

Discussion: Mediaite, @megreenwell, @petersterne and @justinnxt

Geoffrey King / Committee to Protect Journalists:

Turkish Internet bill would deepen press freedom crisis — The Turkish parliament is on the verge of voting on radical censorship measures that, if approved, would allow the government to block individual URLs without prior judicial review, mandate Internet data retention for periods of up to two years …

Lauren Hockenson / Gigaom:

Facebook's Paper is Facebook for people who hate Facebook — For the past couple years, Facebook has trained its mobile efforts on capturing various facets of social interaction. The social network has compartmentalized and optimized features (Messenger), mimicked the experiences …

Discussion: Softpedia News, Poynter, @niemanlab, @mitali, @anttislaine, @epak, @matthewpennell, NYT Bits, Business Insider, The Verge and Forbes

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:
Facebook and the race to make content go viral — meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Discussion: Digiday, Innovations, @zimbalist, The Dish, @jeffjohnroberts, @shafqatislam, @lhockenson and Business Insider

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Twitter and Facebook Win the Super Bowl. And Fox and the NFL Really Win the Super Bowl. — The numbers are in. And pretty much everyone who doesn't live or work in Denver won last night's game. — That is: Nielsen says this year's Super Bowl — boring by halftime and just about unwatchable …

Discussion: Forbes, PandoDaily and VatorNews