Mediagazer: News Corp calls for piracy crackdown in Australia (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

2:20 PM ET, July 14, 2014

Top News:

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Julia Turner Is Named Editor in Chief of Slate — The online magazine Slate on Monday named Julia Turner its editor in chief, replacing David Plotz, who is stepping down after six years in the job. — Ms. Turner has served as Mr. Plotz's deputy editor since 2008.

Discussion: Slate, Politico, Poynter, Slate, @erikwemple, @mattyglesias and @michaelroston

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Under Larry Kramer, USA Today focuses on breaking news fast and going viral — USA Today Goes Viral — TYSONS CORNER, Va. — “Today is a good day to be here because we are starting Social Media Tuesdays,” exclaims Larry Kramer, the publisher of USA Today.

Discussion: Change of Subject, @jswartz, @lauraelizdavis, @cookie, @dannysullivan, The Whip, @mjenkins, @mikeisaac, @caseynewton and @oso

Ryan Roslansky / Official LinkedIn Blog:

LinkedIn acquries Newsle, a tool for monitoring mentions of people in news stories — Stay In The Know On Your Network: Newsle Joins The LinkedIn Family — We know LinkedIn is a place you visit to stay up-to-speed on your network, showcase and strengthen your professional identity …

Discussion: Newsle Blog, AdAge, TechCrunch, VatorNews, ZDNet, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, @bfeld, @jeffweiner, @pkafka, @jeffjarvis, The Next Web, @jamescham, @robpegoraro, @digiphile, @danroth, SocialTimes and Mashable

Michael Cieply / New York Times:

BitTorrent launching paywall and using crowdfunding to finance new sci-fi series — BitTorrent to Try a Paywall and Crowdfunding — LOS ANGELES — This might be the latest twist on crowdfunding — or the web equivalent of seeking a ransom. — BitTorrent, a purveyor of file-sharing technology …

Discussion: @frankrose, @tigermedia247, The Verge, @katikrause, The Next Web, @cryptogeeks, TorrentFreak and Engadget

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Time chief content officer Norman Pearlstine on the spinoff, The Awl, Twitter, and more — Norm Pearlstine on Standing in Checkout Lines and The Awl — Norm Pearlstine. (Illustration by Paul Kisselev) … What does the spinoff mean for Time Inc.? We were very much defined …

Discussion: @annehelen

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

News Corp calls for piracy crackdown in Australia — Rupert Murdoch company requests toughening of laws to force internet service providers to act on copyright theft — News Corp, owner of film studio 20th Century Fox, has called for the toughening of piracy laws in Australia.

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, The Register, TorrentFreak and @myriamrobin

Todd Spangler / Variety:

AT&T-Chernin Group's Otter Media Online-Video Venture Acquires Creativebug for $10 Mil — Otter Media, the newly named online-video joint venture of AT&T and Chernin Group, has acquired how-to crafting video site Creativebug from Demand Media for $10 million in cash.

Discussion: The Wrap, VentureBeat and Re/code

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Feminist Times ‘put on ice’ after failure of crowdfunding — The Feminist Times, an online magazine founded by Charlotte Raven and launched last October, has produced its last “issue”. — It would appear that money has dried up. Too little has been raised through crowdfunding …

Discussion: Feminist Times

Rebecca Jones / BBC:

Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell is to publish his next work on Twitter. — Mitchell said The Right Sort is a stand alone story and will not be directly linked to his next book — Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell is to publish his next work on Twitter.

Discussion: Guardian, GalleyCat, The Independent, Contactmusic.com, Telegraph, Radio Times, Channel 4, The Voice of Russia, News and The Drum

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Speculation mounts of an AOL-Yahoo merger; Mayer interested in HuffPo — Two Years and Still Stuck in a Revenue Rut, Will Yahoo's Mayer Bite the AOL Bullet? — Maybe AOL and Yahoo will merge. Maybe not. Maybe they should. Maybe they shouldn't. — But for the erudition of reporters …

Discussion: Business Insider, @kenli729, @mathewi, @mccarthyryanj, @hblodget and @jyarow

John McDuling / Quartz:

The music industry's newfangled growth business: vinyl records — The equation facing the music business is now well understood: Sales of CDs and digital music downloads are in what looks like a death spiral, while streaming music services are adding subscribers and increasing revenues but not yet profits.

Discussion: @prasanto and @tedgioia

Corey Hutchins / Columbia Journalism Review:

Newspaper revenue experiment throwdown: crowdfunding vs underwriting — Crowdfunded beats might not work, but there are good reasons for newspapers to give them a try — CHARLESTON, SC — Last week, we wrote about a deal between the News & Record in Greensboro, NC, and a local arts group …