Mediagazer: For Pakistani journos, a treacherous calling (Nicola Pring/Columbia Journalism Review)

8:25 PM ET, February 4, 2014

Top News:

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Intelligence chairman accuses Glenn Greenwald of illegally selling stolen material — A top lawmaker argued Tuesday that journalist Glenn Greenwald is illegally selling stolen material by asking news organizations to pay for access to U.S. intelligence secrets taken from the National Security Agency.

Discussion: Mediaite, Guardian, thenation.com/blogs/174784, @mathewi, @froomkin, @kgosztola, @puellavulnerata and @declanm

Washington Post:

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers grills FBI director about reporter “accomplices” selling stolen material — FBI Director Comey discusses legality of reporters, stolen Snowden documents — In Tuesday's hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on “Worldwide Threats,” Rep. Mike Rogers …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @ggreenwald, @lorenzofb, @declanm, @youranonnews and Techdirt

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Glenn Greenwald denies selling NSA documents

Discussion: @buzzfeedben

Evan McMorris-Santoro / BuzzFeed:

Obama Administration Has Told Egypt To Release Al Jazeera Reporters — “We have strongly urged the government to drop these charges and release those journalists and academics who have been detained,” White House spokesperson Jay Carney said Tuesday. He wouldn't say if aid would be in jeopardy if detention continues.

Discussion: Politico, Reuters and The Huffington Post

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: TVNewser, The Huffington Post, @pattyculhane, @kenroth, @kfahim, @mostafasalem8 and Kirk LaPointe's …

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

Discussion: TheBlot, @jmalsin and Digits

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

Discussion: BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

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

Michael Sebastian / AdAge: Pierre Omidyar's First Look Media Names Michael Rosen Chief Revenue Officer

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Gannett earnings report hints at a coming problem with paywalls — By virtue of tough expense control and the acquisition of Belo Corp. TV stations, Gannett reported decent fourth quarter and full-year financial results yesterday. Its share price was off .06 percent for the day.

Roger Yu / USA Today:
Gannett Q4 income falls 12% due to lower ad sales

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

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 and @peterlauria3

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

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

Emmy Favilla / BuzzFeed:

It's fanboy, not fan boy: BuzzFeed releases internal style guide — BuzzFeed Style Guide — The BuzzFeed Style Guide aims to provide a prevailing, and evolving, set of standards for the internet and social media. — BuzzFeed publishes news and entertainment in the language of the web …

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

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

Eliza Brooke / Fashionista:

Vogue Goes Digital With a New Flipboard Partnership — Vogue has been making a concerted effort to get more multi-channel and tech-happy this year, with a new emphasis on video content and getting its editors involved in social media (hello, #voguestagram).

Discussion: @carlmartin, Thanks:@eliza_pb

Juliette Garside / Guardian:

BBC to slash YouView investment — BT and TalkTalk remain as the major shareholders in set-top box television project created to rival Freeview — The BBC and other broadcasters are planning to slash their investment in the YouView set-top box, leaving BT and TalkTalk as the major shareholders …

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Welcome to Radiotopia, a podcast network with the aesthetics of story-driven public radio — The idea behind Radiotopia is a simple one: strength in numbers. — Radiotopia is a new podcast network launched this morning by PRX. Or it's a “collective of the best story-driven shows on the planet …

Discussion: Knight Foundation, @jessethorn, @toddmundt, The Verge and 99% Invisible

Stacia L. Brown / Salon:

How breaking news is breaking us: The rush to report Philip Seymour Hoffman's death — Philip Seymour Hoffman died yesterday. This was the first and only thing we were told. Arguably, we were told too soon. The news came via a tweet from the Wall Street Journal, preceded by that all-too-familiar word, “Breaking.”

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Journalism.co.uk and The Daily Beast

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Insight: Dow Jones CEO's sudden exit followed revenue slide — (Reuters) - Lex Fenwick's surprise exit from Dow Jones came after some banks and other financial clients balked at the former chief executive's ambitious new product, DJX, which sent sales tumbling, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

YouTube founders' startup Avos is laying off 80% of staff & killing video app Mixbit — Avos Systems, the company created by YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, is laying off a significant portion of its workforce, sources close to the company told VentureBeat.

Discussion: Gigaom and The Next Web

Jim Romenesko:

Students are tired of hearing there's never been a better time to be a journalist — Kyle Clauss writes: “My roommate [Alex Reimer] and I are students at Boston University's College of Communication. We've listened to our fair share of self-righteous, out-of-touch journalist guest speakers, so we created this bingo board.

Discussion: @maggiekb1, @feldmaniac, @jbenton and @caseymcdermott

Nicola Pring / Columbia Journalism Review:

For Pakistani journos, a treacherous calling — Eight Pakistani reporters spoke about their professional lives at the Columbia Journalism School — Militant propaganda, death threats, and violent military action are among the daily realities some journalists face in Pakistan …

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC bosses ‘tried to blame technology not bad decisions for £100m IT fiasco’ — Former chief technology officer sacked over Digital Media Initiative failure says parts of the project were pulled prematurely — The BBC executive who paid for the £100m Digital Media Initiative fiasco …

Discussion: @guardian and New York Times