Mediagazer: Pittsburgh sports columnist leaves newspaper to start his own reader-supported site (Tim Schooley/Pittsburgh Business Times)

11:20 AM ET, July 24, 2014

Top News:

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

The Verge EIC Joshua Topolsky leaves to join Bloomberg for a new online venture, to be replaced by Nilay Patel — Josh Topolsky of The Verge Is Joining Bloomberg — Josh Topolsky, the co-founder of the technology website The Verge, will join Bloomberg as the editor of a series …

Discussion: Poynter, The Verge, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, @tyrangiel, @piercedavid, @justin_b_smith, @jbenton, Business Insider and Talking Biz News

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Bloomberg struggles to break out of the box — When Justin Smith arrived from the Atlantic to last fall to take over the sprawling media group at Bloomberg LP, the move was greeted by hosannas in the media and journalism circles. — Here was the young, digitally savvy executive credited …

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:
Bloomberg LP's VC fund, which financed Newsle, keeps a focus on finding useful information

Discussion: @digiday, @bloombergmrkts, @bloomberg and @dandoctoroff

CNN:

Journalist working for CNN abducted in Ukraine — Donetsk, Ukraine (CNN) — A Ukrainian journalist working as a freelancer for CNN remains in detention two days after he was abducted by pro-Russian separatists. — Armed men from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic seized Anton Skiba outside …

Discussion: Poynter, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, @ivancnn and Business Insider

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Journalists missing, fixer kidnapped, press banned in eastern Ukraine — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a series of recent anti-press violations in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk. In the past two days, at least two journalists have gone missing, while pro-Russia separatists abducted …

Jeremy Greenfield / Forbes:

Survey: Book Buyers Leaving Amazon Because of Hachette Dispute — Some book buyers may be leaving Amazon for Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores and the likes of Costco because the large e-tailer's dispute with publisher Hachette, according to new survey data. — From industry publication Publishers Lunch:

Discussion: Publishers Lunch, The New York Observer, GalleyCat, @victoriastrauss, @ampressman, @forbestech and Melville House Books

Judith Rosen / Publishers Weekly:
Amazon Makes Plea to Authors to Quiet Down

Discussion: Bookseller news, Good E-Reader, Melville House Books, Good E-Reader, @brandenhart, @alisonajones, @david_annandale and @dblobaum

The Authors Guild:
Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors

Discussion: @hughhowey and @barryeisler

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

NowThis News pivots for the Vine and Instagram era — Creating news for the mobile, social and video-viewing audience is no easy feat. When former Huffington Post execs Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau launched the made-for-mobile video news service NowThis News two years ago …

Discussion: @digiday and @jayrosen_nyu

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

Behind Comcast's truthy ad campaign for net neutrality — Comcast has two big goals in Washington this year. The first is to get its merger with Time Warner Cable approved by federal regulators. The second is to forestall what it views as potentially onerous new regulations on its broadband business.

Dale Kasler / Sacramento Bee:

McClatchy sees bump in profits from asset sale, but revenue drops — The McClatchy Co. today reported a big jump in quarterly profits, thanks mainly to the sale of one of its Internet assets. But the owner of The Sacramento Bee and other newspapers said advertising revenue declined, continuing an eight-year slump.

Discussion: Poynter and MSN Money

Arab Times:

Kuwait Shuts Pro-Opposition TV, Newspaper — KUWAIT CITY, July 23, (AFP): Kuwait said it revoked the licences of pro-opposition Al-Youm television and Alam Al-Youm newspaper and ordered them to shut down immediately on Tuesday. The information ministry said in a statement that the licences …

Discussion: Advanced Television

Dave Lee / BBC:

Google to face data watchdogs over ‘right to be forgotten’ — The ruling only applies to search engines viewed from within the EU — Google is to meet data regulators from across the European Union to discuss the implications of the recent “right to be forgotten” ruling.

Discussion: Guardian, PandoDaily, London Evening Standard, theEword, V3.co.uk, @brianclifton, The Holmes Report and The Irish Times

Robert Mackey / New York Times:

Foreign Correspondents in Israel Complain of Intimidation — As the death toll mounts and passions spike, the Foreign Press Association in Israel condemned on Wednesday what it called “deliberate official and unofficial incitement against journalists” who are reporting on the fighting in Gaza.

Discussion: Guardian, Mediaite, @russian_starr, Pressing Issues, The Local and Just Security

Linette Lopez / Business Insider:

Carl Icahn, Josh Brown And More Finance Brains Just Started Blogging On A New Yahoo Tumblr Platform — On Wednesday Yahoo launched a new blogging platform for Wall Streeters. There's only one condition — you have to be at the top of the game. — “We're opening up Yahoo Finance in a scalable …

Discussion: Yahoo! Finance, TheStreet.com, Silicon Valley Business … and @thestalwart

The Local:

German state bans Hells Angels' logo online — Displaying the symbols of notorious motorcycle gangs the Hells Angels and the Bandidos is forbidden across Germany, but that ban has now extended to the internet. — Websites baring the bright red “Hells Angels” lettering and the iconic winged skull …

Discussion: Gigaom

John Schwartz / Current.org:

In spectrum auction, FCC should protect public TV's coverage — The FCC recently released the entire text of its Report and Order detailing rules for the upcoming broadcast spectrum auctions, making it clear that it intends to make no effort to preserve public TV signal coverage.

Natalie Mortimer / The Drum:

Express Newspapers to cut 30% of editorial jobs — Express Newspapers, the publisher of Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday is to cut around 200 of its editorial staff in its London, Broughton and Scottish offices. — Paul Ashford, group editorial director …

Discussion: Guardian, Press Gazette, National Union of Journalists, @pressgazette, @notableabodes and Prolific North

Press Association:

News of the World reporter Dan Evans given 10 month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to phone hacking, two other charges — Phone-hacking reporter spared jail — A former News of the World reporter has been spared jail after giving key evidence in the case against his old boss, Andy Coulson, in the phone-hacking trial.

Discussion: Guardian, The Huffington Post, Reuters, BBC, Sky News, Associated Press, @martin_hickman and @courtnewsuk

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Why Rupert Murdoch's takeover of Time Warner would be bad for TV viewers — Yesterday, I mentioned that TV host Bill Maher objected to Rupert Murdoch's bid for Time Warner. He questioned, in an article in the Hollywood Reporter, the wisdom of companies getting bigger and bigger.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, The Conversation and Mediaite