Mediagazer: Rieder: Foolish attempt to criminalize journalism (Rem Rieder/USA Today)

10:05 PM ET, February 5, 2014

Top News:

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Post's Marty Baron responds to the departure of three more Wonkbloggers — Washington Post's Brad Plumer, Sarah Kliff Joining Ezra Klein's Vox Venture — NEW YORK — The Washington Post's Brad Plumer and Sarah Kliff are joining Ezra Klein's new venture to be launched with Vox Media …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and Talking Points Memo

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

How Will Ezra Klein's ‘Project X’ Add Context to News? — The potential and pitfalls of an ambitious play for the future of digital journalism — Ezra Klein's new journalistic venture, Project X, starts with the proposition that news organizations focus too much on what's new and not enough on what's important.

Discussion: @1bobcohn and @jayrosen_nyu

Jeremy Hodges / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Paper Made 6,813 Phone-Hacking Calls in 2 Years — News Corp. (NWSA) journalists and a private investigator employed by the company's News of the World tabloid made 6,813 calls targeting 282 voice mails during 2005 and 2006, according to billing data analyzed by police.

Discussion: London News, Yorkshire Post and Kirk LaPointe's …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Phone-hacking jury sees letter exposing Brooks and Coulson affair

Discussion: @guardian and mUmBRELLA

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and others may not know fate until summer

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Times May Publish Response From Woody Allen on Dylan Farrow's Accusations — Woody Allen has asked for, and may get, a chance to respond — in an Op-Ed piece in The Times — to a recent column and blog by Nicholas Kristof in which the filmmaker's adopted daughter detailed her memories of his sexually abusing her.

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Marc Andreessen talks about the evolution of the news business and why he is optimistic — Everyone seems to have an opinion about what's wrong with the news business — whether it's the best of times or the worst of times for journalism, whether paywalls are the answer, and so on …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Marc Andreessen: The 'problem with local news is most people don't care' — Internet pioneer and investor Marc Andreessen spun out some thoughts about the news business on Twitter Wednesday. 2005 was the last year of an era that lasted since World War II, he said — one in which news …

Discussion: @pmarca, @nitin_mangtani, @anildash, @pmarca, @meganbungeroth, @c_s_green, @themurdochtimes and @pmarca

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Twitter beats earnings expectations, but stock slides as user growth plateaus — Twitter beat expectations today in its first earnings report since going public in November, earning 2 cents per share on $242.7 million in revenues last quarter. They company had 241 million monthly active users …

Discussion: Business Insider, Forbes, @twitterir, Digits, TechCrunch, Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, @tim, @corytv, @benpopper, @verge, @tim, @jowens510 and NetNewsCheck Latest

Robinson Meyer / The Atlantic:

Facebook aims to become digital publishing kingmaker by sending massive traffic to news sites — And Just Like That, Facebook Became the Most Important Entity in Web Journalism — The graph above tells maybe the most interesting—and definitely the most surprising—story of the past year of digital media.

Discussion: @lauraolin

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

In Q4, Pandora posts highest profit as public company — Pandora Media, the operator of the Web's top radio service, reported its biggest quarter of profit since it went public, affirming expectations that investments to soup up its advertising engine would pay off.

Discussion: Forbes, Street Fight, NetNewsCheck Latest, TechCrunch, Business Insider, USA Today and Pandora

John McDuling / Quartz:

Netflix might have more subscribers, but HBO makes more money — HBO, the premium cable channel behind hit shows like Girls, Game of Thrones and True Detective, just capped off a record year, according to its parent, Time Warner Inc, which reported results this morning.

Discussion: Reuters, Variety, BuzzFeed, Business Insider and @zseward

Bree Fowler / Associated Press:
Time Warner 4Q net income falls 12 pct

Discussion: Variety, Los Angeles Times, Corporate Intelligence, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Mail Online's rip-off practice is tawdry - but is Mike Darcey jealous of its success? — News UK chief executive says the website shouldn't be confused with a business based on professional journalism — In his sometimes combative speech yesterday, News UK's chief executive Mike Darcey waded …

Discussion: @guardian, @abeaujon and Press Gazette

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Daily Mail publisher reports that website's ad revenues increased by 48% to £14m in the final three months of 2013

Discussion: Press Gazette and @mediaguardian

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 …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Poynter, Media & Entertainment and @hilella

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:
NBCNews.com Gets a Remake for Its Post-Microsoft Life

Discussion: The Huffington Post and NewscastStudio

Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:

The Big Bet: NBC Thinks More Digital Coverage Means Better Olympics Ratings — What's This? — NBC's last Olympics was either a rousing success or a spectacular failure, depending on who you ask. — The failures, as some called aspects of the coverage, were painstakingly documented …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @jasonabbruzzese, MGOBLUE.COM, Mashable, Variety and Forbes

Ronald Grover / Reuters: NBC boosts sports cable channel with live Olympic events

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Google Confirms Susan Wojcicki Is New YouTube Head — Susan Wojcicki is Google's new SVP of YouTube, Google confirmed today. We wrote about the shift last night. — Google CEO Larry Page said in an emailed statement, “Salar and the whole YouTube team have built something amazing.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Gigaom, Variety, Wired, ZDNet, TechCrunch, SocialTimes, Inc.com, VatorNews, Los Angeles Times, The Verge, Search Engine Land, Engadget and Pocket-lint

Brian Fung / The Switch:

Verizon denies using net neutrality victory to sabotage Netflix, Amazon — After a federal court said last month that the government couldn't prohibit Internet providers from slowing or blocking Web traffic, at least one ISP is being accused of taking advantage of the ruling.

Discussion: Dave's Blog, BGR, Policy Blog, Free Press Blog, @timkarr, @b_fung and The Verge

Merrill Knox / TVNewser:

CNN Shutters CNN Latino — CNN is shutting down CNN Latino just a year after its launch. The eight-hour syndicated news and entertainment block will shutter later this month, Media Moves reports. — “CNN Latino was a bold effort to continue CNN's commitment to the U.S. Hispanic marketplace.

Discussion: Media Moves and The Huffington Post

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Digital Video Fund Luminari Is Raising $40 Million, Has Signed on BSkyB — Luminari Capital, a new investment fund focused on digital media and video, is raising $40 million and has already pulled in some money from BSkyB, the satellite TV giant. — Luminari is run by Daniel Leff, formerly a partner at Globespan Capital Partners.

Rebecca Godfrey / Flare:

Crack Reporter: The Scoop on Rob Ford From Robyn Doolittle — Photography by Miguel Jacob, Styling by Tiyana Grulovic — Robyn Doolittle is showing me the bullet holes. Dressed down in a sweater and Uggs, her hair in a messy topknot, the 29-year-old Toronto Star reporter seems completely …

Discussion: @goldsbie

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

Rieder: Foolish attempt to criminalize journalism — Rep Mike Rogers' bizarre notion that journalists who use classified documents are “fences” — It's an idea that needs to have a stake driven through its heart — right away. — Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is floating the notion …

Discussion: Variety, Freedom of the Press …, Talking Points Memo, New York Times and Politico

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Amazon Lays Foundation for Giant Video Advertising Business — In many ways, Amazon's advertising business still remains a mystery. The company doesn't break out the size of it in its earning reports, and Amazon exec presentations on it at industry events are often low on details.

Discussion: @zseward