Mediagazer: Vanity Fair to host conference in San Francisco this fall, charging $5K a ticket (Ravi Somaiya/New York Times)

5:50 PM ET, June 23, 2014

Top News:

Patrick Kingsley / Guardian:

Al-Jazeera journalists jailed for seven years in Egypt — Peter Greste, Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed of Al-Jazeera English sentenced on terrorism-related charges — An Egyptian court has convicted three journalists from Al-Jazeera English and sentenced them to seven years in prison each …

Discussion: Al Jazeera English, CNN, Reuters, New York Times, Variety, The Huffington Post, Poynter, Committee to Protect …, Mashable, The Independent, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Sky News, National Union of Journalists, BBC, Amnesty International, ITV, @alistergreste, @psawers, Associated Press, @paulbernaluk, @skynewsbreak, @patrickkingsley, @mishalhusainbbc, The Wrap, @nycjim, @malonebarry, mUmBRELLA, @mwhanna1, @arusbridger, Middle East Eye, ThinkProgress, Channel 4, @nycjim, @miafarrow, @rj_gallagher, Reuters, @ianwoodssky, UK - The Huffington Post, @abcnewsintern, @jeromestarkey, @camanpour, @skynewsbreak, @paulmasonnews, @petertatchell, @jackmirkinson, CNN, @the_intercept, @sulliview, @abuaardvark, @iburrell, @inigogilmore, Telegraph, @marklittlenews, @jeffjarvis, @katz, Daily Dot, @jonathanwatts, @davidbangladesh, @ltribe, @nervana_1, @margotkiser and The Newspaper Guild

Jared Malsin / Columbia Journalism Review:

In Egypt, a Kafkaesque trial concludes with a victory for censorship — Three Al Jazeera journalists, arrested in December, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms based on questionable evidence — It began with murmuring. Someone sobbed. Then the courtroom melted into a chaos of shouting …

Discussion: Latest News & Headlines, FiveThirtyEight, Mashable, UK - The Huffington Post and @channel4news

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Kerry hits ‘draconian’ Al Jazeera convictions

Discussion: @mattrhodes and The Huffington Post

William Hague / @williamjhague: Egyptian Ambassador to London will be summoned to the @foreignoffice today over sentencing of journalists in #Egypt

Bill Carter / New York Times:

Bigger Than Baseball: U.S.-Portugal World Cup Match Outdoes World Series in Ratings — The World Cup is moving into elite territory as a sports property on American television, as ratings for Sunday's game between the United States and Portugal were the highest for any soccer game and reached …

Discussion: TVNewser, Capital New York, The Wrap and Reuters

David Zax / Fast Company:
How A Canadian Sports Network Became Your Must-Check World Cup News App

Discussion: AdAge and @thomasdrance

Peter Sterne / Capital New York:

Gawker wants to double its staff by end of 2015 — Growth-mode Gawker aiming for traffic and staff bumps — As it continues to court a mass, if scattered, readership across its network of sites, Gawker Media leadership is looking for a sizable rise in unique U.S. visitors a month by the end of 2014 …

Discussion: The Awl, Gigaom, @mathewi, @joeljohnson, @felixsalmon and @joeljohnson

New York Times:

Vice Has Many Media Giants Salivating, but Its Terms Will Be Rich — A black S.U.V. recently rolled through the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and stopped in front of the converted warehouse that is the global headquarters of Vice Media. Out of the vehicle stepped the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Discussion: Fortune, TVNewser, @alexweprin, Quartz, @gabrielsherman, @suzykhimm, @rafat, @miriamgottfried, The Wrap, @ischafer, @davepell, @nybizfischer, @jennifersaba, @nycjim, @maura, @peterlattman, @pkafka, @felixsalmon, @lpolgreen, Los Angeles Times, @jonah_kessel and @jayrosen_nyu

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney.com:

CNN partnering with Georgia Institute of Technology to study drone use for journalism — CNN to study drone use for reporting — Seeking to speed up government rule-making about the use of drones in newsgathering, CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology said Monday that they would jointly study …

Discussion: TVNewser, Politico, @dorseyshaw, @brianstelter and Poynter

Press Gazette:

Magazine publisher Felix Dennis ‘famed for his maverick and entrepreneurial style’ has died aged 67 — Publisher Felix Dennis has died aged 67 “after a long and painful battle with cancer”. — The businessman first found fame as one of the founders of 1960s counterculture magazine Oz …

Discussion: The Week UK, Guardian, Mirror.co.uk, AdAge, Bookseller news and Capital New York

David Hepworth / Guardian:
Felix Dennis personified the buccaneering spirit magazines have lost

Discussion: The Independent, @iburrell, The Week, @davidhepworth, @davidhepworth, Digital Spy, @davidhepworth, @harrymccracken, The New York Observer and FishbowlNY

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Sells Community Newspaper Group — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is selling its Community Newspaper Group, which distributes more than 235,000 copies of its papers in New York City, to Les and Jennifer Goodstein, the publishers of such papers as Downtown Express and Gay City News.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Media & Entertainment, Capital New York and Variety

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Sports Illustrated Unveils A New Web Design And A Fantasy Sports App — It's been a busy few months for Time Inc. Not only has the publishing company spun out from Time Warner, it has also revamped the websites for its publications Time, Money, and Fortune. Now Sports Illustrated is launching a new website, and new products, too.

Discussion: Forbes, MediaWire Daily and Adweek

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Vanity Fair to host conference in San Francisco this fall, charging $5K a ticket — Vanity Fair's Fall Conference Taps Power of the Rolodex — Vanity Fair magazine will host a conference in San Francisco this fall, becoming the latest publication to enter the potentially lucrative …

Discussion: @markhor, @pkafka, @nytmedia and Re/code

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

Yahoo Hires Michael Isikoff as Chief Investigative Correspondent — Michael Isikoff, the investigative reporter who recently left NBC News, is joining Yahoo News as its chief investigative correspondent. He will start in August. — Mr. Isikoff will help build Yahoo's new investigative unit and will be based in Washington.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @meganliberman, @jimpoco, @vivian, @isikoff, @peterlattman, FishbowlNY, @jasonleopold, The Wrap, @davidsirota, @annarobertson, @dklaidman and @jayrosen_nyu

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Guardian Media Group and EFF amongst winners of Knight News Challenge; $3.4M for 19 projects — New Knight News Challenge winners receive funding to help strengthen the Internet — The Knight Foundation is out with the most recent group of winners in the Knight News Challenge …

Discussion: Knight Foundation, 10,000 Words, Global Voices, @niemanlab, MIT Center for Civic Media, Digital Public Library …, @justinnxt and SocialTimes

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

SCOTUSblog's appeal fails; can't get Senate press credential — If you spent any part of Monday checking SCOTUSblog for the Supreme Court orders, you're not alone — about 10,000 people were on its live blog around 10 a.m., Editor Amy Howe wrote. — But SCOTUSblog's indispensibility …

Discussion: @abeaujon, @billadairduke and @scotusblog

Bloomberg:

Twitter Denies Blocking Extremist Accounts in Russia — Twitter Inc. (TWTR) said it hasn't agreed to block extremist accounts in Russia, rebutting earlier statements by the country that access was being restricted. — Instead, the San Francisco-based microblogging service said it's …