Mediagazer: Guardian interested in membership models but not paywall, says CEO (Jasper Jackson/TheMediaBriefing.com)

12:50 PM ET, February 11, 2014

Top News:

Adam Weinstein / Gawker:

Business Insider Changed its Story on Buzzfeed — Yesterday, Business Insider chief correspondent Nicholas Carlson stuck a subtle shiv into his competitors at Buzzfeed, attributing the site's success in exploiting Facebook's ever-evolving newsfeed algorithm to its practice of buying traffic …

Discussion: @moorehn, @nickconfessore, @mattdpearce, @johngapper, @johnjcook, @jackshafer, @antderosa, @fullstopmag and @gawker

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.

Discussion: @dskok, @timherrera, @newswhip and @moneyries

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

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, Mediawire Daily, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, @justin_b_smith and Talking Biz News

Jordan Chariton / TVNewser:

Carl Bernstein Joins CNN as a Contributor — CNN's political additions continue with legendary Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein joining as a contributor, substitute anchor John Berman announced on “AC360″ last night. — Bernstein was an analyst for CNN during the 2008 election season …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, The Huffington Post, TVSpy, Mediaite and FishbowlNY

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 …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

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

Reuters:

Charter names board nominees to Time Warner Cable, begins proxy battle — (Reuters) - Charter Communications Inc upped its pressure on Time Warner Cable to accept its $37.3 billion (22.6 billion pounds) hostile takeover bid for Time Warner Cable by announcing a slate of 13 nominees to the larger cable operator's board on Tuesday.

Discussion: Variety, Philly.com, Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Advanced Television, The Verge, DealBook and DealBook

Jasper Jackson / TheMediaBriefing.com:

Guardian interested in membership models but not paywall, says CEO — Guardian CEO: ‘This is about following how people consume media in a digital world.’ — Guardian Media Group, Guardian News & Media, Advertising, Digital Media, Finance and Deals, Newspapers

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

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: Committee to Protect …, Betabeat, The Progressive and PandoDaily

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 …

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

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

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

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 …

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

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