Mediagazer: L'Wren Scott, and the awful truth about women's obituaries (Stassa Edwards/The Week)

1:40 PM ET, March 21, 2014

Top News:

Reed Hastings / Netflix US & Canada Blog:

Internet Tolls And The Case For Strong Net Neutrality — The Internet is improving lives everywhere - democratizing access to ideas, services and goods. To ensure the Internet remains humanity's most important platform for progress, net neutrality must be defended and strengthened.

Quartz:

How the internet works, and why it's impossible to know what makes your Netflix slow — The internet is a confusing place, and not just because of all the memes. — Right now, many of the people who make the internet run for you are arguing about how it should work.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Netflix Says It Really Didn't Want to Cut That Traffic Deal With Comcast

Discussion: The Wrap, Gigaom, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, @pkafka, @pkafka, The Switch, @rsingel and Bloomberg

Raju Narisetti / Poynter:

In defense of ‘vanity’ metrics: why page views are still important — Editor's note: On Monday, Poynter's Rick Edmonds argued for new ways to measure digital audiences that would replace the widely used unique visitors and page views. In this post, New Corp's Raju Narisetti takes a contrary view.

Discussion: @nickkristof

Ira Glass / This American Life Updates:

This American Life looks toward digital future in split with PRI — Leaving PRI — Ira writes: — We're leaving our distributor Public Radio International. What this means for listeners is ... nothing! We'll continue to make our radio show and podcast. The same public radio stations will continue to broadcast it.

Discussion: @wordofmouth, @ejacqui, @jessethorn, @bnewnam and @niemanlab

Variety:
Public Radio International to Stop Distributing ‘This American Life’

Discussion: Current.org, Guardian, Poynter, TwinCities.com, @thisamerlife, The Bold Italic, The Wire, Mashable, @inajaffenpr, @mhess4, @tomdreisbach, @digiphile and AllAccess.com

Charles V. Bagli / New York Times:

Time Inc. May Join Media Exodus to Lower Manhattan — Time Inc., with its stable of magazines, lavish offices and steady profits, has been a fixture in Midtown Manhattan for more than 75 years and the nation's premier magazine publisher. — But the company is now close to a deal to move …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Capital New York, @editorialiste, @loisweiss and @readdanwrite

Zeynep Tufekci / Medium:

The Day the Turkish Government Banned Itself From Twitter — People in Turkey have banned the ban — “Twitter is banned in Turkey” screamed, ironically, a tweet from my “Turkey” list. I did a double take. It had been a long day. I had just published an op-ed in the New York Times explaining …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Guardian, Poynter, Wall Street Journal, Variety, New York Times, The Switch, @amythehub, Techdirt, @gigialford, @zeynep, @emilydparker, @weintrauboo, @danieldombey, @boggits, @meaganmday, The Wire and Committee to Protect …

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:
Turkish citizens use Google to fight Twitter ban

Discussion: Forbes, Guardian, @johnpaczkowski, 9to5Google, Gigaom, Mashable and VentureBeat

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

NBC News ‘Doubling Down’ On David Gregory As ‘Meet The Press’ Expands Online — NEW YORK — David Gregory has heard the rumors, too. — “This comes with the territory. I understand it,” Gregory told The Huffington Post on Wednesday night. “I see speculation out there.

Discussion: The New York Observer, TVNewser, FishbowlNY and Capital New York

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

The colossal arrogance of Newsweek's Bitcoin “scoop” — WIthout more evidence, it's time for a retraction. — On March 6, the 81-year-old magazine Newsweek returned to print with a splashy cover story. Writer Leah McGrath Goodman said she had discovered the elusive creator of Bitcoin, hiding in plain sight.

