Mediagazer: Piracy and streaming shrank album sales, but music retains value and fan relationships matter (Taylor Swift/Wall Street Journal)

2:20 PM ET, July 8, 2014

Top News:

Piracy and streaming shrank album sales, but music retains value and fan relationships matter — For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story — The Singer-Songwriter Says Artists and Fans Will Still Form Deep Bonds, but They Will Do It in New Ways — Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years?

Discussion: Gigaom, Mediaite, Los Angeles Times, Vox, @sarahditum, @nateyetton, @joywilliams, @kbsmoke, ThinkProgress, Forbes, TVSpy, @drewholcomb, @buzzfeed, Gawker, @wsj, NME, @karaem, The Huffington Post, The Week, MSN Music, @jackieaugustus, @nathanchubbard, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Guardian, Variety, Rolling Stone, Business Insider and Mashable

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Seeking Alpha doesn't have to reveal the identity of a user who slammed a stock — Seeking Alpha is a site for people to write up and share their investing ideas — “a platform for investment research, with broad coverage of stocks, asset classes, ETFs and investment strategy.”

Discussion: ValueWalk, Seeking Alpha and Talking Biz News

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Q&A with CNN's social news editor Samantha Barry on engagement, clickbait, and more — CNN's social news editor: Engagment doesn't have to mean clickbait — CNN recently named Samantha Barry as its new head of social news. Starting in September, the Irish-born Barry will be in charge …

Discussion: @digiday

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Alexis Madrigal Named Deputy Editor of The Atlantic Website — Alexis Madrigal will be the new deputy editor of the TheAtlantic.com, the magazine announced today. Mr. Madrigal has been with the magazine since 2010, most recently in the position of senior editor overseeing the technology channel.

Discussion: MediaWire Daily, FishbowlDC and FishbowlNY

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Guardian News & Media narrows loss to £30.6m, print income stable, digital revenues up 24% — Guardian and Observer narrow losses — Guardian News & Media reports loss of £30.6m in year to end of March, with print income stable and digital revenues up 24%

Discussion: London Evening Standard, @johngapper, @ianwylie, @psmith, Press Gazette and @stephentall

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Guardian U.S. to open West Coast office — The Guardian U.S. is planning an expansion of its editorial team that will include the addition a West Coast office, it announced Tuesday. — The announcement comes in the wake of a banner year for The Guardian's stateside outfit …

Discussion: @attackerman and @ggreenwald

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How The Wall Street Journal is celebrating its 125th anniversary while also looking ahead — The Wall Street Journal marked its 75th anniversary on July 8, 1964 with a front-page story examining the paper's history and what the paper stood for. Though initially conceived as solely a business newspaper …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Forbes, FishbowlDC, Capital New York, The New York Observer, FishbowlNY, Mashable, @wsj, @niemanlab, Guardian and The Huffington Post

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Israel Accused Of ‘Deliberately Targeting’ Journalists By Press Freedom Group — Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has accused the Israeli Defense Forces of “deliberately targeting” journalists during the latest round of violence in Israel and Palestine. — Israel has launched dozens of strikes in Gaza.

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, Arutz Sheva and Eurasia Review

David Weigel / Slate:

Daily Caller stories about Senator Bob Menendez may have been planted by Cuban intelligence — The Cubans, the Prostitutes, the Senator, and the Daily Caller — The competition was stiff, but there was no stronger/stranger headline yesterday than “CIA is said to link Cuba to plot to smear senator.”

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Business Insider and Talking Points Memo

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Texas Monthly promotes Brian Sweany to Editor-in-Chief — Texas Monthly names new editor in chief — Texas Monthly has named Brian Sweany its next editor in chief, the magazine announced on Tuesday. — Sweany replaces Jake Silverstein, who was named editor of The New York Times Magazine in March.

Discussion: @hadas_gold

Newley Purnell / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Suffers Brief Outages in Violence-Hit Myanmar — Some users say Facebook has been inaccessible in Myanmar's second largest city for brief periods since a curfew began Thursday night following an outbreak of sectarian violence. — While Web connectivity is typically poor …

Discussion: The Irrawaddy Magazine, The Irrawaddy Magazine, Channel NewsAsia and CNET

Michael Cieply / New York Times:

Participant Index Seeks to Determine Why One Film Spurs Activism, While Others Falter — LOS ANGELES — You watched the wrenching documentary. You posted your outrage on Twitter. But are you good for more than a few easy keystrokes of hashtag activism? — Participant Media and some powerful partners need to know.

Discussion: @jennyjpark, @joangallos and LA Observed

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Amnesty International launches video verification tool, website — Amnesty International is in the verification game and that is good news for journalism. — When journalists monitor and search social networks, they're looking to discover and verify newsworthy content.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, @thismason and @craigsilverman