Mediagazer: Authors Guild to Amazon in Hachette standoff: “We're not interested in a short-term windfall” (Richard Russo/The Authors Guild)

5:40 AM ET, July 11, 2014

Top News:

Israeli airstrike destroys press car, killing Palestinian media worker — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Israel Defense Forces' airstrike on a car clearly marked as a press vehicle in Gaza City on Wednesday. The airstrike killed Hamid Shihab, a driver …

Discussion: New York Times, IFJ, @ibnlarry, Reuters, IMEMC, @josephwillits, @jessradio, @mlcalderone, The Huffington Post, Gawker and Reuters

Robert Mackey / New York Times:

Rumor and Leaks Fill a Void as Israel Silences Press Over Killings — Israeli intelligence officials used gag orders in recent weeks to stifle reporting on the initial investigations into both the abduction and the killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, and the apparent revenge killing …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Times of Israel and @robertmackey

Pew Research Journalism Project:

America's Shifting Statehouse Press — Can New Players Compensate for Lost Legacy Reporters? — Within America's 50 state capitol buildings, 1,592 journalists inform the public about the actions and issues of state government, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Digital Outlets Help Fill Statehouse Ranks As Newspapers Retrench

Discussion: @pewjournalism, @pewresearch and Capital New York

Alan D. Mutter / Editor and Publisher:

Newsosaur: Newspapers Can't Merely Dabble at Digital — The New York Times wrote the story in 1853 about how Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery, but Gawker got most of the page views by publicizing the archived article when “12 Years a Slave” won the Oscar for best picture in 2014.

Richard Russo / The Authors Guild:

Authors Guild to Amazon in Hachette standoff: “We're not interested in a short-term windfall” — Letter from Richard Russo on the Amazon-Hachette Dispute — We want to share with you an open letter on the Amazon-Hachette, written by Richard Russo, novelist and co-Vice President of the Authors Guild.

Discussion: Bookseller news, @authorplanet, @thegernertco, @watershedchron, @alex_shephard, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly and Washington Post

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

World Cup shows Twitter's unique strength: dominance in real-time sports news and commentary — Twitterball — In the old days of Twitter — at least ‘old’ by Silicon Valley 2.0 standards, which is anything over five years — you could count on a couple of things.

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Dallas Morning News abandons its “premium experience” strategy — The Dallas Morning News dismantles its paywall in favor of a bisected reader experience — In yesterday's paper, The Dallas Morning News announced it was ending its experiment with a “premium” site.

Discussion: Dallas Morning News, @vwpickard and @jbenton

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Chromecast and Roku sold an estimated 3.8M units each in 2013 in US, compared to 2M Apple TVs — Roku and Chromecast go head-to-head in streaming race, Apple TV falling behind — Roku and Chromecast were the two most successful streaming devices sold in the U.S. in 2013 …

Discussion: BGR, Electronista, MacRumors and 9to5Mac

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

Sultry Univision Ads Help Steer Women From Soaps to Soccer — In the months before the World Cup, Univision began to unveil its plan to reach female viewers, many of whom are devoted to its daytime talk shows and telenovelas. — The primary weapon for Univision, a Spanish-language media giant …

Eleanor Clift / The Daily Beast:

Jill Abramson Talks Obama Secrecy and Her New York Times Firing — Two months after her abrupt exit from the Gray Lady, the former executive editor delivered a speech about how different Obama is from Bush—and why she was dismissed from her post. — Aside from her unceremonious firing …

Discussion: Poynter, @davidalvarez, @edpilkington, @ashk4n, @dancow, @davidfolkenflik, @antderosa, Washington Post, The Huffington Post and FishbowlNY

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Apple Unveils Enhanced iTunes ‘Extras’ for Apple TV, as Studios Push Digital Movie Sales — Bonus content is aimed at promoting digital ownership of titles — Apple launched a new version of the iTunes Extras feature that will let Apple TV users access bonus content for movies they buy through …

Discussion: TechCrunch, @ryansilbert, Hollywood Reporter, The Verge and ParisLemon

Natan Edelsburg / Lost Remote:

NBC becomes first broadcast network to offer exclusive content on SoundCloud with ‘Last Comic Standing’ — SoundCloud has changed the way we experience sounds and music on the web. The platform which stands out as one of the top audio streaming destinations is becoming increasingly important to TV …

Discussion: SocialTimes

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

FCC sets clock for Comcast's Time Warner Cable and Charter deals — The Federal Communications Commission has released its schedule for the public and the media industry to weigh in on Comcast's proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable and its complex deal to trade some cable systems with Charter Communications.

Discussion: Multichannel News, Variety, Deadline.com and Re/code

WAN-IFRA:

Jay Rosen to journalists and editors: ‘Facebook has all the power. You have almost none’ — Amid growing calls for US and UK regulators to launch formal investigations into Facebook's disturbing mood manipulation research, leading US media scholar Jay Rosen has a reminder for journalists …