Discussion: Gigaom, @jayrosen_nyu, @jason_pontin and @johnmcquaid

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

TV Station Mega Merger: Media General, LIN Set $1.6 Billion Deal — Station groups Media General and LIN are poised to merge in a $1.6 billion cash and stock deal that will create the nation's second-largest pure-play broadcast group. — The combination will bring together 74 network affiliate stations …

Discussion: New York Times, Poynter, Associated Press, Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, The Wrap, Reuters, Radio & Television … and Wall Street Journal

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Al Jazeera America C.E.O.: 'We're here for the long haul' — The C.E.O. of Al Jazeera America, Ehab Al-Shihabi, reassured staff that the company was invested in the long-term for the channel, and argued that the U.S. was moving towards “a golden age of global news.”

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

One-shining-moment alert: Two news developers built a Twitter bot to tell you when the game is getting good … Found yourself sitting at your desk this week, furtively checking the score to see if anything exciting is happening? Toggle no more: Two members of the WNYC Data News Team have a bot for that.

Discussion: @danshanoff, @yahootech, @niemanlab and BuzzFeed

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

The Stages of Newspapers' Decline — The second-most common objection to FiveThirtyEight and the End of Average was along these lines: … That's very true; those same people - and there are a lot of them - didn't read the news in a newspaper either. Instead they read the Style section, or Sports, the comics or Dear Abby.

Discussion: @davisshaver

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Medium launches iPhone app for reading stories on the go — After a short delay, Medium released its iPhone app today with a focus on reading and recommending stories. “Every week, thousands of people come to Medium to write,” company founder Ev Williams said in a post on the site. “That's the hard part.

Discussion: Medium, Gigaom, AppNewser, AppleInsider, Engadget, The Next Web and TechCrunch

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

F.T. staffers discuss reporting in China — At a Thursday night panel discussion of China's economy as seen by Financial Times correspondents, Geoff Dyer, the paper's Beijing bureau chief from 2008 to 2011, explained some of the best practices the paper has developed while reporting in the country's restrictive media environment.

Discussion: @jackshafer

Hillel Aron / LA Weekly:

Left-Wing Darling Pacifica Radio Is Sliding Into the Abyss — On March 13, after weeks of rumors, Pacifica Radio's board of directors voted to fire its executive director, Summer Reese, during what was essentially a conference call. But nothing is as simple as all that in the oldest and oddest public radio network in the country.

Discussion: @jpodhoretz, @iowahawkblog and Hit & Run

Tanveer Ali / Columbia Journalism Review:

FiveThirtyEight won't have broad appeal without narrative — FiveThirtyEight won't have broad appeal without narrative — The power in data journalism comes from the ability for numbers and statistics to examine a subject in a measurable way. Sometimes the numbers in play provide the answer to a question.

Discussion: Pressthink and Talking Biz News

Stassa Edwards / The Week:

L'Wren Scott, and the awful truth about women's obituaries — Coverage of the fashion designer's passing was just the latest example of a sad journalistic tradition — W — hen news broke that respected fashion designer L'Wren Scott had passed away on Monday, The New York Times noted …

Ed Christman / Billboard:

Why Publishers Lost Big Against Pandora (Analysis) — In making the decision on March 14 to set Pandora's royalty rate to ASCAP at 1.85% through the end of 2015. Judge Denise Cote rejected practically every argument the PRO, and its two largest members — Sony/ATV Music …

Discussion: @dalebobo

Jule Banville / AAN:

An Open Letter to the Guy Who Owns Snapchat and Other Hip Wealthy People, — There's no reason to let less-hip wealthy people like Jeff Bezos have all the fun. You, too, can get in on the waves of ink they continue to ride, just for spending the lint in their pockets on big metropolitan dailies.

Discussion: @sbmontana

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Pocket's prototype for Android Wear saves articles right from your wrist — Googled unveiled Android Wear this week and encouraged developers to build apps purpose-built for the wrist. Pocket is among the first companies to rise to the challenge, showing off a prototype version …

Discussion: Pocket Blog, Engadget, Phandroid, @a_kiniyalocts, Android Community and FierceWireless