Top News:
Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:
An inside look at what it's like to work at Russia Today, the Kremlin-funded media outlet — How The Truth Is Made At Russia Today — “It was my first job and I feel embarrassed and ashamed.” An inside look at what it's like to work at the Kremlin-funded media outlet.
Discussion:
@buzzfeedben, @peterlauria3, @intelwire, @thegoldfarb, @rosiegray and The Daily Beast
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David Remnick / The New Yorker Blog:
Putin Moves Against the Press — One of the most riveting and liberating events of postwar life was the Soviet policy of glasnost, the Gorbachev-era explosion of media. The euphoria came not from the means of transmission but, rather, from what was being transmitted—and read, and heard, and seen.
Max Seddon / BuzzFeed:
Russia Wipes Opposition Sites From The Internet — “I don't even know if anyone is reading this anymore.” — Via blackhole.beeline.ru — Russia has all but eliminated the free media as it fights an information war against the West over Ukraine, with prosecutors blocking independent websites …
New York Times:
Questions About News Photographers in Syria Arise After Freelancer's Death — Late last December, Ahmad Barakat, a tailor turned rebel commander in Aleppo, Syria, buried two sons who died together during a battle with Syrian government troops. The elder son, Mustafa, fought for the Tawhid rebels.
Discussion:
@donaldrwinslow, @jswatz, Corey Pein and Foreign Policy
Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Survey of nearly a thousand web pages looks at interactive features for news … The Engaging News Project at the University of Texas at Austin has a new report out today called Interactive Features in Online News. In order to get a sense of how features like polls and various share buttons …
Discussion:
Engaging News Project
South China Morning Post:
Fresh China media crackdown hits popular accounts on Tencent's WeChat — At least a dozen popular public WeChat accounts - some followed by hundreds of thousands subscribers - were shut down or suspended yesterday. Some of the accounts were operated by popular columnists …
Discussion:
PC World, Analects, Associated Press, Reuters, Capital News and New York Times
Luis Carlos Díaz / Journalism For Change:
In Venezuelan protests, citizens and the internet fill the information gap — Venezuela: Filling the Information Gap — On February 12th, violent protests in Caracas led to the deaths of three people. Eyewitnesses sent video footage and photographs to the newspaper Ultimas Noticias, which then published them online.
Joe Coscarelli / New York Magazine:
Nate Silver talks about data journalism, competition and managing FiveThirtyEight — Nate Silver on the Launch of ESPN's New FiveThirtyEight, Burritos, and Being a Fox — Stats superstar Nate Silver hates the term “data-driven.” He also hates the work of just about every popular columnist …
Discussion:
American Prospect, @jyarow, @jazayerli, @natesilver538 and @emilybell
MediaNama:
Rdio acquires shuttered Indian music streaming service Dhingana — Exclusive: Rdio buys Dhingana to Enter India — US-based music streaming website Rdio has acquired Indian music streaming website Dhingana, Dhingana has confirmed to MediaNama. MediaNama had heard about the development from multiple industry sources.
Discussion:
The Next Web, TechCrunch and VatorNews
Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
Plex opens up Chromecast to everyone, adds automatic camera upload — Media center app maker Plex followed through on a promise Thursday to remove restrictions around its Chromecast implementations, opening up the feature to all of its users including non-subscribers.
Discussion:
blog.plex.tv, TechCrunch and 9to5Mac
Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:
Next-Gen Cable Startup Layer3 TV Raises $21 Million — The Boston-based startup has snagged Eric Kuhn, formerly head of social media at United Talent Agency, to run marketing. — Boston startup Layer3 TV has raised $21 million to make waves in the cable industry.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Re/code and Broadcasting & Cable
Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Sulzberger: The family won't sell the Times; succession plan in the works — Last fall, when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post from the legendary Graham family, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times and patriarch of one of America's last surviving newspaper dynasties …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, WWD Media Headlines, Media & Entertainment, AdAge, Bloomberg, @niemanlab and @adamnagourney
Henry Taylor / TheMediaBriefing:
A digital only Lloyds List: How's one of the world's oldest papers coping without print? — Lloyd's List announcing last September it was going digital-only was seen as a symbolic changing of the guard. It was said to be the world's oldest continuously published newspaper before dropping its print shackles.
Discussion:
@sarahmarshall
John Kell / Wall Street Journal:
Liberty Media Drops Proposal to Fully Acquire Sirius XM — The Plan Now Is to Create Two New Tracking Stocks — Liberty Media Corp. dropped its proposal to acquire the rest of satellite-radio provider Sirius XM Holdings Inc. that the media-investment company doesn't already own.
Discussion:
Variety, New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters and Hollywood Reporter
David Gelles / New York Times:
Charter Still Hanging Around Time Warner Cable — In early February, Comcast struck a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable for more than $45 billion, a move that will unite the two largest cable operators in the country if approved. — The deal came as a shock to most in the media industry …
Sherwin Siy / Wired:
Everyone Wins With Copyright Takedown Notices — Except the Public — The notice-and-takedown system created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides an essential safe harbor for online services to innovate. This system is the result of an intense series of negotiations between content …
Discussion:
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