Mediagazer: Why the NYT published the general location of a planned drone strike and the AP held back (Michael Calderone/The Huffington Post)

12:45 AM ET, February 12, 2014

Top News:

U.S. Plummets in Global Press Freedom Rankings — According to a new report from Reporters Without Borders, there was a profound erosion of press freedom in the United States in 2013. — After a year of attacks on whistleblowers and digital journalists and revelations about mass surveillance …

Discussion: @jcstearns and Reporters Without Borders

Agence France Presse:

US under fire in global press freedom report — Paris (AFP) - Conflicts continued to weigh heavily on the media last year but press freedom was also under increasing threat from abuses by democracies like the United States, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders, @umairh, Washington Times, @jayrosen_nyu and Al Jazeera America

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 …

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: WebProNews, @niemanlab, @mims, @newswhip, @dskok, @timherrera, @moneyries, Mediawire Daily and Business Insider

Alex Kantrowitz / AdAge:

Mozilla To Sell Ads In Firefox Web Browser — Mozilla Will Serve Ads Within Tiles Of Its New Tab Pages — Mozilla will soon sell ads within its Firefox browser, the company announced Tuesday. — Wait, what? Mozilla made itself the villian of the online ad business early last year …

Discussion: Advancing Content, CNET, Mashable, @xor, @computionist, Consumerist, @michaelklishin, Marketing Pilgrim, ZDNet and mUmBRELLA

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Why the NYT published the general location of a planned drone strike and the AP held back — New York Times Editor: Government Requests To Hold Info Are ‘Almost Blanket Policy’ — NEW YORK — The Associated Press revealed Monday that the U.S. government is considering a drone strike …

Discussion: New York Times and emptywheel

Reuters:

Longtime NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw diagnosed with cancer — Veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw, the face of “NBC Nightly News” for more than two decades, has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow, but is hopeful about the outcome of his treatment, the network said on Tuesday.

Discussion: NBC News, Mediaite and @nickkristof

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Are publishers overselling social traffic at the expense of search? A dialogue with Danny Sullivan … You may have seen my column yesterday on the rise of content designed for social sharing — a category that for me includes everything from pure-viral outlets like Upworthy to more newsy but still sharing-optimized sites like Quartz.

Discussion: @dannysullivan

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: Folio, TVNewser, Erik Wemple, @counternotions, FishbowlNY, Mediawire Daily, Talking Biz News, @justin_b_smith and Capital New York

Michael Rondon / Folio:

Time Warner, Condé Nast Invest in Ad Tech Co. — Programmatic direct firm, iSocket, looking to expand partnerships. — Time Warner, parent (for now) of Time Inc., and Condé Nast have joined in on in a $5 million round of funding for programmatic ad developer, iSocket, the firm announced Monday.

Mong Palatino / Mediashift:

How One Twitter Defamation Case Casts a Shadow on Media in Indonesia — Popular Indonesian Twitter user Benny Handoko, @benhan on Twitter, was sentenced to one year of probation late last month, after being found guilty of defaming a former politician. — Handoko tweeted on Dec. 7 …

Aaron Taube / Business Insider:

Slate Hires NPR Sports Reporter To Boost Its Podcast Business — The online magazine Slate will bolster its roster of popular podcasts with a daily current events commentary show hosted by National Public Radio sports correspondent Mike Pesca, a spokesperson for the site told Business Insider.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, @timothynoah1, @scott_tobias, @kaysteiger and @josh_levin

Alastair Reid / Journalism.co.uk:

Why Zeit Online created team to lead investigative and data stories — The German outlet has established a senior editorial team to drive big stories, partnering with the rest of the newsroom and acting as a hub for investigations — Credit: By amslerPIX on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Netflix Says Verizon Isn't Slowing Down Its Streams — A federal court may have given the pipe guys clearance to start slowing down Web services like Netflix. — But so far, that's not happening, Netflix says. — That update comes to us via a note from J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth …

Discussion: Ars Technica, @ceciliakang, Consumerist, Daily Dot, Techdirt, PandoDaily and The Verge

Matt Waite / Drone Journalism Lab:

Drones, journalism, the FAA and the crackdown that isn't a crackdown — Since last week when a Connecticut TV station employee tried to use a drone at a fatal accident scene and was reported to the FAA by the local police, I've been getting a lot of calls from reporters asking if the FAA is cracking down on drone journalism.

Michael Melia / Associated Press: Drones Create New Ethical Minefields For Journalists

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

For journalism students in Sochi, covering Olympics is ‘pretty f-ing epic’ — They left a day early to miss a snow storm, took a detour to Amsterdam and waited in some serious (and kind of dangerous) lines at Olympic Park, but after a few days, a team of student journalists are reporting from Sochi.

Discussion: @tayim and @poynter

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Impatience Has Its Reward: Books Are Rolled Out Faster — “Annihilation,” the chilling first novel of a trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer that was released last week, tells the story of a scientific expedition to a mysterious place called Area X that has been cut off from the rest of the world.