Mediagazer: ESPN dips its cleats into the e-sports pool with Dota 2 partnership (Sam Machkovech/Ars Technica)

2:40 AM ET, July 18, 2014

Top News:

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

NBC News Pulls Veteran Reporter from Gaza After Witnessing Israeli Attack on Children — Ayman Mohyeldin, the NBC News correspondent who personally witnessed yesterday's killing by Israel of four Palestinian boys on a Gazan beach and who has received widespread praise for his brave …

New York Times:

Fox Challenges ESPN with Pursuit of Time Warner — Rupert Murdoch loves nothing more than taking on an entrenched powerhouse, and with his audacious $80 billion bid to purchase Time Warner, he showed a willingness to go up against one of the industry's most powerful players — ESPN.

New York Times:
Time Warner Chief's Turnaround Effort Opened the Door to Fox's Bid

Discussion: Bloomberg View, New York Times, mUmBRELLA, USA Today, FierceCable, @peterlattman, @alansmurray, Prof Chris Daly's Blog and New York Times

John McDuling / Quartz:
It's not TV that Rupert Murdoch wants: It's HBO

Discussion: Bloomberg and Mashable

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Microsoft confirms it's closing Xbox Entertainment Studios and halting production of new original TV shows — Today has been a tough one for Microsoft. After announcing 18,000 layoffs, it has also confirmed that it is shutting down its original programming studio, Xbox Entertainment Studios in the coming months.

Discussion: Re/code, Variety, Adweek, AdAge, The Wrap, Multichannel News and @adamostrow

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

After Shutting Down Xbox Studios, Microsoft Faces Trust Issues With Advertisers — Microsoft 's decision to shutter the Xbox Entertainment Studios division, as part of 18,000 layoffs announced on Thursday, has shocked and angered several top ad buyers, causing some to once again question the company's commitment to advertising.

Discussion: Pocket-lint and VideoNuze Analysis

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

John Sweeney loses job in cull of all Panorama's staff reporters: ‘Management will gain more control’ — John Sweeney has revealed his office nickname for the past few months has been “dead man walking”, and he was not surprised to have been made redundant by the BBC today.

Discussion: Telegraph, The Wrap, @wturvill, @wmckdc, @charliebeckett and @goldentent

BBC:
BBC News to cut a further 415 jobs

Discussion: Guardian, Press Gazette, @trushar, @trushar, @imkevinyoung, @lucynews, @marcsettle, @marcsettle, @marcsettle, @ronmooremoreron and @leimdorfer

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

How to Teach Google What a Story Is — Google wanted to solve a problem we can all understand. People take so, so many photographs and yet they actually do very little with them. A chosen few are posted to Instagram. Most sit in vast wastelands of thumbnails on phones or in iPhoto never …

Caroline Little / Poynter:

NAA president responds to criticism, says industry must embrace all media, including print — Newspaper group CEO: We need to embrace all media including print — A longtime newspaper man who recently turned academic, Mr. David Boardman posted an essay sharing his personal lamentations …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu and @thenewschick

Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:

ESPN dips its cleats into the e-sports pool with Dota 2 partnership — ESPN2 will preview The International's “final match,” more to stream online. — On Thursday, this weekend's The International, the fourth annual Dota 2 gaming tournament hosted by the game's creators at Valve …

Discussion: Forbes, The Verge, GeekWire and The Next Web

Kevin Collier / Daily Dot:

The FCC has officially received 1 million net neutrality comments — net neutrality is too boring a topic to rile up Americans. — As of Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had received 1 million official comments about whether to allow Internet providers to divide …

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Hill, Washington Post, Ars Technica, VentureBeat and The Huffington Post

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Public records tools, reader metrics, and more among new Prototype Fund winners — The latest round of small grants from the Knight Prototype Fund includes several projects and digital tools that could eventually prove useful to journalists. — A developer from Grist wants to build tools …

Discussion: Knight Foundation, Knight Foundation, Poynter, @jcstearns, @djordjepadejski, @knightfdn and @jferrell03

Sheila Marikar / New York Times:

Websites Like Thought Catalog and Upworthy Aim to Uplift — On a bright afternoon, Alex Magnin, chief revenue officer of the website Thought Catalog, strolled through Dolores Park in San Francisco, sipping a cup of green tea. Mr. Magnin, 29 and clad in a rumpled plaid shirt …

Discussion: The Awl and @ntwealth

Yoree Koh / Wall Street Journal:

Twitter expected to unveil new metrics that count people who see tweets in embeds and on TV — Under Pressure, Twitter Tries to Resize Itself — Company Is Expected to Unveil New Metrics That Will Show Breadth of Its Audience — After a troubling start as a public company …

Paula Mejia / Newsweek:

Foreign Journalists Ordered to Evacuate Beach Hotels in Gaza — A day after four children were killed by an Israel airstrikes close to the al-Deira Hotel, the hotel, which houses many foreign journalists recieved an evacuation order from Israel Defense Forces.

Discussion: @sarahussein, @newsweek, @sherinet, @_ms_r, @_ms_r, @ediz99, The Huffington Post, @themainlisa and @abarnardnyt

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

Deezer quietly drops its Premium plan, now offers only free or Premium+ — Online music streaming service Deezer has confirmed to TNW that it no longer offers new users the option of a desktop-only Premium plan. Instead, there are now just two tiers: Free and Premium+, the latter of which costs £9.99 per month.

Discussion: Music Week and Engadget

Etan Vlessing / Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix Inks Canadian Output Deal With The Walt Disney Studios — The new deal will see movies from Disney, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm stream on Netflix Canada eight months after they leave theaters. — TORONTO - Netflix and The Walt Disney Studios on Thursday unveiled …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Toronto Star, Wall Street Journal, CBC News and Variety