Mediagazer: Rebekah Brooks says she offered convicted phone hacker a job to keep him from going public (Jill Lawless/Associated Press)

1:50 PM ET, February 26, 2014

Top News:

The Future of the News Business: A Monumental Twitter Stream All in One Place — I am more bullish about the future of the news industry over the next 20 years than almost anyone I know. You are going to see it grow 10X to 100X from where it is today. That is my starting point for any discussion about the future of journalism.

Jill Lawless / Associated Press:

Rebekah Brooks says she offered convicted phone hacker a job to keep him from going public — LONDON — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks said Wednesday that she offered a job to a reporter convicted of phone hacking to keep him from going public with allegations.

Guardian:
Rebekah Brooks tells court she didn't read NoW interview with phone hacker

Discussion: CNN, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk and canada.com

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC could axe frontline channel or service as it seeks extra £100m in cuts — Tony Hall rules out further ‘salami-slicing’, saying further corporation-wide cuts threaten quality of content such as drama — Read Tony Hall's Oxford Media Convention speech in full

Discussion: @ade_jacobs and @mid_wifecrisis

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism:
Study reveals how cutting BBC licence fee would reduce choice and value for money

Discussion: The Conversation and @risj_oxford

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Kyle Pope to reboot Manhattan weeklies — A stable of weekly New York newspapers is about to get a makeover under the direction of a new boss. — Kyle Pope, a former New York Observer editor and Wall Street Journal veteran, has been named editor-in-chief of Straus Media-Manhattan …

Discussion: @jaredbkeller and @iwantmedia

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

As Barnes & Noble Nook revenues slide 50%, the company says it's launching another tablet — Barnes & Noble is cutting jobs and revenues fell again in the third-quarter earnings report released Wednesday, with the Nook segment once again taking a particularly large hit …

Discussion: New York Times, Bloomberg, Publishers Weekly, Folio, Forbes, Associated Press, MarketWatch, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Business Wire, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Softpedia News, CNET, Android Community, Wall Street Journal, The Verge and RTTNews

Capital New York:

The 60 Second Interview: Anthony De Rosa, Editor-in-Chief, Circa — CAPITAL: Circa's priority is to create content that is tailored for mobile as opposed to simply trying to fit web or print content into an app. What does that entail other than brevity? — DE ROSA: The content …

Discussion: Forbes and @niemanlab

David Griner / Adweek:

Alt-Weekly Mocks Its Own Buyout With a Cover That Looks Just Like Its New Owner — When you're an alt-weekly known for skewering the establishment, how do you tackle the fact that you've been bought out by the establishment? — Baltimore City Paper takes a commendably self-effacing approach …

Discussion: SPLICETODAY.com

Jim Dwyer / New York Times:

National Enquirer will fund a $45K/year playwriting prize as part of lawsuit settlement — Truth and a Prize Emerge From Lies About Hoffman — Herding his three younger sons out the door to school on Feb. 5, David Bar Katz was stopped for a moment by his eldest, who was browsing a computer.

Discussion: Gothamist, The Wrap, @pkafka, @pomeranian99, @jbenton, @sulliview, @tallstories, @filmmakermag, @palafo, @youvecottmail, BBC, @americantheatre, @mkonnikova, @greenfield64, @jamespiotr, LA Observed, New York Magazine, FishbowlNY, Pressing Issues and Poynter

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Kids May Be Leaving Facebook, but They Love YouTube — Lots of people think kids are done with Facebook. No way, says Facebook: Kids love Facebook! — But, let's say Facebook was concerned — maybe just a little bit — that the kids were no longer alright. Where should it go to find them?

Discussion: hypebot

Robinson Meyer / The Atlantic Online:

The Year Most News Home Pages Looked the Same — Box. Image. Text. (Rinse and repeat.) — Earlier today, Bloomberg View—the online opinion arm of the Bloomberg News behemoth—unveiled its new homepage design. The site, below, presents itself as a set of mostly gray boxes with mostly white text:

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Poynter, @craigsilverman, @justinjm1, @yayitsrob and @rwd

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Three Top Time Inc. Digital Execs Head out the Door — Three of Time Inc.'s top digital executives are leaving, in advance of the publisher's spinoff from Time Warner this spring. — Fran Hauser, who ran Time's Style & Entertainment group, including People.com, announced her departure on Monday.

