Mediagazer: Abramson hits back at Observer editor's ‘crazy rant’ (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

9:45 AM ET, February 5, 2014

Top News:

Snowden's leaks: Are journalists ‘fencing stolen material’? — It's against the law to steal classified government material. But is it also a crime for a journalist to sell a story to a newspaper or Web site based on that material? — Some elected officials and government appointees …

Discussion: @20committee, @pjcrowley, @free_snowden, @froomkin and @froomkin

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Intelligence chairman accuses Glenn Greenwald of illegally selling stolen material

Discussion: BuzzFeed, thenation.com/blogs/174784, @politico, New York Times, Mediaite, Guardian, @froomkin, @mathewi, @puellavulnerata, @kgosztola and @declanm

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Glenn Greenwald denies selling NSA documents

Discussion: @buzzfeedben and @rsingel

Washington Post:
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers grills FBI director about reporter “accomplices” selling stolen material

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

Ken Kurson / The New York Observer:

The Tyranny and Lethargy of the Times Editorial Page — Reporters in ‘semi-open revolt’ against Andrew Rosenthal — IT'S WELL KNOWN AMONG THE SMALL WORLD of people who pay attention to such things that the liberal-leaning reporters at The Wall Street Journal resent the conservative-leaning editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Mediaite, @mattyglesias, Gawker, @nbj914, @nathanking, @africasacountry, @jackmirkinson, @dlknowles, @efune, @alexrkonrad, @nytfridge, @tamarsternthal, @gadyepstein, bookforum.com and New York Magazine

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Abramson hits back at Observer editor's ‘crazy rant’ — The New York Times is hitting back at The New York Observer's latest cover story, an exhaustive takedown of the paper of record's opinion pages and the man who oversees them, Andy Rosenthal. — In an email to Capital …

Discussion: Capital New York and @fstonenyt

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

NBCNews.com Gets a Remake for Its Post-Microsoft Life — NBC News is eager to leave its Microsoft era behind, and it now has the relaunch to prove it. — Today, NBC News plans to roll out a clean, responsive, mobile-first redesign to NBCNews.com. The new site, which will be joined …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and NewscastStudio

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Animated Videos, Tweets, Overseas Dispatches All Part of NBC News Digital Overhaul — With control of its digital properties under its sole control at long last, NBC News said it would present a radically different face for web and mobile users in the hopes of giving the NBCUniversal unit …

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

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Interim Dow Jones chief charts course correction

Discussion: Forbes

Tara Conlan / Guardian:

BBC considering keeping 40-year-old system after £100m DMI failure — Programme archive database created as part of DMI is up and running - but older system is cheaper and easier to operate — The BBC is considering keeping a 40-year-old programme archive database system that was due …

John Plunkett / Guardian:
BBC bosses ‘tried to blame technology not bad decisions for £100m IT fiasco’

Discussion: @guardian

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Guardian says News UK criticism of its business model ‘flawed argument based on flawed data’ — Guardian News and Media has accused News UK chief executive Mike Darcey of using “flawed data to inform flawed arguments” when he criticised the group's business model yesterday.

Discussion: Guardian

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

As The New York Times debuts its template for native ads, will other newspapers follow? — When The New York Times offered the first native ad on its website Jan. 8, reviews were mixed. Some thought the Times offered too much of a good thing with a half-dozen disclaimers that the story-like piece was advertising.

Discussion: Forbes, iMedia Connection and the Econsultancy blog

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.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, @rickedmonds, @jeffjarvis and PR Newswire

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Guardian hires Matt Sullivan as U.S. opinion editor — Matt Sullivan is leaving The New York Times to become opinion editor for The Guardian's American digital news operation, replacing a staffer who in turn left for The Times. — In his new role, Sullivan, 29, will corral contributors …

Discussion: @sullduggery and @matthewwells

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: @feldmaniac, @byninamartin, @caseymcdermott, @maggiekb1, @carr2n, @danfagin, @peternickeas, @stephgracenola, @amyzerba, @maiphoang, @bschraum, @ktmboyle, @jbenton and @jayrosen_nyu

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Google goes to war on ‘fraudulent’ YouTube video views — Says inflated counts are misleading fans and 'undermining one of YouTube's most important and unique qualities' — YouTube visitors watch more than six billion hours of video every month, but not all of those eyeballs are real.

Discussion: Google Online Security Blog, BetaNews, Softpedia News and Sky News

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

High-ranking execs laid off at Time Inc. — The cutbacks began Tuesday as expected at Time Inc. and it took a heavy toll among some of the top echelon executives as the company abolished its three-cluster system centered around brands and put everything into one pot.

Discussion: WWD, AdAge, Capital New York, @rjmcgarvey, Guardian, Variety, Canadian Magazines, New York Magazine, FishbowlNY, Mashable and Business Insider

Rachel Bartlett / Journalism.co.uk:

How the BBC and Guardian are innovating on Instagram — A look at two Instagram-focused projects launched in January, including Instafax at the BBC and GuardianCam, the Guardian's ‘first truly global-from-the-start social account’ — Credit: By Das Fotoimaginarium on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Guild angry at Reuters over pay snafu — The Newspaper Guild of New York, which represents business journalists at Reuters, sent the following letter to James Smith, the chief executive officer of Thomson Reuters:

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Daily Mail publisher reports that website's ad revenues increased by 48% to £14m in the final three months of 2013 — Daily Mail publisher reports that website's ad revenues increased by 48% to £14m in the final three months of 2013 — Mail Online's ad revenues increased …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Guardian:

Have 24-hour TV news channels had their day? — The former director of BBC News, Richard Sambrook, and its ex-head of strategy, Sean McGuire, argue that digital technology has left rolling news channels outmoded — CNN's Peter Arnett reports from Baghdad in 1991: rolling news's finest hour?

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 …