Mediagazer: Roku's new $50 streaming stick tries to take on Chromecast (Janko Roettgers/Gigaom)

6:15 PM ET, March 4, 2014

Top News:

Niklas Wirminghaus / VentureVillage:

Q&A with Jonah Peretti on Buzzfeed: “Traffic has grown to 140m unique visitors” — LOL, WIN, OMG: founder Jonah Peretti about Buzzfeed's recipe for success — Is this what the future of journalism looks like? Cute animal pictures, funning listicles …

Discussion: Capital New York, Poynter, @carr2n and VentureBeat

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

BuzzFeed plans expansion to Mumbai, Berlin, Tokyo, Mexico City — In a memo to BuzzFeed staffers, CEO Jonah Peretti says the publication plans to expand to more cities: … A BuzzFeed spokesperson said there was no set date for offices in those other cities to come online but that it's definitely happening.

Discussion: Medium, FishbowlNY and @poynter

The Awl:

Matt Buchanan and John Herrman to run The Awl — Meet The Awl — For the past five years, we've operated this website in a public beta. We've been working out some of the implementation. Next month, around the time of our fifth anniversary, The Awl will finally launch.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Boston Globe drops paywall, adds meter instead — A memo from Editor Brian McGrory lays out a number of big changes to the Globe's digital businesses. The catchiest: “We've replaced the paywall with a meter that allows readers ten free stories in a 30-day period.

Discussion: Politico, Media Nation, @mathewi, @abeaujon, @globemoskowitz and @dankennedy_nu

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

Snowden to speak at SXSW — NSA leaker Edward Snowden will speak via videoconference at South By Southwest, the festival has announced. — Snowden joins Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian reporter who continues to break stories based on Snowden-provided documents at new site the Intercept, as a festival participant.

Discussion: SXSW 2014, Mediaite, The Wrap, VentureBeat, CNN, Variety, CNET, TheHill and @abeaujon

Robert Feder:

Amid more layoffs, Sun-Times rehires four photographers — Four of the photographers who were fired when the Chicago Sun-Times eliminated its photography department last spring are rejoining the newspaper this week. — Rich Chapman, Brian Jackson, Al Podgorski and a fourth photographer whose name …

Discussion: Poynter, @georgemunro_cam, @dhinkel, The Huffington Post and The Newspaper Guild

Kristen Hare / Poynter:
Changes at the Orlando Sentinel felt ‘extremely familiar’ for a former Sun-Times photographer

Discussion: @poynter

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

NYT corrects 161-year-old article about Solomon Northup — After “12 Years a Slave” won Best Picture at the Academy Awards Sunday, The New York Times tweeted a gem in its archives: An 1853 account of Solomon Northup's kidnapping. A user on Twitter noticed a problem with the article, which the Times corrects today:

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, Talking Points Memo, @lheron, @mathewi, HyperVocal, Mediaite, Business Insider, Latest News & Headlines, @marklittlenews, The Verge, Kirk LaPointe's …, New York Magazine, Gawker and Gothamist

Ernst-Jan Pfauth / Medium:

Dutch journalism platform De Correspondent now has 30,000 paying members — De Correspondent is a Dutch-language, online journalism platform that offers background, analysis, investigative reporting, and the kinds of stories that tend to escape the radar of mainstream media because they do not conform …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

Merrill Knox / TVNewser:

Brian Stelter's ‘Reliable Sources’ Gets First Demo Win — For the first time since Brian Stelter took over as the anchor of “Reliable Sources,” the CNN program has topped Fox News' “MediaBuzz” in the A25-54 demographic. — “Reliable” averaged 193,000 A25-54 viewers at 11amET Sunday …

Discussion: Mediaite

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Guardian digital revenues hit £70m — Publisher of the Guardian and Observer to announce 25% rise in revenues in year to end of March 2014 — The Guardian is expected to report an increase in digital revenues of more than a quarter to almost £70m in the last year …

Discussion: @edwardroussel, @amelscript, @colinmorrisonuk and @gordonmacmillan

Catherine Taibi / The Huffington Post:

Ukraine TV Station Cut Off For Challenging Pro-Russia Authorities — By Peter Graff and Alissa de Carbonnel — KIEV/SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine, March 4 (Reuters) - Two days before Russian forces began the operation to seize Crimea, somebody threw two Molotov cocktails through the window of Black Sea TV.

Committee to Protect Journalists:
Independent media, journalists obstructed in Crimea

Discussion: Global News, The Week, CNN and New York Magazine

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Huffington Post Business and Global News Editor Is Leaving for International Business Times — Peter S. Goodman, the executive business editor and global news editor of The Huffington Post, is leaving the website to become editor in chief of International Business Times.

Discussion: Capital New York, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, @alexmleo, @bysamro, @alexnazaryan and New York Magazine

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Paper Update Pushes Virality By Sending Download Links With Articles You Privately Share — Lifesaver iPhone Case Gives Your Smartphone A Dedicated Hardware Panic Button — Facebook's hoping to get more people downloading Paper by adding new options to share articles by text message …

Discussion: @themediaisdying, 9to5Mac and CNET

Steve Johnson / Chicago Tribune:

Carl Kasell to retire from NPR's 'Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!' … Carl Kasell, official judge and scorekeeper of the hit NPR comedy-quiz show “Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!” since it began in 1998, will retire from the show this spring, Kassel and NPR announced Tuesday.

Discussion: NPR, Politico, @wbezacuddy, Los Angeles Times, @latimesrainey and @choptedallen

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Leading copyright law professors tell SCOTUS Aereo infringes copyright owners' exclusive right of public performance — Nimmer on Aereo: It's Illegal — Law professors lambaste Second Circuit decision — A pair of leading copyright law professors with scores of papers and books under …

Discussion: Techdirt and Guardian

Amy Schatz / Re/code:
Justice Department Backs Broadcasters in Aereo Dispute

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, The Verge, Electronista, CNET, Gigaom, @dangillmor, @swildstrom and @anildash

Jeremy Hodges / Bloomberg:

Brooks Concerned About BSkyB Deal After Milly Dowler Revelations — Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News Corp. (NWSA)'s U.K. unit, said she was concerned the discovery that journalists at the News of the World tabloid hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl would jeopardize the company's bid for British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc.

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Tony Blair ‘offered Rebekah Brooks help’ day after Milly Dowler revelations

Discussion: ITV News, @dansabbagh and @lisaocarroll

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

In ad-skipping deal, Dish gets rights to internet-based TV service that includes ABC and ESPN — Dish just secured rights to launch an internet TV service — Dish and Disney confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that they've reached a retransmission agreement late Monday …