Mediagazer: Sunshine Week: Transparency issues persist with Obama administration (Josh Hicks/Federal Eye)

4:55 PM ET, March 17, 2014

Top News:

USA Today Is Worried About Us And The Digital Media Industry! — USA Today columnist Michael Wolff has written a column expressing his view of the prospects for our business and that of other digital news companies. This follows a column that Mr. Wolff wrote in January suggesting that we should sell our company quickly.

Discussion: @michaelwolffnyc, @michaelwolffnyc, @katie_roof, @mathewi, @raju, @hblodget and @jeffjarvis

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

New cash, new questions for Business Insider — Business Insider, one of the sites at the forefront of creating a native digital publishing model, happily announced the other day an additional investment of $12 million, bringing its total to about $30 million.

Discussion: Fortune, @michaelwolffnyc, @rorybrown, @moorehn, @sarahkendzior, @jeffmacke, @losowsky, @jeffjohnroberts, @gregory, @zerohedge, @danprimack, @raju, @mathewi, @jayrosen_nyu, @jackshafer and @carr2n, Thanks:@steverubel

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

FiveThirtyEight launches to make data journalism accessible without sacrificing rigor — What the Fox Knows — FiveThirtyEight is a data journalism organization. Let me explain what we mean by that, and why we think the intersection of data and journalism is so important.

Discussion: Poynter, Capital New York, FishbowlDC, @mclendaniel, @natesilver538, @andymcgeady, @chanders, @dandrezner, @moorehn, The Huffington Post, WordPress.com VIP, New York Magazine, PandoDaily and @jayrosen_nyu

Chris O'Brien / Los Angeles Times:

Subject of Newsweek Bitcoin story hires lawyer, “unconditionally” denies its accuracy — Dorian S. Nakamoto hires lawyer to ‘clear his name’ of bitcoin claim — Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto of Temple City, the man recently named by Newsweek as the mysterious creator of bitcoin …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Quartz to launch an India channel — Quartz, the mobile-first digital publication aimed at global business and finance elites, is the latest American news brand making a foray into India. — Capital has learned that Quartz is preparing an India channel to launch this spring or summer …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @joepompeo, @miamabanta and @venkatananth

Melanie Stone / Mediashift:

Social Media Editors in the Newsroom: What the Job is Really Like — Monday through Friday, Scott Kleinberg's alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. The Chicago Tribune social media editor then begins combing the web for news and trends, catching up on anything that happened while he was sleeping.

Discussion: @melaniealissa

Guardian:

Guardian editor receives European Press award for Edward Snowden story — Alan Rusbridger given award for NSA revelations that ‘set alarm bells ringing throughout the world’ — Alan Rusbridger, the editor in chief of the Guardian, has been honoured at the European Press awards for leading …

Discussion: Poynter and @arusbridger

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

When robots help human journalists: “This post was created by an algorithm written by the author” — The East Coast woke up this morning to news that an earthquake had hit Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, folks woke up to...an actual earthquake. But who broke that story?

Discussion: Poynter, Los Angeles Times, @jbenton, Business Insider, The Switch and PopWatch

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

For Some, Reader Contributions Become a New Reporting Tool — Not too long ago, it happened like this: A newspaper would publish a story. Response came in the form of letters to the editor, or maybe an outraged phone call or two, or a handwritten note to a reporter — or, every once in a while, a lawsuit.

Discussion: @mathewi and @margafret

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

UK's Channel 5 to float on stock market for £700M, say sources — Media Boss Desmond Eyes £700m Channel 5 Float — Celebrity Big Brother is a Channel 5 hit — The media tycoon Richard Desmond is considering a stock market flotation of Channel 5 even as bidders firm up offers …

Discussion: Variety, Reuters and @markkleinmansky

Josh Hicks / Federal Eye:

Sunshine Week: Transparency issues persist with Obama administration — Sunday marked the start of Sunshine Week, a time when government-transparency advocates promote their cause and issue reports gauging the openness of federal agencies. — This year's reports show improvement in some areas …

Discussion: Poynter and Associated Press

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Arthur Sulzberger's compensation took a hit in 2013 — New York Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. made roughly $5.3 million in 2013, including his base salary, stock awards and other compensation, whereas his 2012 earnings package totaled around $6.9 million.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM