Mediagazer: Utah Court Agrees To Weigh Aereo Case (David Lieberman/Deadline.com)

6:00 AM ET, February 8, 2014

Top News:

David Cohn / Poynter:

At Circa, it's not about ‘chunkifying’ news but adding structure — You sometimes hear what we do at Circa described as “chunkifying” — taking the news and presenting it in mobile-friendly chunks. And while on the surface this observation is correct, it misses the bigger picture.

Discussion: Digidave, @jayrosen_nyu, @digidave, @wijndelts and @niemanlab, Thanks:@digidave

Ann E. Marimow / Washington Post:

Ex-State Dept. adviser to plead guilty in leak to Fox News — A former State Department arms expert has agreed to plead guilty to disclosing national defense information to a Fox News reporter, his lawyer said in federal court Friday. — The agreement calls for him to serve 13 months in prison.

Discussion: New York Times, TVNewser, Reuters, Gawker, @trevortimm, The Wire and @jasonleopold

Trevor Timm / Freedom of the Press Foundation:
Guilty Plea In Fox News Leak Case Shows Why Espionage Act Prosecutions Are Inherently Unfair to Sources

Discussion: @jesselynradack and @trevortimm

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

NYT hasn't been hit that hard — Parsing the numbers with Quartz and the WSJ — Quartz posts this graphic of New York Times Company revenues going back to 2003, asking “Can the New York Times's online readership offset its prolonged ad slump?” — The Times has very real problems, thank you very much, but they're not this bad.

Bloomberg:

Tribune Co. Said to Plan Midyear Newspaper Spinoff With New CEO — Tribune Co. (TRBAA)'s proposed spinoff of its newspapers will probably happen by midyear, allowing time to vet candidates to run a business that includes the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: @edmundlee and MediaPost

Los Angeles Times: Waxman says he's still concerned about Tribune newspaper spinoff

Timothy Burke / Deadspin:

NBC Edits Out IOC Anti-Discrimination Statement From Opening Ceremony — Russia's anti-gay laws have been a major focus in the lead-up to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, and during his address at today's opening ceremony IOC president Thomas Bach made a strong statement against “any form of discrimination” and in favor of tolerance.

Telis Demos / Wall Street Journal:

Programmatic ad tech plaform PubMatic planning IPO, aiming for a valuation of over $1B — Ad Platform PubMatic Working on IPO — PubMatic Inc., which automates the buying and selling of digital advertising space, has tapped bankers for a potential initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Bloomberg

Kate Sommers-Dawes / Mashable:

Woody Allen Responds to Abuse Allegations in ‘Times’ Op-Ed — The New York Times has published a lengthy response written by filmmaker Woody Allen to abuse allegations levied against him by his daughter, Dylan Farrow, in the same paper a week earlier. — It is something of an unusual move for the NYT …

Discussion: New York Times, Vanity Fair, Hollywood Reporter, Mediaite, Politico, Digital Spy, Variety, @ryanholiday, Gothamist, @danielshea, @dearsarah, @tmcgev, @ryanholiday, @tmcgev, @nickkristof, @gabrielsnyder, BBC, Speakeasy, USA Today and @dylanbyers

David Lieberman / Deadline.com:

Utah Court Agrees To Weigh Aereo Case — More billable hours for broadcasters' and Aereo's lawyers. The U.S. District Court will hear broadcasters' motion for a preliminary injunction against the streaming service on Tuesday - even as the U.S. Supreme Court plans to look at the copyright infringement allegations against Aereo.

Erik Wemple:

Time Inc. lays off workers as boss rakes in $1.4 million signing bonus — Magazine monolith Time Inc. on Tuesday began laying off workers as the company gets ready to be spun off from TV/entertainment company Time Warner. According to the New York Times, as many as 500 jobs may be lost as a result of the reductions.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and @dangillmor

Guardian:

Former Guardian deputy editor Georgina Henry dies aged 53 — Launch editor of Comment is Free, who was found to have brain tumour two years ago, was ‘a real pioneer’, says Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger — Georgina Henry, former deputy editor of the Guardian and inventor and launch editor …

Discussion: Guardian, @bobbie, The Huffington Post, @rosamundmtaylor and @charliebeckett

Nolan N. White / The Toronto Observer:

@SochiProblems mastermind revealed: student Alex Broad — Popular Twitter account by Centennial College journalism student captures myriad of problems at Sochi Games — Take an unusually slow day in a Toronto college journalism school newsroom, and a journalism student with a love of sports.

Discussion: Businessweek, Guardian, @jeffjarvis, Digiday, Silicon Republic and Softpedia News

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Glam Media Plans To Expand Its Audience Beyond Women, So It's Looking For A New Name — As company names go, Glam Media is pretty memorable, but the name is about to change, according to co-founder and CEO Samir Arora. — Back when the founders of the digital publishing and advertising company …

Discussion: @pkafka

Jonathan Glick / Re/code:

Rise of the Platishers — What should we call a publisher — like Gawker — that provides a tech platform on which anybody, not just its staff, can create content? What should we call a tech platform — like Medium — that has a team of editors and pays some contributors to create content?

Discussion: @jonathanglick, @alexremington, @alexremington, @evanatmedium, @pkafka, @tcarmody, @jbenton, @harrisj, Gawker, @tcarmody, @peterrojas, @marathonpacks and @caseynewton

Erin Griffith / Fortune:

10 Questions with BuzzFeed's VP of International — The head of International for viral content powerhouse BuzzFeed talks about the language of the internet and expanding beyond the US. — FORTUNE — Scott Lamb joined BuzzFeed in 2007, when the company was more of a goofy user-generated link sharing site …

Discussion: @fortunemagazine

Wall Street Journal:

Charter Communications to Put Pressure on Time Warner Cable — Charter to Nominate a Full Slate of Board Candidates Next Week, Sources Say — Charter Communications Inc. plans next week to nominate a full slate of candidates for Time Warner Cable Inc. 's 13-member board …

Michael Geist / Toronto Star:

Canadian film, music producers look for protection as media landscape changes. — Canadian film, music producers look for protection as media landscape changes. … Millions of Canadians now subscribe to Netflix, raising concerns from Canadian film and TV producers.

Discussion: Gigaom

Jason Clampet / Skift:

Lonely Planet Buys Budget Travel Magazine, Reportedly for $2.4 Million — Travel publisher Lonely Planet has purchased Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine. — “It appears, subject to court approval that we may have been the successful bidder on Budget Travel,” Lonely Planet COO Daniel Houghton confirmed to Skift.

Discussion: @rafat

Christopher Ratcliff / Econsultancy:

How The Wall Street Journal owns social media through Facebook and Twitter — The venerable financial news institution achieved over 4m Twitter followers last weekend and its Facebook page is edging closer to achieving 2m Likes. — For what could be considered a niche publication, this is an incredible achievement.

Discussion: @lheron and Talking Biz News