Mediagazer: Saudi Arabia's first female editor of national newspaper appointed (Saeed Kamali Dehghan/Guardian)

1:10 AM ET, February 18, 2014

Top News:

Magazine Editor in India Charged in Rape of Colleague — NEW DELHI — The police in the coastal state of Goa charged Tarun J. Tejpal, an investigative journalist and magazine editor, with raping and sexually assaulting a staff reporter during a November encounter in a hotel elevator.

Saeed Kamali Dehghan / Guardian:

Saudi Arabia's first female editor of national newspaper appointed — Somayya Jabarti takes over at helm of Jeddah-based English daily Saudi Gazette following departure of Khaled Almaeena — A woman in Saudi Arabia has been appointed editor-in-chief of a national newspaper …

Discussion: bookforum.com and @estherbintliff

Bloomberg:

Talks for including Netflix on Time Warner set-top boxes are on hold after Comcast deal announcement — Netflix Talks for Time Warner Cable Carriage Said to Slow — Netflix Inc. (NFLX)'s effort to secure a place for its video-subscription service on Time Warner Cable Inc. set-top boxes …

Discussion: The Verge, @zseward and @notaaroncraig

New York Times:
Punching Above Its Weight, Upstart Netflix Pokes at HBO

Discussion: PandoDaily, Gawker, @realbengilbert, The Daily Caller, @laughingstoic, The Wrap, @brianstelter, @nycjim, @laceyvrose, @jbennet, @zseward, @rafat, @pkafka, @brucedaisley and @carr2n

Meredith Blake / Los Angeles Times:

Jimmy Fallon powers ‘Tonight Show’ debut with stars like Tina Fey, U2 — NEW YORK — Heeeere's Jimmy! Jimmy Fallon made his debut Monday as the new host of “The Tonight Show” in an inaugural broadcast that was heavy on star power and sought to capitalize on the franchise's new digs in New York City after 42 years on the West Coast.

Discussion: The Wrap, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter, Variety and @deadspin

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Joe Berlinger to Direct Eight-Part Criminal Justice Series for Al-Jazeera America (Exclusive) — Award-wining filmmaker Joe Berlinger will direct and executive produce “The System,” an eight-part series on the criminal justice system, for Al-Jazeera America, TheWrap has learned.

Felix Salmon:

Comcast's purchase of TWC would reinforce high cable TV and broadband rates and slow speeds — Monopolizing bandwidth — Paul Krugman makes a simple but powerful point about Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner Cable: … Broadband is the area which Krugman, and most other opponents …

Discussion: New York Times, Nieman Journalism Lab, New York Times, Home Media Magazine, @alexrubalcava, @ryanlcooper, @izakaminska and Mother Jones

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

Mental Floss a big winner after Facebook's mysterious ‘high quality’ algorithm change — When Facebook announced in December that it was altering its News Feed algorithm to focus on “high quality content,” speculation centered on which sites might be in danger of excommunication as Facebook took aim at the viral bubble.

Discussion: Digiday, Salon, @poynter and @englishjason

Dana Liebelson / Mother Jones:

Why It's Getting Harder to Sue Illegal Movie Downloaders — The company behind the Oscar-nominated film Dallas Buyers Club sued 31 people in a federal district court in Texas this month for allegedly using the legal file-sharing service BitTorrent to download the movie illegally.

Alison Langley / Columbia Journalism Review:

Axel Springer eyes global expansion — The German media conglomerate is vying for Forbes, but that may be just the beginning — As the story is told in Germany, Mathias Döpfner, chief executive officer of Axel Springer SE, one of Europe's largest publishing groups …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Pando raises Series A of $1.2M+, about half its seed raise, led by “unconventional” Tennessee-based investors — The new Pando: “Speaking truth to the new power” — Two years and one month ago, I officially founded PandoDaily. I had $2.5 million of investor money …

Discussion: @glauringson, @imeow, @rafat, SouthernAlpha, @jasonschreier, @swyyft, @joshsternberg, @samfbiddle and @jason

Patrick Frater / Variety:

China Accused of Exporting Media Censorship Across Asia — HONG KONG — U.S. foreign secretary John Kerry sat down Saturday with a group of Chinese bloggers and promised to press the Chinese government to loosen its controls of the internet. — His visit came at a time when China …

Corey Hutchins / Columbia Journalism Review:

FCC revamps controversial study of TV newsrooms — Local stations in South Carolina test market still waiting to hear from federal government — Charleston, SC — As the Federal Communications Commission revamps a controversial study that has been slammed by critics as an inappropriate government intrusion …

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Breitbart News Network plans global expansion with Texas and London operations — Breitbart News Network Plans Global Expansion — It has been nearly two years since the conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart died, but the online news organization that carries his name is not only continuing …

Discussion: @donal_blaney, @billmon1, @flipcritic and @erinmcunningham