Mediagazer: Facebook and fewer stories behind rise in web traffic, says Telegraph chief (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

3:40 PM ET, August 1, 2014

Top News:

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:

Vivendi Sells Its 13% Beats Stake to Apple for $404 Million — Vivendi SA (VIV) sold its stake in Beats Electronics LLC to Apple Inc. (AAPL) for $404 million as part of the iPhone maker's takeover of the headphone company. — The stake was about 13 percent, Paris-based Vivendi said today …

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, MacRumors and Mashable

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:

With Apple-Beats Deal Complete, Ian Rogers To Run iTunes Radio — Now that Apple has officially swallowed Beats, Ian Rogers, the head of Beats' subscription-music service, will also oversee the iPhone-maker's iTunes Radio efforts, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: MacRumors, @pkafka, 9to5Mac, RAIN News, Re/code, NME, Business Insider and MacDailyNews

Don Reisinger / CNET:
Apple closes $3B Beats deal, welcomes the company ‘to the family’

Discussion: Gigaom, Re/code, Daily Dot, The Daily Caller, The Verge and App Advice

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Facebook and fewer stories behind rise in web traffic, says Telegraph chief — Telegraph Media Group editor-in-chief Jason Seiken says a change in focus helped drive up the paper's website traffic in June — The Telegraph website's 20% traffic boost in June has been attributed …

Discussion: Gigaom, @kate_day, @jeffjarvis, @samkirkla, @jeffjarvis, @shanegreer, @marksweney and @chrismoranuk

Charlie Beckett / Polis:

Should news get personal? Emotion and objectivity in the face of suffering — Should journalists covering suffering allow their own emotions to become part of the story? — [see comments and selected tweets at the bottom of this article for reaction] — Jon Snow's heartfelt monologue …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Guardian, @alstewitn, @abuaardvark, @fleetstreetfox and @fox_claire

BBC:

Russia enacts ‘draconian’ law for bloggers and online media — A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia. — It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform …

Discussion: Gigaom, RT, Guardian, ComputerWeekly, Ars Technica, @emmamayalex, Washington Post, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, rapsinews.com, ITAR-TASS, The Next Web, @eurohumph, The Moscow Times and VPN Creative

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Judy McGrath, Former CEO of MTV Networks, Joins Amazon's Board — Judy McGrath, former CEO of MTV Networks, has been elected to Amazon.com's board of directors effective Oct. 1, the company said. — McGrath also was appointed to the Amazon board's leadership development and compensation committee, according to an SEC filing Friday.

Discussion: Forbes, The Wrap, GeekWire and @peterlauria3

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

The rewriting of an AP tweet about Gaza shows the costs of avoiding perception of bias — The production of innocence: tale of two headlines over Gaza — “Members of Congress fall over each other to support Israel,” the AP said on Twitter. Then the AP decided that it could not say that. Why?

Discussion: The Dish, @mattdpearce, @ryanchittum, @jayrosen_nyu, Pressing Issues and @johnmcquaid

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Please Stop Saving Me A Click — Lately, a new behavior seems to be picking up steam. More and more, average men, women, androgynous novelty Twitter accounts, and even brands are bravely butting in, taking up a conservationist cause. It looks like this: … There are clicks in need of saving.

Discussion: Daring Fireball, @mims, @gaberivera, @jasondashbailey, @mikeisaac, @glennf, @6x6pix, @misterjayem, @nathanjurgenson, @weskroesbergen, @ourmaninchicago, @timlampe, @b_fung, @bydanielvictor and @bydanielvictor

Shelli Weinstein / Variety:

Scout Media Names Ross Levinsohn Executive Chairman, Announces Full Exec Team — Multi-channel, male-focused media network Scout has appointed Ross Levinsohn to executive chairman, announced CEO James Heckman on Thursday. Levinsohn will lead the company's strategic expansion …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and MediaWire Daily

Mark Scott / New York Times:

Google Details Problems With Handling Right to Be Forgotten Requests — LONDON - Google says complying with Europe's so-called right to be forgotten ruling is getting complicated. — In a lengthy response to questions from the region's data regulators, the search giant …

Discussion: ReadWrite, Softpedia News, RT, Marketing Pilgrim, ZDNet, Guardian, Agence France-Presse, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, The Verge and CNET

Bloomberg:

Aereo Asks Court to Stop ‘Bleeding,’ Allow New Life — Aereo Inc. asked a judge to grant it new life, allowing it to operate like a cable-TV service and stop the “bleeding” after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the streaming video company violated broadcasters' copyrights.

Discussion: Businessweek and @joshuabrustein, Thanks:@alexbarinka

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Israel Censor Wants To Pre-Approve New York Times Coverage Of Soldier — NEW YORK — The Israeli military told The New York Times on Friday to withhold publishing additional information about an Israeli soldier reportedly captured by Palestinian militants until it is first reviewed by a censor.

Discussion: New York Times, Mondoweiss, @steveplrose and Pressing Issues

Michael Rondon / Folio:

Bonnier to Move U.S. Titles Off Its Own Platform — Mag+ shifting focus to corporate applications. — Bonnier Corp. is moving its digital editions off of the Mag+ platform—a platform it helped create and one that's owned by its Swiss-based parent company, Bonnier AB—and onto Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite system.