Mediagazer: Q&A: ESPN's Henry Abbott on TrueHoop, serving readers, and the future of sports blogging (Justin Ellis/Nieman Journalism Lab)

5:40 AM ET, March 6, 2014

Top News:

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

Russia Today Anchor Resigns Live On Air — WASHINTON — Russia Today America anchor Liz Wahl resigned live on air on Wednesday, saying that she could no longer work at the Kremlin-funded network after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Wahl said that she feels “many ethical and moral challenges” …

RT:

RT reacts to anchor Liz Wahl quitting on air — During a live broadcast on Wednesday, RT America presenter Liz Wahl announced she was stepping down, citing her disagreements with the network's editorial policy. RT issued a statement following her resignation.

Discussion: @sambonfante, @paulszoldra, The Week and Business Insider

James Kirchick / The Daily Beast:
Exclusive: RT Anchor Liz Wahl Explains Why She Quit

Discussion: msnbc.com, Erik Wemple, Telegraph, @lizwahl, Mediaite, WorldViews, Pressing Issues, Gawker, The Verge, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post and New York Times

JP Mangalindan / Fortune:

CNN sells Zite to Flipboard in all-stock transaction worth more than the $20M CNN paid in 2011 — Flipboard buys Zite news app from CNN — The standalone iPad news app will eventually be shut down and integrated into Flipboard. Also: Zite's CEO tells Fortune why he left.

Discussion: ReadWrite, Tech Deals, TIME, ReadWrite, @craigmod, @edmundlee, @felixsalmon, ZDNet and @megan

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Flipboard CEO and CNN digital head talk about future of Zite, advertising and Facebook's Paper — More On Flipboard's Acquisition Of Zite: “The Deal Whisperer”, Zite's Fate, The Price Tag, And Paper — Getty Images Jumps Into The Age Of Social Media With A Free Embed Tool For Its Photo Library

Laurie Segall / CNNMoney:
CNN sells Zite to Flipboard, teams up to launch custom magazines for CNN shows

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Embrace the unbundling: The Boston Globe is betting it'll be stronger split up than unified — The model for the 20th-century American newspaper was to be all things to all people, in one amalgamated package. One daily bundle of newsprint could give you baseball box scores …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Boston Magazine, @justinnxt, bizjournals and Guardian

Jason Schwartz / Boston Magazine:

Q&A with Boston Globe owner John Henry on service, real-estate, digital pricing and revenue — The John Henry Emails — Our story this month on John Henry takes a deep dive look at his decision to buy the Boston Globe and his quest to save journalism.

Gemma Padley / British Journal of Photography:

Getty Images makes 35 million images free in fight against copyright infringement — Getty Images has single-handedly redefined the entire stock photography market with the launch of a new embedding feature that will make more than 35 million images freely available to anyone for non-commercial usage.

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @mathewi, @mathewi and @jbenton

Lexy Savvides / CNET:

Getty making select photos free to embed for non-commercial use, removes watermarks — Getty makes 35 million images free for sharing — Have you ever wanted to share a newsworthy image on a blog or on Facebook, but are not sure how to credit it? — Licensing issues might not be at the front …

Discussion: The Verge, Nieman Journalism Lab, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo, @pkafka, @maungle, @mathewi, PandoDaily, Techdirt and Engadget

Patrick Kingsley / Guardian:

Al-Jazeera trial: prosecution presents contents of journalists' hotel rooms — Trial in Egypt descends into farce on day two as everything from journalists' hotel rooms is presented as evidence by prosecution — The second day of the trial of three al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt descended …

Discussion: Poynter, @ingridmattson, @flip_stewart, @jeromestarkey and The Newspaper Guild

Haitham Tabei / Agence France-Presse:
Torture claim in Egypt trial of Jazeera journalists

Discussion: @sasapetricic, Al Jazeera America, World Bulletin, UK - The Huffington Post, english.ahram.org.eg, Business Insider India, The Huffington Post, NDTV News and BBC

Patrick Kingsley / Guardian:
Peter Greste and other al-Jazeera journalists return to court in Egypt

Discussion: @ajamphoto, Al Jazeera English, Sydney Morning Herald, Voice of America, Sky News Australia, @jessiehatcher, @kenroth, Committee to Protect …, @bbcos and @bbcandrewh

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:

Al Jazeera America at Six Months: Some New Advertisers, Few Viewers — Serious Cable News Network Is on the Right Path, Buyers Say — Al Jazeera America is averaging less than half its predecessor's audience — Krux — Al Jazeera America is starting to earn the trust of some advertisers …

Discussion: @tvnewslab, Los Angeles Times, Politico, New York Magazine, FTVLive, @brianstelter, @tomgara and @jayrosen_nyu

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

EFF Statement on Dismissal of 11 Charges Against Barrett Brown — The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas today filed a motion to dismiss 11 charges against Barrett Brown in a criminal prosecution that would have had massive implications for journalism and the right of ordinary people to share links.

Discussion: RT and Freedom of the Press …

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Government backs off case against journalist who faced decades in prison for posting hyperlink

Discussion: Dallas Morning News, Techdirt, @edpilkington, @ggreenwald, @freedomofpress, @digiphile, @freebarrett_, @green_footballs, @freebarrett_, Salon, Ars Technica, Guardian, Daily Dot, dissenter.firedoglake.com, Guardian, @jayrosen_nyu, @sparty_legal and Free Barrett Brown

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Time.com Gets A Big Redesign, Along With New Ad Units — The new Time.com is here. — Well, it should be here for some of you, anyway. A spokesperson said that the first few users should see the new layout now, and it will continue rolling out tonight and tomorrow.

Discussion: Re/code, Poynter, Capital New York, AdAge and @racheltipograph

Reuters:

Exclusive: DirecTV in talks with Disney on deal for Internet rights — (Reuters) - DirecTV is in talks with Walt Disney Co to license the rights to offer Disney's broadcast and cable channels as part of an Internet-based product, DirecTV said on Wednesday. — The deal would mirror …

Discussion: The Verge and CNET

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

The Guardian's digital boom — Revenue rises sharply online for a second-straight year — The Guardian had another big year of digital business last year, further brightening the paper's long-term outlook. — The paper says its digital revenue will hit $117 million in its current fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

Discussion: Poynter and Guardian

Rachel Bartlett / Journalism.co.uk:
Guardian CEO: The paywall ‘horse has bolted’ for us

Discussion: @mattmcalister, Guardian and Press Gazette

Alison Flood / Guardian:

Anne Rice signs petition to protest bullying of authors on Amazon — Almost 1,000 signatories - to include Rice and a number of other authors - are taking a stand against comments that are ‘gratuitously destructive towards the creative community’ — Anne Rice has tackled vampires …