Discussion: Capital New York, @waltmossberg and @rafat

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Al-Jazeera English is not Al-Jazeera Arabic - but Egypt doesn't agree — Many journalists have been asking why the Egyptian authorities have arrested staff who work for Al-Jazeera Arabic and Al-Jazeera English. — Gregg Carlstrom, in a lengthy piece on the Foreign Policy website, has sought to provide an answer to that question.

Discussion: Capital New York

Hadas Gold / Politico:

House unanimously passes FOIA bill — The House on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that would make Freedom of Information requests easier with potentially faster response times. — H.R. 1211, the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 was co-sponsored by House Oversight …

Discussion: E Pluribus Unum, @lifewinning, @gopleader and UNREDACTED

Alex Pareene / The Baffler:

NYT's Sorkin and DealBook focus on building journalistic brands instead of reporting — A stacked deck at the New York Times — The New York Times, as everybody knows, is the premier source of authoritative journalism in the world's most powerful formal democracy.

Discussion: @ryanchittum, @ryanchittum, @schadenfraade, @clarajeffery, @heavenrants, @stewartwills, @owillis, bookforum.com and DealBook

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Google ordered to remove anti-Islamic film from YouTube — (Reuters) - Google Inc was ordered by a U.S. federal appeals court to remove an anti-Islamic film that had sparked protests in the Middle East from its YouTube website. — By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court …

Discussion: Gigaom and @fedcourtjunkie

Martin Evans / Telegraph:

Fresh charges in Operation Elveden investigation over illegal payments — More journalists and public officials are charged as part as the Metropolitan Police's Operation Elveden — Journalists from The Sun and the Daily Mirror and a Metropolitan Police officer are among the latest people charged …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Guardian and BBC

Jeff Hermes / Digital Media Law Project blogs:

Revised DOJ Regs Protect “Members of the News Media,” But What Does That Mean? — On February 21, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice released its long-awaited revisions to 28 C.F.R. § 50.10, the DOJ's regulatory guidelines (the “Guidelines") regarding investigations and prosecutions of members of the news media.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

Jeff Morganteen / CNBC:

NFLX co-founder: Binge-watching won't work long term — Netflix on beginning of great trend: Co-founder — Netflix co-founder Mitch Lowe, discusses the deal between Netflix and Comcast, and comments on the culture of “binge-watching.” I don't think long-term binge watching is the right way …

Josh Stearns / Mediashift:

Where Did Press Freedom Suffer Most in 2013? Online. — This month the Committee to Protect Journalists released its annual analysis of Attacks on the Press, including a “Risk List” of the places where press freedom suffered most in 2013. As you might expect, conflict areas filled much of the list …

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Lord Hunt, PCC chairman, rules himself out of taking the Ipso chair — Lord Hunt, the current chair of the Press Complaints Commission, has finally declared himself unavailable to become chair of the new regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).

Amar Toor / The Verge:

Science publishers withdraw more than 120 computer-generated papers — Springer and IEEE remove allegedly fake papers flagged by French computer scientist — Two science publishers have withdrawn more than 120 papers after a researcher in France identified them as computer-generated.

Discussion: Nature, The TickerThe Ticker, CNET, Silicon Republic, scitation.aip.org and Beyond Search

Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:

LinkedIn walks like a publisher and talks like a publisher. But is it? — The business-focused social network opens its publishing platform to its members, raising lots of questions. — FORTUNE — Ryan Roslansky, head of content products for the company, strenuously rejects LinkedIn's media ambitions.

Discussion: @rafat

Rick Kissell / Variety:

NBC Averages 21.4 Million Viewers for Sochi Olympics, Down From Vancouver — NBC and Nielsen were expected to release more detailed ratings information on Tuesday, but preliminary estimates show the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics averaging a strong 21.4 million viewers in primetime.

Discussion: Softpedia News, Canadian Press, Wall Street Journal, LA Observed and FishbowlNY