Mediagazer: Journalists seeking accreditation for Brit Awards asked to agree coverage of sponsor Mastercard (Dominic Ponsford/Press Gazette)

2:30 PM ET, February 19, 2014

Top News:

Martin Evans / Telegraph:

Tony Blair offered to be unofficial adviser to Brooks and Murdoch over phone hacking scandal, court hears — In an hour-long phone conversation with Mrs Brooks the day after the News of the World was closed in July 2011, the former Prime Minister advised her to “tough up” telling her “it will pass”

Discussion: Guardian, @felixsalmon, The Dish, The Huffington Post, Irish Independent, @emilybell, @dansabbagh, The Daily Beast, @emilybell, @callingengland, @davidfolkenflik, @theredrag and @aaronbastani

John Rentoul / The Independent:

Blair responds to Brooks email — Statement by a spokesperson for Tony Blair: — “This was Mr Blair simply giving informal advice over the phone. He made it absolutely clear to Ms Brooks that, though he knew nothing personally about the facts of the case, in a situation as serious …

Discussion: @dangillmor and @johnrentoul

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Phone hacking jury is told of Rebekah Brooks' plan to stay with News Corp prior to resignation

Gautham Nagesh / Wall Street Journal:

FCC plans to issue new net neutrality rules. — The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that it will craft new rules to prevent Internet service providers from charging companies like Netflix or Google a toll to reach consumers at the highest speeds.

Discussion: New York Times, Variety, FCC.gov, Free Press Blog, PandoDaily, @pkafka, CNBC, @digitalsista, BGR, Mother Jones and AllAccess.com

Amy Schatz / Re/code:
Net Neutrality Rules Are Out: New Twist on Old Proposal

Discussion: Associated Press, Computerworld, ZDNet, @amy_schatz and @mikeisaac

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

On the UK's Equating of Journalism With Terrorism — (updated below) — As my colleague Ryan Devereaux reports, a lower UK court this morning, as long expected, upheld the legality of the nine-hour detention of my partner, David Miranda, at Heathrow Airport last August …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Hit & Run, @trevortimm, @laughingstoic, Firedoglake, @freedomofpress, @attackerman and thedrum.com

Costas Pitas / Reuters:
British court quashes legal challenge by partner of Snowden leaks reporter

Discussion: The Intercept, Guardian, Guardian, BBC, @fleetstreetfox, Softpedia News, The Verge, @article19org, @davidleigh3, The Huffington Post, @paultowen, The Daily Beast, Associated Press and @colvinius

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What to do when your video is winning social media, but it's a copy that's getting the clicks? — What should a news organization do when an unauthorized copy of video they produced is going viral on YouTube? — That's the question Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA faced when a commentary …

Discussion: Cision, @standupkid, The Texas Tribune Fellowships and Upworthy

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Opens Its Publishing Platform To All Members — To date, LinkedIn has allowed a small, editorially selected group of “Influencers” like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Barack Obama to publish their thoughts and advice to its network as long-form blog posts.

Discussion: blog.linkedin.com, Gigaom, NYT Bits, Gigaom, @danroth, @sap_jarret, Mashable, The Next Web and mUmBRELLA

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

HLN's Surprising New Slate: Game Shows, Viral Videos and a #FOMO App (Exclusive) — From left: Fred Seibert, Rob Barnett and Tom Lynch — The cable news network that is home to Nancy Grace undertakes a major rebrand. — A version of this story first appeared in the Feb. 28 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Discussion: TVNewser, Mediaite, The Wrap, The Huffington Post and The Awl

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Journalists seeking accreditation for Brit Awards asked to agree coverage of sponsor Mastercard — The organisers of tonight's Brit Awards for pop music appear to be asking journalists to guarantee coverage of sponsor MasterCard as the price of attending. — Before providing journalists …

Discussion: Guardian, The Independent, @davidefraser, The Drum, @pressgazette, @kevinmitchell50 and @arunsudhaman

Sara Morrison / Poynter:

Media is ‘failing women’ — sports journalism particularly so — The Women's Media Center released its third annual Status of Women in the U.S. Media report today, and if you've been paying any attention to gender imbalances across print, broadcast and online platforms, it's more of the same.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, The Huffington Post, @martinrickman and @politicohen_

Jonathan Marino / The Deal Pipeline:

Fosun closes in on deal for Forbes; price short of $250M — When money management magazine and website Forbes Media LLC is sold, likely to Fosun International Ltd., the Chinese conglomerate that has taken the front-runner position in the company's auction, sources said …

Thanks:@jonmarino

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Vice Goes Into Food Business With ‘American Idol’ Producer FremantleMedia — Site to Debut in Early April and Air Videos Online, on TV — In early April Vice will debut a yet-unnamed food vertical with “American Idol” producer FremantleMedia. The brash digital-media company also has a food-related ad network on its menu.

