Mediagazer: NFL fights to save its TV “blackout rule” (Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica)

8:50 PM ET, August 8, 2014

Top News:

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

How Vice News Got Unprecedented Access To The Islamic State — NEW YORK — When The New York Times reported last month on life in Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the extremist group the Islamic State, the paper didn't reveal its reporter's identity or that of anyone interviewed out a fear of retaliation.

Discussion: VICE News, The New York Observer, Business Insider, New York Times, @mlcalderone, The Week, @jayrosen_nyu, The Daily Caller, Mashable, CyberJournalist.net, New York Magazine and Gawker

Natalie Andrews / Wall Street Journal:

Pentagon Announces Iraq Airstrikes With a Tweet — News first broke of the U.S. starting air strikes on Iraq militants in an unexpected way - it was announced by the Pentagon press secretary's Twitter account. — The account, associated with Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby …

Discussion: Reuters, Guardian, US News, Boing Boing, The Verge, Gawker, @reedalbergotti and NBC News

Eric Johnson / Re/code:

Japan's SmartNews raises $36M, is in talks with western media for autumn expansion — Exclusive: Twitter-Mining News App SmartNews Raises $36 Million from Atomico and Gree — Japanese newsreading app SmartNews has raised $36 million in new funding, in a round led by growth-stage investment firm Atomico …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Tech in Asia and Gigaom

Agence France-Presse:

New outcry as Erdogan tells female reporter to ‘know your place’ — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced a new outcry on Friday over his attitude to the media and women after he branded a prominent female journalist a “shameless woman” and told her “to know your place”.

Discussion: Today's Zaman …, @zeynep, @zeynep, @zeynep, Associated Press, The Independent and Committee to Protect …

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Bloomberg shifting political news power to NYC marks end of a decade of focus on Washington — Bloomberg's game change: New York's in charge — Bloomberg Media wants to be a dominant player in political news. In order to make that happen, the New York powers have wrested control of the steering wheel from Washington.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @mlcalderone, FishbowlNY and TVNewser

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Senate panel: let cable subscribers pick local TV stations they're willing to pay for under “Local Choice” plan — Sources: Sen. Commerce Floats Retrans Remake — “Local Choice” pitch would be to let subs decide whether they want to pay station prices, get stations

Discussion: Variety, The Hill, TVNewsCheck.com and Multichannel News

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

NFL fights to save its TV “blackout rule” — Despite $9B revenue, NFL says blackout rule needed to keep football on free TV. — The National Football League (NFL) is trying to convince the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to preserve 39-year-old blackout rules that prevent games …

Discussion: Weekly Standard and The Hill

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Coming to the Internet: Shows From CBS That You Won't See on CBS — CBS is working on shows that you won't see on CBS. Instead, the plan is for you to see them on the Internet, via video services like Netflix or Amazon's Prime Instant Video. — If that happens, it means CBS will have opened …

Discussion: Deadline.com, VentureBeat, VatorNews and Capital New York

Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:

Google is testing “Listen Now” ads with Spotify, Rhapsody, and Apple's Beats Music — Google Tests New Music Ads — Google is testing “Listen Now” ads with Spotify, Rhapsody and Apple 's Beats Music, the latest in a string of new ad formats that can simplify purchases for consumers.

Discussion: AppleInsider, @rolfewinkler and 9to5Mac

Eric Johnson / Re/code:

After Twitch's Music Copyright Crackdown, What About Games Themselves? — Videogame streaming site Twitch is officially a big media site and can no longer fly under the legal radar, as evidenced by this week's announcement that videos in its archives with unlicensed music will be flagged and partially muted.

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Recode hires Bloomberg's Edmund Lee — Recode has hired Bloomberg media reporter Edmund Lee as their newest managing editor, Lee announced on Twitter Friday morning. Kenneth Li, the current managing editor, has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief. — Lee, who's been with Bloomberg for nearly three years, starts in September.

Discussion: @pkafka, @hadas_gold, @kenli729 and @edmundlee

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

News Corp. holds firm on value of print — News Corp., the global publishing conglomerate chaired by Rupert Murdoch, reaffirmed its commitment to print in the face of ongoing financial pressures that have upended the industry as more readers migrate from paper to digital platforms.

Discussion: BBC, Hollywood Reporter, MediaWire Daily, Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, @niemanlab, Yahoo! Finance, Guardian and Variety

Calvin Reid / Publishers Weekly:

Simon & Schuster Second Quarter Sales Rise 12% — Publishing revenue at Simon & Schuster rose 12% in the second quarter of 2014, with the publisher crediting the growth to such print bestsellers as Hillary Clinton's Hard Choices and Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes.

Discussion: Bookseller news