Mediagazer: USA Today's two-year strategic overhaul gains traction (Rick Edmonds/Poynter)

10:05 AM ET, March 7, 2014

Top News:

The Satoshi Paradox — Newsweek wanted a scoop for its relaunch cover story, and boy did it deliver: it uncovered the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin. Who then promptly came out and denied everything. Which means that one of the two is wrong: either Nakamoto …

J.K. Trotter / Gawker:

Newsweek Editor-in-Chief: We Stand by Our Bitcoin Story — Newsweek isn't backing down. Hours after publishing Leah McGrath Goodman's 4,5oo-word profile of a 65-year-old Temple City engineer named Dorian S. Nakamoto—who, Goodman claims, is the long-mysterious inventor of Bitcoin …

Discussion: Poynter, USA Today, PandoDaily, New York Times, BGR, Silicon Republic, @klustout, @awalkerinla, CNNMoney.com, Wired, @declanm and @m_delamerced

Ryan Nakashima / Associated Press:

Dorian S. Nakamoto denies he's Bitcoin founder, heard of Bitcoin 3 weeks ago — AP EXCLUSIVE: MAN DENIES HE'S BITCOIN FOUNDER … LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man Newsweek claims is the founder of Bitcoin denies he had anything to do with the digital currency.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Re/code, Daily Dot, Business Insider, @mathewi, @jbenton, @willoremus, @blocktechceo, The Week, Softpedia News, New York Magazine, Ars Technica, The Switch, SlashGear, Forbes, CNET, Gigaom, CBS Los Angeles, Mashable, Gawker and Wired

Bloomberg:
Pursued by media, Nakamoto says “I'm not involved” with Bitcoin, then meets with AP reporter

Discussion: @jakeadelstein

Paul Quigley / The Whip:

Here's what happens when the readers choose the front page story — What if front pages were selected by newspapers' readers instead of their editors? At NewsWhip, we're always interested in the news stories people are choosing to share - and how those stories differ from the normal news stories editors put …

Discussion: @margokingston1, @sachinkalbag, The Newspaper Guild and The Huffington Post

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

USA Today's two-year strategic overhaul gains traction — USA Today has probably changed more in the last two years than in its previous 30. — Always a circulation-driven enterprise, the paper now has a radically different audience strategy, substituting mobile app traffic …

Clifford Coonan / Hollywood Reporter:

China to Decentralize Censorship Process for Local Films — Provincial film bureaus will be given authority to independently review movies, part of a plan to streamline the lengthy approval process. — China's top film regulator is planning to decentralize the censorship process for local movies …

Bloomberg:

Spotify Said to Seek Credit Facility in Step Toward IPO — Spotify Ltd., the Stockholm-based music-streaming company backed by billionaire Li Ka-Shing, is speaking with banks about raising a credit facility, a move that could presage an initial public offering in the U.S., people with knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Fast Company and Gigaom

Bonnie Burton / CNET:

Newspeg puts journalistic spin on Pinterest-style bookmarking — Pinterest can be a great way to bookmark and organize all your favorite celebrity photos, recipes, DIY inspirations, home-decorating tips, and videos of famous Internet cats. But for those who want to save and organize more serious articles, Newspeg may be for you.

Discussion: Business 2 Community

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Web TV pioneer KoldCast TV is shutting down after losing millions on original content — KoldCast TV, an early pioneer of serialized original video content on the web, is shutting down. KoldCast co-founder and CEO David S. Samuels announced the decision to shutter the site in a remarkably honest email …

David Amrani / Digiday:

Q&A with Foreign Affairs publisher Lynda Hammes about the challenges in digital — How Foreign Affairs learned to love digital — So much of the industry's attention on journalism is on the up-and-comers, the “millennial” news outlets delivering updates in bite-size, candy-coated pieces.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Spotify Acquired Music Tech Company The Echo Nest In A $100M Deal — On the heels of the news yesterday that Spotify had acquired music discovery technology company Echo Nest, we now have a price for the deal: it was $100 million, with 90% of that in Spotify equity.

Discussion: Ubergizmo, hypebot and TechCrunch

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Janine Gibson is named editor of Guardian.com in management shuffle — Guardian to Make Management Changes — The Guardian will make broad changes among its most senior editors this year, the newspaper said Thursday, announcing that Janine Gibson, the editor in chief of its operations in the United States will return to London.

Discussion: Guardian, @raju, @stuartmillar159, @choire, @sullduggery, @mediaguardian, @mathewi, @journalismnews, @arusbridger, Poynter, @carr2n, @vivian, @janinegibson, @alanyuhas, @ggreenwald, @janinegibson, @moorehn and @felixsalmon

Carey Dunne / Co.Design:

How Spritz Redesigned Reading, Letting You Scan 1,000 Words A Minute — When we read, our eyes move across a page or a screen to digest the words. All of that eye movement slows us down, but a new technology called Spritz claims to have figured out a way to turn us into speed-readers.

Discussion: EW.com, TIME, Business Insider and Melville House Books

Daniel Holloway / Broadcasting & Cable:

Bravo Media Promotes Development, Production Executives — Lara Spotts named senior VP of development — Bravo Media announced promotions and expanded responsibilities for several development and production executives Thursday. — Lara Spotts has been named senior VP of development.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, BroadwayWorld.com, C21Media, Deadline.com and Variety

Max Seddon / BuzzFeed:

Forbes Embroiled In Billion-Dollar Ukrainian Corruption Scandal — Police say Sergey Kurchenko, a fugitive oligarch linked to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the owner of Ukrainian Forbes, stole over $1 billion. Forbes scion Miguel Forbes approved the deal and served as an adviser to Kurchenko.

Discussion: @anneapplebaum, @paulsonne, @leonidragozin, @maxseddon, @miriamelder and New York Times

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Penton Fills Out Its Digital Management Team — Three new executives join recently-hired chief data officer. — Penton Media announced this week it has rounded out its digital leadership team with three recent hires. Joining chief data officer Richard Stanton, who was hired last November …

Tom Grubisich / Street Fight:

New Patch Owner Hale Running Company in ‘Lean, Entrepreneurial Mode’ — After a tumultuous and mostly unprofitable three-and-a-half years under media giant Aol, hyperlocal publishing network Patch was acquired in January by Hale Global, a holding company that specializes in turnarounds, mostly with technology firms.

Discussion: AdExchanger and AJR.org

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Interviewing the algorithm: How reporting and reverse engineering could build a beat to understand the code that influences us — Often, when there's talk about algorithms and journalism, the focus is on how to use algorithms to help publishers share content better and make more money.

Discussion: @marginalutility