Mediagazer: Ad-supported web led to targeting and surveillance as a default; let's try again, with fees for service (Ethan Zuckerman/The Atlantic Online)

10:50 AM ET, August 15, 2014

Top News:

Gary Strauss / USA Today:

Icahn takes 6.6 percent stake of Gannett, wants role in company's planned split — Carl Icahn places bet on Gannett — Activist investor Carl Icahn has taken 6.6% stake in Gannett, saying he wants a role in the company's planned split of its TV and newspaper divisions.

Discussion: Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Deadline and Forbes

David Uberti / Columbia Journalism Review:

Why Obama's statement on reporters' arrests in Ferguson is hypocritical — Obama defends reporters in Ferguson, but demands compliance from James Risen — In a news conference Thursday addressing the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown and resulting unrest in Ferguson, MO …

Discussion: Mediaite, Guardian, FishbowlDC, Poynter, Mediaite, Latest News & Headlines, @heytammybruce, @tonygorder, @meghabuda, Global Voices, Reporter's Committee …, Jezebel, The Huffington Post and @freedomofpress

David Holmes / PandoDaily:
If Twitter implements a Facebook-style algorithm, you may not hear about the next Ferguson

Discussion: Medium, @sarahcuda, @nrmehta, @jennatar, @steveo772, TechCrunch, @tonyromm and SocialTimes

Brian Fung / Washington Post:
How the absence of tweets led journalists to figure out that two reporters had been arrested

Will Oremus / Slate:

Peretti: deleted BuzzFeed posts were created before company chose to become journalistic — One Viral Media Company That Isn't Evil, Just Misunderstood — Thirty-Nine Listicles Whose Sourcing Is Shaky at Best. — One Writer Fired for Plagiarism. — Four Thousand Old Posts That Mysteriously Disappeared.

Discussion: New York Magazine, @mathewi, @peretti, @craigsilverman, @craigsilverman, Gawker, @clarajeffery, @seanmcelwee, @mlcalderone, @timfernholz, @peretti and @jackshafer

Mike Williams / BBC:

Premier League warns posting videos of goals online breaks copyright laws — Premier League warns about posting goal videos online — The Premier League has told Newsbeat they're going to clamp down on fans posting unofficial videos of goals online. — Thousands of goal Vines were posted on social media during the World Cup.

Discussion: Guardian, Latest News & Headlines, @zseward, Engadget, The Independent, Sky News, The Drum, City A.M., The Next Web, TorrentFreak, Law on the Web, @gethill, Gizmodo, Who Ate all the Pies and Electronista

New York Times:

Ferguson Images Evoke Civil Rights Era and Changing Visual Perceptions — Left, Whitney Curtis for The New York Times; right, Bill Hudson, via Associated Press — Danny Lyon, one of the photographers whose work came to define the civil rights upheaval in the South in the 1960s …

Discussion: Philadelphia Magazine and Pitchfork

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney.com:

“Meet the Press:” Gregory out, Todd in — NBC will name Chuck Todd the new host of “Meet the Press” as early as Thursday afternoon, according to people with direct knowledge of the network's plans. — The sources confirmed widespread speculation that David Gregory, the moderator …

Clifford Coonan / Hollywood Reporter:

China's Alibaba Discovers Possible Accounting Fraud in Newly Formed Film Unit — Alibaba Pictures, the recently formed film production arm of the e-commerce and entertainment giant says it won't be able to publish interim results on time — Alibaba Pictures, the recently formed film …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Quartz, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and New York Times

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

UK consumer magazines lost nearly 1m print sales in first half of 2014 ABC — Sales of the hundreds of paid-for weekly and monthly titles fell 4.4% compared with previous six months, according to latest healthcheck — Music magazine New Musical Express has suffered another slump in its print sales.

Discussion: Guardian, @merciecaltd and @raju

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Amazon Continues Its Higher Ed Book Sales March At Purdue, Offers Staffed On-Campus Pickup — Amazon debuted a program that seemed both inevitable and unthinkable earlier this year, depending on your perspective, when it teamed with UC Davis for a unique school-specific storefront that provided …

Discussion: GalleyCat

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Andy Coulson eligible for move from Belmarsh prison — Ex-News of the World editor classified as posing no risk to society, clearing way for transfer from high-security institution — Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former director of communications, looks set to be moved …

Discussion: @neilwallis1 and mUmBRELLA

Alejandro Davila Fragoso / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Press freedom groups file petition to halt legal action against N.Y. Times reporter — WASHINGTON — For six years James Risen, a reporter of The New York Times, has been battling prosecutors who want him to identify an anonymous source. And despite his setbacks, he's willing to keep fighting.

Discussion: Guardian, The Huffington Post, Voice of America, Politico and Latest News & Headlines

Hollywood Reporter:

Xbox Shops Entertainment Studio to Warner Bros. — Microsoft's TV production arm might not be gone for good — Microsoft may have decided to shutter its nascent Xbox Entertainment Studios but it's not necessarily game over for the Santa Monica studio. — Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter …

Discussion: The Verge, Windows Phone Central and Polygon

Amanda Meade / Guardian:

Australian ABC faces more cuts amid major restructure, says Managing Director Mark Scott — ABC faces more cuts amid major restructure, says Mark Scott — Managing director says ‘significant decisions’ on funding priorities will follow once Canberra makes budget clear

Discussion: mUmBRELLA and ABC

Ethan Zuckerman / The Atlantic Online:

Ad-supported web led to targeting and surveillance as a default; let's try again, with fees for service — The Internet's Original Sin — Ron Carlson's short story “What We Wanted To Do” takes the form of an apology from a villager who failed to protect his comrades from marauding Visigoths.