Mediagazer: Turkey's YouTube traffic down 2/3 after blockage by government (Sam Schechner/Wall Street Journal)

5:40 AM ET, March 29, 2014

Top News:

FiveThirtyEight admits issues with climate-science article, will commission rebuttal — FiveThirtyEight to Commission Response to Disputed Climate Article — FiveThirtyEight relaunched less than two weeks ago. It's been a heck of a learning experience.

Discussion: @juddlegum, @kellyhereid, @cbasturea, @annleegibson, @ccolose, @sam_schulman, @jayrosen_nyu, Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post and Boing Boing

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

FiveThirtyEight Apologizes On Behalf Of Controversial Climate Science Writer — NEW YORK — Two prominent climate scientists say Roger Pielke Jr., a controversial writer at Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight site, sent emails threatening possible legal action in response to their criticism of his findings for the data-driven news site.

Discussion: Washington Center …, Talking Points Memo, @ryangrim, @dhberman, @pdykstra and New York Magazine

Today's Zaman:

Turkish journalist detained over leak of key Syria meeting — A journalist was detained over allegations that he migh have had information in prior to the audio recording and posting online of an alleged conversation between some state officials about a possible incursion into Syria.

Discussion: @eagunes, @zeynep and @chrchristensen

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Turkey's YouTube traffic down 2/3 after blockage by government

Discussion: @zeynep, Washington Post, @zeynep, SocialTimes and Bloomberg View

Vijaya Gadde / The Twitter Blog:
Twitter wins Turkish court case overturning take-down order of account, but service still blocked

Discussion: Re/code, Hurriyet Daily News, @zeynep, @anildash, @kirstinestewart, Mother Jones, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, Business 2 Community and Variety

Dylan Byers / Politico:

New York Times names Jake Silverstein as Magazine editor — Texas Monthly editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein has been hired to serve as editor of The New York Times Magazine, two sources with knowledge of his hiring told POLITICO. Times executive editor Jill Abramson is expected to announce …

Discussion: New York Times, Capital New York, @silvermanjacob, @edmundlee, @harpers, @edmundlee, New York Magazine, FishbowlNY, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @clarajeffery, Poynter, Gawker and NY State of Politics

Jon Swaine / Guardian:

Faith and a media icon: Newsweek's unconventional new owners — It was meant to herald the triumphant return to newsstands of a venerable 80-year-old American media institution with a proud journalistic record. — Newsweek's 4,500-word relaunch cover story on Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto …

Discussion: Gawker, @hadas_gold, @puellavulnerata, @jayrosen_nyu and @alexkoppelman

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Designer Craig Mod launches Hi, an experiment in iterative writing and networked journalism — The internet and the social web have transformed almost every pursuit that humans can engage in, and writing is clearly high on that list. But despite all of the advancements in distribution …

Re/code:

Yahoo tries to lure YouTube stars with better ad rates for new video service — Ready for Marissa's Closeup? Yahoo Is Considering Creating Its Own YouTube (And Poaching YouTube Stars). — Google-owned YouTube hasn't had a serious competitor for years.

Discussion: VentureBeat, @dannysullivan, The Verge, @marcbodnick, @ryanlawler, @hunterwalk, Talking Biz News, The Switch and AdExchanger

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Wheeler: L.A. Test Makes Compelling Case For Channel Sharing — FCC chair says broadcasters can have their cake and eat it too — FCC chairman Tom Wheeler says the results of the Los Angeles channel sharing test demonstrates the once in a lifetime opportunity the incentive auctions provide …

Discussion: Variety, TheHill and Reuters

Alina Selyukh / Reuters:
U.S. TV stations' test finds channel-sharing technically viable

Discussion: wirelessdevnet.com, Adweek, FierceWireless, Gigaom, Re/code, Los Angeles Times and Broadcasting & Cable

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

After criticism, Talking Points Memo defends its new sponsored content — A Note on Sponsors — As you can see, over there to the right we have what's labeled a “Sponsored Message” from PhRMA. As I mentioned yesterday, they're sponsoring a new section of IdeaLab we launched this week.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, @joshsternberg, @bmorrissey and Harvard News

Robert Andrews / Beet.TV:

Huffington Post CEO Maymann: “HuffPost Live” Nears Break Even, Eyeing Global Expansion — LONDON — Nearly two years after launching, HuffPost Live, Huffington Post's effort to reinvent rolling TV news, is on the verge of breaking even, says HuffPost's CEO.

Matthew Lynch / Capital New York:

Jonathan Mahler to join Times media desk — Author, columnist and longtime New York Times Magazine contributor Jonathan Mahler will join the paper's media desk full time next month, media editor Peter Lattman told staff in a note today obtained by Capital. — According to the memo …

Discussion: AdAge, FishbowlNY and The Wrap

Emerging Technology From the arXiv:

The Evolution of Automated Breaking News Stories — A Google engineer has developed an algorithm that spots breaking news stories on the Web and illustrates them with pictures. And it is now filing its first stories on Twitter. — Breaking news stories are one of the driving forces for online media.

Mark Mueller / New Jersey Online:

Amid changing media landscape, Star-Ledger, NJ.com and affiliates form new company — Executives of The Star-Ledger, NJ.com and affiliated newspapers announced that a new media company, NJ Advance Media, would provide content for newspapers and the website. (Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger)

Discussion: NorthJersey.com, New York Post and Capital New York

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:

Ex-Gawker EIC Daulerio plans tabloid-like network of sites named Ratter in SF, LA and NYC using Kinja — A.J. Daulerio to start up ‘Ratter’ — A.J. Daulerio, a former editor of Gawker and Defamer, plans to launch a network of sites under the brand name Ratter, with city-specific sites for Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

Discussion: @murderkroger, @scroll, @neetzan, @brfreed and @mathewi

John Vomhof Jr. / Minneapolis/St. Paul …:

Glen Taylor reportedly nearing deal to buy Star Tribune — Taylor Corp. and Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor is close to a deal to buy the Star Tribune, according to a local report that cites unidentified “people in the know.” — Business Take, a daily business newsletter published …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, @barryjohnson and @mspbjnews

Joseph Ax / Reuters:

U.S. judge OKs class action in e-book suit against Apple — (Reuters) - A federal judge in New York granted class certification on Friday to a group of consumers who sued Apple Inc for conspiring with five major publishers to fix e-book prices in violation of antitrust law.

Discussion: AppleInsider and MacRumors

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Music-tech heavyweights pile into $8.5M round for Bandpage — Bandpage has raised a fresh $8.5 million in funding for its community building platform, according to a SEC document filed today. — Investors include Mohr Davidow Partners, longtime VC (and Pandora board member) Robert Kavner …

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Dropbox acquires reading platform Readmill, will close it on 1 July — Readmill has been acquired by Dropbox and is now in the process of closing its reading platform. In a blog post, the Berlin-based startup said it was joining Dropbox to work on “new ways to read together” …

Discussion: readmill.com, VentureBeat, @ryantate and Gigaom

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Softcover Is A New Self-Publishing Platform Aimed At Technical Authors — Softcover is a startup offering what it calls a “frictionless” platform for self-publishing e-books. — Co-founder Michael Hartl is an author himself, having written the Ruby on Rails Tutorial.

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Newsrooms freeze out freelancers moonlighting for brands — For the freelance journalist, the siren call of “brand journalism” is tough to resist. It's a growth industry, and one that pays pretty well at a time when the $2-a-word magazine piece is hard to find.

Discussion: @slosee, @mikestiles, @digiday and @niemanlab