Mediagazer: Multiplatform TV: Showtime's Blank Likes Business Model (Kent Gibbons/Multichannel News)

4:20 PM ET, June 11, 2014

Top News:

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.

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

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: New York Post, Business Insider, WebProNews and The Next Web

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

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

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

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: BBC and Reuters

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, New York Magazine, @marklotto, @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

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

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, Media Nation, Mediaite, The New York Observer, Billboard, San Diego Jewish World, radioworld.com and New York Times

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Parade magazine said to be on the sales block — Parade, the Sunday magazine, may be getting ready to march out of Advance Publications — the Newhouse family's media empire. — The company has quietly begun shopping the 73-year-old magazine to prospective buyers, according to reliable industry sources.

Discussion: MediaWire Daily and FishbowlNY

Ralph Cipriano / Big Trial:

Lenfest to buy out Drew Katz to take sole control of Philly Daily News, Inquirer, websites — The Partnership That Didn't Last Twenty Minutes — Auction winners Gerry Lenfest and Lewis Katz — for Bigtrial.net — In the moments after Lewis Katz and H.F. “Gerry” …