Mediagazer: Russia Calls for Release of Journalists Reportedly Caught Carrying Anti-Aircraft Missiles (Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai/Mashable)

9:20 PM ET, May 20, 2014

Top News:

Arthur Gelb, Critic and Editor Who Shaped the Times, Dies at 90 — Arthur Gelb, who by sheer force of personality dominated the newsroom at The New York Times for decades, lifting its metropolitan and arts coverage to new heights and helping to shape the paper in its modern era, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan.

Discussion: Capital New York, The Wrap, @paulgoldberger, @jackshafer, @brianstelter, @peterhimler, @samsifton, @gabrielsherman, @josreports, @michaelroston, @nickconfessore, @howardmegdal, @tomjolly, @frankrichny, @romenesko and @choire

Sarah Ellison / Vanity Fair:

Arthur Sulzberger's First Interview About the Turmoil at The New York Times: “I Would Have Done It Differently” — A week after the firing of Jill Abramson as executive editor of The New York Times, the newspaper's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., sat down with V.F.'s Sarah Ellison for an exclusive interview about the controversy.

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
In speech, Sulzberger praises Jill Abramson as a “powerful” free press advocate

Discussion: New York Post and The New York Observer

David Yanofsky / Quartz:
5 years later, only 2 of New York Magazine's 5 “renegade cybergeeks” are still at the NYT

Discussion: Cision, @bydanielvictor, @jonathanellis, @brianstelter, @sashak, @7homaslin, @matthewcalcara, @nabjdigital, @webjournalist, @macloo, @niemanlab, @jeffsonderman and @simonowens

Wall Street Journal:

Twitter backed out of talks to buy SoundCloud because “the numbers didn't add up” — Twitter Considered Buying German Music-Streaming Service — Twitter Inc. considered buying German music-streaming service SoundCloud, but it has backed out of the talks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Gigaom, @hamishmckenzie, @caseynewton, @briansolis, Re/code, The Verge, bizjournals, Mashable, Business Insider, SocialTimes, Fortune, CNET and Engadget

David Meyer / Gigaom:
Twitter's reported interest in SoundCloud may not have been about the music

Discussion: TechCrunch, US News, Electronista and Re/code

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Anna Holmes, Jezebel founder, joins Fusion as an editor of “digital voices and storytelling” — Jezebel's Anna Holmes Lands at Fusion, Too — Last month, High Profile Internet Person Felix Salmon left his perch at Reuters, then re-appeared, somewhat confusingly …

Discussion: Cosmopolitan, Fast Company, @jbarro, @stuartmillar159, @rembert, @fmanjoo, @clarajeffery, @mlcalderone, FishbowlNY, @annfriedman, @jessicagross, @bendreyfuss, @suzykhimm, @jeffjarvis, Capital New York and Fusion

Scott Porch / The Daily Beast:

New anthology charts the New Yorker's evolution from ‘breezy’ newsweekly to serious reporting — The Decade When ‘The New Yorker’ Grew Up — Before World War II, Harold Ross's New Yorker was no one's idea of a heavy lift. Then it went off to war and grew up almost overnight.

Discussion: @book_beast

Jeremy Barr / Capital New York:

NYT labs creates Vellum, an algorithmically curated list of stories shared on Twitter — N.Y.T. Labs tool makes your Twitter feed into a reading list — Vellum, a new tool from The New York Times R&D lab, seeks to cut through the clutter on Twitter by creating a reading list of the most-shared articles.

Discussion: @zimbalist and @capitalnewyork

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

New report from Poynter president Tim Franklin lays out plans for future of organisation — Poynter president outlines new strategic direction — Since February, a screen in the Great Hall at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, sped through seconds, clicked through minutes …

Discussion: @raju, @ninatypewriter, PR Newswire, @poynter and Poynter's News University

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Netflix's Neil Hunt Says Personalized Recommendations Will Replace The Navigation Grid — Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt said today that the streaming video service will eventually evolve beyond its current navigation scheme, where users have to browse a seemingly endless grid of movies and TV shows.

Discussion: Variety, Fast Company, Glass, BGR, TIME, AdAge, App Advice and Business Insider

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Shutterstock Introduces Music Licensing Service, Starting With 60K Tracks From Rumblefish — Shutterstock isn't just a place where users can find stock photography and video anymore — today it's launching Shutterstock Music. — Vice President of Product Wyatt Jenkins demonstrated the new service for me yesterday.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Mashable, Billboard, The Next Web, Business Insider and Forbes

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Mashable:

Russia Calls for Release of Journalists Reportedly Caught Carrying Anti-Aircraft Missiles — Update: 6:45 p.m. ET — U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki says the journalists were carrying “manned portable anti-aircraft missiles in the trunks of their cars” when they were arrested …

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, Agence France-Presse, presstv.ir, The Voice of Russia, News and RT

David Lieberman / Deadline.com:

Consumers Dislike Cable Companies More Than Any Other Industry: Report — It's time for the pay TV industry's annual slap in the face from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which surveys 70,000 people about the products and services they use most. Cable and satellite distributors …

Discussion: Consumerist, Washington Post, TIME, Vox and BGR