Mediagazer: Why women are leading coverage of the war-torn Middle East (Leila Fadel/Columbia Journalism Review)

4:30 AM ET, July 4, 2014

Top News:

Google reverses decision, restores several links to Guardian stories after publisher protests — Google reverses decision to delete British newspaper links — (Reuters) - Google Inc GOOGL.O GOOG.O on Thursday reversed its decision to remove several links to stories in Britain's Guardian newspaper …

Discussion: RT, Quartz, @diodesign, New York Times, @dannysullivan, BGR, @mathewi, @jledbetter, @xor, @dannysullivan, Guardian, Guardian, The Age, Gigaom and Engadget

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

The EU's “right to be forgotten” is a bad idea, and Google is handling it exactly the right way — This week, Google has begun notifying British media outlets that some of their news articles may not be available to UK audiences as a result of a European Union court decision enshrining the …

Discussion: Wired, TIME, Softpedia News, PandoDaily and filmindustrynetwork.biz

Lauren Tara Lacapra / Reuters:

Ex-Merrill CEO says he has ‘no knowledge’ of Google search wipe — (Reuters) - E. Stanley O'Neal, the former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, said on Thursday he has “no knowledge” of an apparent effort to remove a BBC article mentioning him from Google Inc search results in Europe.

Discussion: Marketing Land

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

How The Weather Channel hunts for innovation — The Weather Channel has found an unlikely new application for its weather data — fitness. — OutSider, the company's new “biometeorological” app, lets runners measure and track how the weather affects their outdoor workouts …

Leila Fadel / Columbia Journalism Review:

Why women are leading coverage of the war-torn Middle East — Why women are leading coverage of the war-torn Middle East — (Staff Sgt. Mark Fayloga / Marine Corps) — Liz Sly, the Beirut bureau chief of The Washington Post, was sitting in the lobby of a Damascus hotel a couple of years ago …

Patrick Frater / Variety:

Netflix Seems Headed for Australia, But Company Won't Say When — Content availability, piracy, and other priorities may be delaying the ‘Down Under’ debut — HONG KONG — It doesn't quite have the pop culture ring of “I Want My MTV,” but plenty of Australians are clamouring for Netflix to launch ‘Down Under.’

Discussion: afr.com, CNET and ZDNet

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Nigerian editor missing since Tuesday — Abuja, Nigeria, July 3, 2014—The Committee to Protect Journalists holds Nigerian authorities responsible for the safety of an editor who was seized by armed men on Tuesday and has not been seen since. — Thomas Thomas, editor of the thrice-weekly …

Discussion: Premium Times Nigeria

Dan Pearson / GamesIndustry International:

Twitch, the social video site for gamers, grows to 45 million unique viewers per month, 1 million broadcasters, 106 minutes watched per day by average user — Twitch - 1 million channels and rising — The Big Event: E3 — “We had to prove that this is more than just watching people, that it's really about engagement”

Discussion: TheBitbag, Softpedia News and Digital Spy

Lisa Granatstein / Adweek:

Longtime Wenner Media COO John Gruber resigns; so does Rolling Stone publisher Chris McLoughlin — Longtime Wenner Media Execs Quit — On the eve of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, longtime Wenner Media executive John Gruber has resigned, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Discussion: @markhor, FishbowlNY, @bmorrissey and @joshsternberg

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

How NPR built its Civil Rights Act interactive — Journalists usually try to cover current events, keep excess quotes to a minimum and remove their notes from the final draft. On Wednesday, journalists at NPR threw out these rules. — The result? An interactive feature born …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Randy Lewis / Los Angeles Times:

Music streaming up, sales down in first half of 2014 — SoundScan — Pop & Hiss — The L.A. Times music blog

Discussion: New York Times and Variety

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Despite promises, Rebekah Brooks still hasn't explained why News of the World was shuttered in 2011 — So, Rebekah Brooks, what was the reason for the News of the World's closure? — On 8 July 2011, Rebekah Brooks stood nervously before the staff of the News of the World to tell them that their newspaper was to be closed down.

Discussion: Sky News, @greenslader, @themurdochtimes and @martincloake