Mediagazer: China to maintain its strict quota for imported Hollywood films (Reuters)

9:00 AM ET, February 11, 2014

Top News:

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

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

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, USA Today, Poynter, The New Yorker Blog, @jbenton, @niemanlab, Gawker, Mediaite, Politico and FishbowlNY

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 …

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

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

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 …

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, @digiphile, @jayrosen_nyu and @mathewi

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, @dustinslaughter, @phillymag, @tommyrowan and @mollyeichel

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

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Netflix ISP rankings show Verizon and Comcast speeds falling — Netflix updated its list of ISP rankings Monday, and the online video provider shows that Comcast and Verizon are continuing to fall in its custom rankings. That's possibly because of peering practices put in place by those ISP's …

Discussion: Netflix US & Canada Blog and Broadcasting & Cable

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

The Time That Jeff Bezos Had Henry Blodget Explain the Web to the Washington Post — George Packer has a very nice profile of Jeff Bezos in the New Yorker today. It's in front of the paywall, so you ought to read it, and if you don't want to take my word for it, trust Bezos expert Brad Stone.

Discussion: @mike_orcutt and Politico

George Packer / New Yorker:
Amazon is good for customers. But is it good for books?

Discussion: Forbes, Digital Book World, PublishersWeekly.com, Amazon.com, GeekWire, Business Insider and The Awl

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, ninemsn, TVNZ, @mariongroves, TheAustralian, @watoday and CourierMail

Angela Doland / AdAge:

IAB Launches China Chapter to Build Industry Standards — The Interactive Advertising Bureau is adding China to the global IAB network. The new group will help build industry standards in the country with the world's biggest online population 618 million.

Discussion: IAB

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: Daily Dot and Wired

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