Mediagazer: Gracenote Acquires TV And Film Data Provider Baseline For $50 Million (Ryan Lawler/TechCrunch)

2:20 PM ET, September 3, 2014

Top News:

US Says Sotloff Beheading Video Is Authentic — WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says it has determined that a video showing the brutal killing of freelance journalist Steven Sotloff is authentic. — Islamic State extremists released the video showing Sotloff's beheading on Tuesday.

Discussion: Guardian, Committee to Protect …, US Department of State, Los Angeles Times, Guardian, BBC, Amnesty International, @nscpress, Fox News and The Wire

Peter Beaumont / Guardian:

Murdered journalist Steven Sotloff had dual US-Israeli citizenship — Journalist kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic State militants managed to hide his second nationality during his captivity — Steven Sotloff, the kidnapped journalist beheaded by Islamic State, was a dual Israeli-US citizen …

Discussion: Associated Press, Jerusalem Post, Reuters, thejc.com, The Straits Times, Mashable, @jakesherman, NBC News, ejpress.org, International Business Times and The Times of Israel

Joel Simon / Columbia Journalism Review:
Is it time to end media blackouts?

Discussion: The Dish

Rob Crilly / Al Jazeera America:
Islamic State's execution videos are sly propaganda written in blood

Discussion: Guardian, New Yorker, @ibnezra, @robcrilly and The Desk

Uri Friedman / The Atlantic Online:
The Stories Steven Sotloff Told

Discussion: New York Times, The Week, Mediaite, Committee to Protect …, The Daily Banter, The Deacon's Bench, LA Observed, @ntarnopolsky, @davidkenner, The Newspaper Guild, The Huffington Post, Mother Jones, Business Insider, BBC, Boing Boing, New York Magazine, NPR and @gary__bass

Washington Post:

New Post publisher: Strong Washington ties and longtime interest in the news business — Washington Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos is replacing publisher Katharine Weymouth with Frederick J. Ryan Jr., a former Reagan administration official who was part of the founding leadership team of Politico.

Discussion: The New York Observer, The Huffington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, @kamenintheloop, @wexler, @ktumulty, Capital New York, @gabrielsherman, @jimpoco, @mateagold, @sinderbrand, @jamisonfoser, @chicoharlan, @mlcalderone, @themarkberman and New York Magazine

Harry Jaffe / Washingtonian:
Bezos's replacement for Weymouth as publisher at the Post is an old-school organization man in a digital age.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @washingtonian and @stevebuttry

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Katharine Weymouth's resignation completes the close of the Graham era at the Washington Post

Discussion: Washington Post, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, New York Times, bookforum.com, Media Myth Alert, @poynter, @sulliview, @mrbutterworth and The New York Observer

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

BuzzFeed Wants to Beef Up Its Business News — Everyone knows that BuzzFeed does lists and quizzes and videos you like to click on and share. Some people know that BuzzFeed also does reporting from far-flung places, and some delicate, thoughtful features. — But not many people know that BuzzFeed also does business reporting.

Discussion: @moorehn, @reformedbroker, @peterlauria3, @hamburger and @sfiegerman

Nancy Scola / Washington Post:

Comcast bets on hyper-local by reviving EveryBlock — The cable giant Comcast is reviving the once-future of local online news, announcing on its corporate blog that it has expanded its relaunch of the news and social site EveryBlock to include its home city of Philadelphia …

Discussion: corporate.comcast.com, NetNewsCheck Latest, @nancyscola and @digiphile

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

The Guardian taps former Google exec to strengthen tech industry ties — As tech plays an increasingly important role in the news business, U.K. media company the Guardian has decided to open up its first office on the west coast. — It makes sense that the company would want to strengthen …

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

How the Fox v.TVEyes lawsuit might impact the future of news — More on How a Fox News Lawsuit Might Impact the Future of News — TVEyes asserts that it serves the public interest by facilitating criticism of Fox News — Is Fox News about to be decimated by a media-monitoring service?

Discussion: @alexweprin

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Gracenote Acquires TV And Film Data Provider Baseline For $50 Million — It looks like new Gracenote CEO John Batter is already making a mark on the company he only officially joined yesterday. Today the company is announcing that it acquired Baseline, another provider of information …

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, hypebot and PR Newswire

John McDermott / Digiday:

After public setbacks, the future of Gawker's Kinja platform unclear — Gawker's push to make Kinja the quintessential platform-publisher hybrid has taken a slight step backward: Playboy has stopped publishing its “safe for work” stories to its Kinja account PlayboySFW.

Discussion: @niemanlab

Michael Daly / The Daily Beast:

From ISIS Videos to JLaw Nudes, When Is Looking Abetting Evil? — The Steven Sotloff execution video, like the James Foley video before it, was made for you to see. The stolen celebrity nude photos were never meant for you to see. So should you? — To look or not to look, that is the question of this digital age.

Discussion: TIME

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Time Warner's Warner Bros. Studio plans buyouts and possible layoffs to boost profit — Warner Bros. Studio Said Planning Buyouts to Boost Profit — Time Warner Inc. (TWX)'s Warner Bros. unit plans to offer buyouts to an unspecified number of workers as part of a drive to increase profit …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and @brianstelter

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC strike could disrupt Scottish independence referendum coverage — Management draws up contingency plans after unions vote for industrial action in protest at 400 jobs cut proposal — The BBC's coverage of the Scottish independence referendum could be disrupted after trade unions voted …

Discussion: Home on News

Lou Clancy / INMA:

Postmedia editors come together to develop one touch, one design, one newsroom — In the face of budget cuts, Postmedia's editors decided they were stronger together than apart. In response, they developed a cohesive strategy with leadership buy-in that strengthened all of the company's newsrooms.

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:

Government oversight board asked to investigate whether surveillance compromises newsgathering — The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 24 news organizations have asked the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) to investigate whether journalists' confidential sources …

Discussion: @ericnewton1 and @debgh

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Associated Content Founder Luke Beatty Is Now In Charge Of AOL's Tech Blogs (Including This One) — So I guess TechCrunch has a new boss. — As first reported by Re/code's Kara Swisher, and confirmed by AOL, Susan Lyne is stepping down from her role as CEO of AOL's brand group …

Discussion: @mjmanos