Mediagazer: Saudi journalist to spend 20 years in jail for linking royals to al-Qaeda (Alalam News Network)

4:30 AM ET, February 6, 2014

Top News:

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 …

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, @pmarca, @gigaom, @emilybell, @emilybell, @gaberivera, @mg, @marklittlenews, @cmschroed, @ceciliakang, @mikeisaac and Featured stories

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

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: Kirk LaPointe's …, @theatlantic and @lauraolin

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: Politico, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Talking Points Memo

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
How Will Ezra Klein's ‘Project X’ Add Context to News?

Discussion: @1bobcohn and @jayrosen_nyu

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.

Al Jazeera English:

Turkish MPs endorse internet control law — Despite opposition from press freedom groups, Turkey's parliament approved a bill tightening control of Internet. — Turkey's parliament has adopted a new Internet bill roundly criticised as an assault by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan …

Discussion: Associated Press, USA Today, Reuters, euronews, FOCUS Information Agency, DW.DE, News.Az and BBC

CNBC:

Twitter skids 17% on user growth, but earnings beat — Mobile active Twitter users increase 37% — Twitter is reporting active monthly users at 241 million, with CNBC's Jon Fortt and Julia Boorstin; David Sowerby, Loomis Sayles & Co.Jon Steinberg, BuzzFeed; and CNBC contributor Stephanie Link.

Discussion: Forbes, Business Insider, The Wrap, New York Times, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Gigaom, @johnhalton, @tantanobel, The Twitter Blog, Lost Remote and cnbc.com

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Twitter beats earnings expectations, but stock slides as user growth plateaus

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

Alalam News Network:

Saudi journalist to spend 20 years in jail for linking royals to al-Qaeda — A Saudi journalist has been sentenced to serve 12 years in prison for “disobeying the ruler” and accusing the kingdom of creating terrorism in televised remarks. — The convict, identified by local media as Wajdi al-Ghazzawi …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Phone-hacking jury sees letter exposing Brooks and Coulson affair — Jury reads letter found by police on old computer belonging to former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks — The full letter exposing the affair between Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson has been shown …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA and @guardian

Jeremy Hodges / Bloomberg:
News Corp. Paper Made 6,813 Phone-Hacking Calls in 2 Years

Discussion: Yorkshire Post and London News

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

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, AdAge, Street Fight, TechCrunch, USA Today, Pandora, NetNewsCheck Latest and Business Insider

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, Inc.com, SocialTimes, ZDNet, Variety, The Verge, VatorNews, Search Engine Land, Wired, TechCrunch, Engadget, SiliconBeat and Pocket-lint

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.

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

Catherine Taibi / The Huffington Post:

NBC News' Richard Engel: My Computers, Cellphone Were Hacked ‘Almost Immediately’ In Sochi — Being a reporter at the Sochi Olympic Games just got even worse. — NBC News' Richard Engel said that upon arriving in Russia to cover the upcoming event, he was hacked “almost immediately” …

Discussion: Poynter, ABC News, Business Insider and Mediaite

Alexis Sobel Fitts / Columbia Journalism Review:

An ambiguous Medium — An essay about an inappropriate love affair tears open the problems with the two-tiered platform — Last week, Medium editor Arikia Millikan published a coming-of-age essay chronicling a stilted affair she'd had with a married (and much older) journalist, whom she'd met while an intern.

Discussion: @johnjcook, @abeaujon, Gawker and @mattbuchanan

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Relativity Launches Digital Studio Division (EXCLUSIVE) — Roger Mincheff, former Myspace and Fox exec, tapped to run unit focused on branded content — Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh — calling traditional TV advertising a dead-end — is expanding the studio's digital push with a new unit focused …

Discussion: @mlgsundance

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

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

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, ABC News, Business Insider and @zseward