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Digital Spy, @adamclarkestes, broadcastnow.co.uk, thedrum.com, Digiday and Variety

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

1 journalist dead, many injured in Ukraine violence — Vyacheslav Veremyi was “dragged out of his taxi by unknown assailants” in Kiev early Wednesday morning, Reporters Without Borders reports. The reporter for Ukrainian newspaper Vesti “was violently beaten up, and according to witness accounts …

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, GlobalPost and The Huffington Post

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Ustream launches nonprofit program to support citizen journalism in Ukraine and beyond — As demonstrations in Kiev descended into chaos Tuesday, some of the most striking pictures came from citizen journalists. Part of that is dedication — live streamers like Ukrstream.tv and Spilno.tv …

Discussion: Streaming Media, BroadwayWorld.com and GlobalPost

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Warner in Deal to Sign Acts Found on Shazam — In the good old days of digital music — say, five or six years ago — high-tech talent scouting by record labels meant trawling MySpace for hot new bands. Labels still hunt for acts online, but the pools of data they consult have become much more vast …

Discussion: hypebot, @sisario, Music Week, @wiesenthal, AllAccess.com, Mobile Entertainment Feed, BroadwayWorld.com and The Next Web

New York Times:

Afghan Ethnic Tensions Rise in Media and Politics — KABUL, Afghanistan — It started with a heat-of-the-moment comment on a partisan television talk show, drawing an ethnic line that was bold even by Afghan standards. — “Pashtuns are the rulers and owners of Afghanistan …

Knowledge@Wharton:

Will Comcast's Merger with Time Warner Give It Too Much Power? — Last week, when Comcast announced its plan to buy Time Warner Cable, it came within reach of the dream of its founder Ralph Roberts to become America's most powerful media company. If the $45.2 billion merger goes through in the coming year …

Discussion: @ceciliakang and HBR.org

Alan D. Mutter / Editor and Publisher:

Newsosaur: Big Data Zeros in on Ad Inefficiency — John Wanamaker, the innovative Philadelphia merchant who pioneered the modern department store in the Gilded Age, was such a fan of newspapers that he is credited with buying the first full-page ad. — But even Wanamaker knew …

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

Scripps looking to sell CityEats after partnerships with cable channels fail to catch on — Exclusive: OpenTable Competitor CityEats Is For Sale — No appetite for the service among consumers. — Via cityeats.com — CityEats, the online reservation service launched in 2011 …

Patrick Frater / Variety:

Fuji TV to Stream Shows Online — TOKYO — Fuji TV will become the first Japanese network to offer its shows on the Internet simultaneously with its regular broadcast 24 hours a day. — On March 14 Fuji will launch Fuji TV NEXT Smart, a service that streams programs from the Fuji TV NEXT …

International Forum for Responsible Media:

Hacked Off: How the Telegraph, Mail and Times have helped reduce press freedom in the UK - Evan Harris — The organisation Reporters Without Borders produces an annual World Press Freedom Index ranking pretty much every country in the world for the degree of freedom enjoyed by its press.

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders and Slate

Motherboard:

Ukraine's Newest Media Company Is Ensuring the Revolution Will Be Televised — Just behind the wall of flame, a teenager raised a smartphone to the air. Beside him, a man hurled a leg of a chair into the blaze. Hundreds of people ducked in and around, covering their heads, yelling, feeding the fire.

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

AP brings Olympics coverage to local news outlets with customizable, white-label microsites — If you've seen an Winter Olympics medal count on your local newspapers' homepage, there's a good chance it was built by the Associated Press Digital News Experience program team.

Discussion: @ap_corpcomm