Mediagazer: Can Philly Newspapers Be Saved? (Joel Mathis/Philadelphia Magazine)

10:35 AM ET, February 11, 2014

Top News:

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Facebook Changed How The News Feed Works — And Huge Website Upworthy Suddenly Shrank In Half — In a blog post, Facebook said it wanted to feature more “high quality” content and fewer “meme photos.” — That same month, — That's a 46% traffic decline in two months. — The drop raises a few questions.

Discussion: @stephenbhull, @timobrien, @rosshudgens, @antderosa, @max_fisher, @dannysullivan, @amir, SocialTimes, @obsoletedogma, @petersterne, @kimbhasin, @sandentotten and @cschweitz

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Buzzfeed CEO: Here's Why Facebook Isn't Crushing Us — In December, Facebook changed its News Feed algorithm to favor more “high quality” news over “memes.” — Looking at a bunch of charts yesterday, we found this change correlated with a sudden and massive drop in traffic to Upworthy and several viral news sites.

Alistair Barr / USA Today:

Google strikes big ad measurement deal with comScore — Partnership may change how billions of online ads a day are measured, covering display, video, mobile and any future areas Google moves into. — SAN FRANCISCO — Google signed a major advertising deal with comScore to help …

Discussion: comScore, Inc. and @aripap

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith: Expect Splashier Storytelling on Bloomberg TV — Appeal to Broader Business Audience Also Likely — Justin Smith, CEO of Bloomberg Media Group, is slated to wrap up a 100-day review of the company in the coming weeks, when he is expected to offer recommendations …

Discussion: TVNewser, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, @justin_b_smith and Talking Biz News

Joel Mathis / Philadelphia Magazine:

Can Philly Newspapers Be Saved? — Writer Steve Volk is a longtime observer of the Philadelphia media scene — so he brings a substantial foundation to this month's Philly Mag print story that takes readers inside the furious battle for control of the city's two major daily newspapers.

Discussion: Poynter, @niemanlab, @dustinslaughter, @phillymag, @tommyrowan and @mollyeichel

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Bill Keller, The Marshall Project, and making single-focus nonprofit news sites work — “When you have a startup, one of the most challenging things is to establish yourself as a credible news organization,” Neil Barsky, founder of a new news nonprofit focused on criminal justice issues, told me.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, The New Yorker Blog, USA Today, Poynter, Gawker, @jbenton, @niemanlab, Mediaite, Politico and New York Times

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Capital NY Tweaks Prices Ahead of Paywall — Capital New York has tweaked its pricing as it prepares to start charging for e-newsletters and news coverage today (Feb. 11), making it the latest startup to test consumers' willingness pay for news. — The experiment will no doubt be closely watched …

Erik Wemple:

Glenn Greenwald and the U.S. ‘assassination’ program — Journalist Glenn Greenwald promised that the Pierre Omidyar-bankrolled First Look Media Web site would take it to vested interests in Washington. The debut edition of First Look's first digital magazine began delivering on the pledge …

Discussion: Pressthink, @gwot_hipster, @barryeisler, @the_intercept, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Daily Dot, Boing Boing, Mashable, The Raw Story, TechCrunch, New York Magazine, The Wrap, The Dish, emptywheel, Softpedia News and Gigaom

Erica Salkin / Mediashift:

Three P's to Protect Free Speech for Student Media … It's a little bit of a man-bites-dog scenario — public high school administrators force a student newspaper to print what the students consider a racial slur. — The Playwickian, a student paper at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne …

Discussion: @splc

David Sirota / PandoDaily:

Old media outlets collude with politicians to protect monopoly, punish media startups — Here's some good recent news for free-speech advocates: A federal court recently ruled that bloggers, online journalists and the public at large enjoy the same protections as legacy news outlets do when facing defamation lawsuits.

Discussion: Free Press Blog, @davidsirota, @mathewi, @digiphile and @jayrosen_nyu

Julia Ioffe / The New Republic:

The Only People Harassing the Gays of Sochi are the Foreign Journalists — Sochi has one gay club. It is called Mayak, or “light house,” and it is located behind an unmarked door right off one of the city's lush parks. You have to buzz to be let in. — Once you're in, though …

Discussion: @chrishughes, @t_mcconnell, @lbennett, @ianbirrell, @giantpandinha and @davidfolkenflik

Megan Levy / Sydney Morning Herald:

David Koch criticises Channel Seven for paying for Schapelle Corby interview — Sunrise co-host David Koch has hit out at his own network for paying convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby $2 million for a tell-all interview following her release from prison in Bali.

Discussion: Guardian, NEWS.com.au, TVNZ, @mariongroves, TheAustralian, @watoday and CourierMail

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

4 Headlines that Will Restore Your Flagging Faith in Journalism — Editor's note: The new issue of our sister publication Nieman Reports is out and ready for you to read. — Lots of great stuff in there as usual; the main theme of the issue is the state of journalism in China …

Discussion: @craigsilverman, @lukelewis, @dannysullivan and @niemanlab

Reuters:

China to maintain its strict quota for imported Hollywood films — China dashes Hollywood's hopes for greater access in 2014 — China will maintain its strict quota for imported Hollywood movies this year, rejecting reports it had planned to increase access for U.S. films …

AFP:

Egypt trial for Jazeera journalists set for Feb 20 — Cairo — Al-Jazeera journalists accused of backing Egypt's blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood are to go on trial on February 20, judicial sources said on Monday. Since president Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military in July …

Discussion: Guardian, Middle East Real Time, DW.DE, ABC and Associated Press

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Press regulation: advert seeks ‘resilient and independent’ recognition panel chief — A newspaper advertisement is calling for applications for the chair of the board of the recognition panel that is being established under the royal charter on press regulation.

Discussion: @leshinton

Alexis Kleinman / The Huffington Post:

Feb. 11 Is ‘The Day We Fight Back’ Against NSA Surveillance — More than 5,300 web-based companies and other organizations, including Reddit, Imgur, Tumblr, Mozilla the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, have joined forces to protest National Security Agency surveillance on Feb. 11.

Discussion: CNET and Daily Dot