Mediagazer: Vice Launches A Sports Channel, With Modest Ambitions (For Now) (Jeff Bercovici/Forbes)

5:25 PM ET, June 11, 2014

Top News:

Amazon Prime music streaming could launch as early as this week with Sony and Warner, but without Universal — Amazon Said to Be Close to Unveiling Music Streaming Service — Amazon is planning to introduce a limited music streaming feature as early as this week, according to several people briefed on the company's plans.

Discussion: TechCrunch, New York Post, Pitchfork, Business Insider, WebProNews, Electronista and The Next Web

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Amazon Stops Taking Advance Orders for ‘Lego’ and Other Warner Videos — The Everything Store is shrinking again. Amazon customers who want to order forthcoming Warner Home Video features, including “The Lego Movie,” “300: Rise of an Empire,” “Winter's Tale” and “Transcendence,” are finding it impossible to do so.

Jason Deans / Guardian:

Kickstarter links with the Guardian to highlight journalism projects — Crowdfunding website to have a dedicated category for the sector, plus a curated page picking out noteworthy new ideas — The Vancouver Observer's Tar Sands Reporting Project was funded through Kickstarter

Discussion: @caseynewton, @contributoria, @znmeb, @nicolehe, @ystrickler, The Kickstarter Blog, @jamesrbuk and @digiphile

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

2014's most talked-about media startups aren't distinguished by the what, but the how — With the launch of new site after new site in 2014, it's been a fascinating time to watch digital media try to figure itself out. Amid the turmoil of disruption, buffeted by tech companies' control …

Discussion: The Corsair, @jimtankersley, @conorsen, @jkavanagh, @jayrosen_nyu, The New York Observer and @mathewi

Steve Henn / NPR:

NPR and Ars Technica team up for security test that tapped Internet while a reporter worked — Project Eavesdrop: An Experiment At Monitoring My Home Office … If someone tapped your Internet connection, what would he find out about you? — It's been just over a year since Edward Snowden became …

Discussion: @leftcoasthelene, @rhatr and Ars Technica

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Vice Launches A Sports Channel, With Modest Ambitions (For Now) — Vice Media CEO Shane Smith wants to displace ESPN as the global leader in sports news. He's said so publicly and often. — When I interviewed him for a FORBES profile in December 2011, he told me, “I want to be the next CNN …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:
The Vice-Time Warner deal, HLN, and CNN

Discussion: TheStreet.com, BuzzFeed, Wall Street Journal, @antderosa and Inside Cable News

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Jury in Rebekah Brooks trial retires to consider verdicts — Eight-month trial over alleged phone hacking, corruption and perversion of the course of justice enters final phase — The jury in the Rebekah Brooks trial has retired to consider its verdicts on a string of offences related to phone hacking …

Discussion: Reuters and BBC

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

Fortune magazine triples amount of online content even as Time Inc. cuts costs — As the newly standalone Time Inc. looks to cut costs by 25 percent and media writers [Bloomberg, The Atlantic, Nieman Lab] outline the magazine publisher's tenuous digital prospects, Fortune and Money …

Discussion: Digiday

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

In the news media, are Muslims the only ‘terrorists’? — What do you call a couple who espouse an extremist, anti-government ideology and kill two policemen and a bystander while draping one of their victims in a flag associated with a political movement? — After Sunday's shooting spree perpetrated …

Discussion: @notoccupying, @jnaureckas, @zekejohnsonai, VICE and Pressing Issues

Felix Salmon / Matter:

A Q&A with BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti on everything from print to innovation — BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti Goes Long — The media mogul (twice over) on being both contagious and sticky — I first got to know Jonah Peretti in February 2011, very shortly after the Huffington Post was sold to AOL.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, 10,000 Words, @marklotto, New York Magazine, @nbj914, @buzzfeedben, @gregorydjohnsen and kottke.org

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

The Christian Science Monitor tweaks its engagement algorithm — The Christian Science Monitor, a 106-year-old news organization that boasts a serious, civic-minded audience, would seem well poised to crack the engagement code. A digital-focused publication since 2008 …

Discussion: Poynter and Nieman Journalism Lab

Ted Johnson / Variety:

Music Groups Urge D.C. Lawmakers to Revamp Licensing Laws — Characterizing the current system as outdated as the heyday of vinyl records and 8-track tapes, representatives for musicians and music publishers called on Congress to overhaul laws governing how songwriters and others in the industry …

Discussion: Washington Post, Latest News & Headlines, FishbowlDC, New York Times, Mediaite, Billboard, San Diego Jewish World, radioworld.com, The New York Observer and Media Nation

Jeff Sonderman / American Press Institute:

Unlocking mobile revenue and audience: New ideas and best practices — We have throughly entered the age of mobile news. — People are shifting so rapidly to smartphones and tablets, various data suggest, that mobile devices in the last year became the primary platforms for news.