Mediagazer: Turkey strengthens Twitter ban, institutes IP level block (Andrea Peterson/The Switch)

8:30 AM ET, March 24, 2014

Top News:

Risks Abound as Reporters Play in Traffic — It is a dirty secret of the journalism profession that many reporters are bad at math. Many of us ended up typing our way to a living because we had an easier time making words dance than numbers. — But now that everything can be measured, we have to keep an eye on both.

Discussion: @peterlattman, @jim_edwards, @awitrado, @maura, @mdeziel and @jyarow

Aaron Mesh / Willamette Week:

With Quotas and Incentive Pay, The Oregonian is Again Reshaping Its Experience for Readers — Close readers of The Oregonian have borne witness to dramatic changes in the past several months. — In October, the newspaper became a “digital first” media company, with news stories posted …

Discussion: @dangillmor

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

Some Facts About How NSA Stories Are Reported — (updated below) — Several members of the august “US Journalists Against Transparency” club are outraged by revelations in yesterday's New York Times (jointly published by der Spiegel) that the NSA has been hacking the products …

Discussion: Techdirt, Lawfare, Spiegel Online, New York Times, Softpedia News, Lawfare, The Next Web, @0xdeadbabe, VentureBeat, Guardian, Mother Jones, Kirk LaPointe's …, Boing Boing, TheHill, CNET, Gigaom, The Verge and Mashable

Wall Street Journal:

Apple in Talks with Comcast About Streaming-TV Service — Companies Discuss Service That Would Try to Bypass Web Congestion — Apple Inc. is in talks with Comcast Corp. about teaming up for a streaming-television service that would use an Apple set-top box and get special treatment …

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

BuzzFeed teams up with ex-Gawker editor Neetzan Zimmerman and Whisper for access to its content — BuzzFeed Unites With an Alumnus of Gawker — Neetzan Zimmerman, an editor who rose to prominence at Gawker with an uncanny knack for posting popular news articles and videos …

Discussion: @maura, Guardian, @petersterne, @clarajeffery, @pbump, @alex and @nostrich

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Slate to Introduce a Variation on the Paywall — In the hunt for revenue in the digital era, news publications have tried everything from putting up paywalls to soliciting donations. — The digital magazine Slate, nearly two decades old, plans to experiment with a strategy somewhere in between.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:

Turkey strengthens Twitter ban, institutes IP level block — After Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan banned Twitter in the country late Thursday night, many local users found ways to circumvent the restrictions. But getting around the ban is becoming more difficult …

Discussion: SlashGear, @renesys, New York Times, Mashable, @renesys, @cda, @mattblaze, Daily Kos, @ekizilkaya, The Next Web, The Verge and PandoDaily

Wall Street Journal:
Google Refuses Turkey's Requests to Yank YouTube Videos

Discussion: Reuters, The Next Web, Electronista, Bloomberg, ThinkProgress, Re/code, TechCrunch, Forbes, @headhntr, @brianstelter, The Switch and Business Insider

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

New York Times Story on Pakistan Censored by Local Printer — A New York Times story saying Pakistan's government protected Taliban forces was censored by the publisher's printing partner in that country, resulting in a blank hole on the front page of its international edition.

Discussion: @carlottagall, New York Times, @hifzaaa, Subtraction.com, @sherryrehman, Gawker, The Verge, @sunny_hundal, CNN, @edmundlee, @qasimnauman, Business Insider, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Mashable and The Huffington Post

Rowena Mason / Guardian:

Downloads of books, music and apps in the UK could face 20% value-added tax starting in 2015 — George Osborne closes tax loophole on music and book downloads — Chancellor announces new laws making sure internet downloads are taxed in the country where they are purchased

Discussion: @robinkelly1, @badbizznez, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, thedrum.com, Bookseller news, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, App Advice and MacRumors

Nitsuh Abebe / New York Magazine:

Watching Team Upworthy Work Is Enough to Make You a Cynic. Or Lose Your Cynicism. Or Both. Or Neither. — Rebecca Eisenberg, an editor for the viral website Upworthy, works from the back of her Jersey City apartment, surrounded by Star Trek posters, felt Muppet versions of herself …

Discussion: @elanazak, @megsokay, @gabestein and @pkafka

Miles Weaver / ReadWrite:

The Remote Control Needs To Die So The Television Can Live — This: — Needs to go. Here's why. — The remote control, back when we only had four channels to choose from, was the perfect way to interact with television. We had a power on/off switch, channel and volume buttons and …

Discussion: @rjcc

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Nilay Patel, No Longer Managing Editor of The Verge, Moves to Vox.com — Nilay Patel, the well-known and highly regarded managing editor of The Verge, which he founded with editor-in-chief Josh Topolsky, has left that high-profile job, according to several sources.