Mediagazer: Wall Street Journal launches perks program for subscribers (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

8:27 PM ET, September 8, 2014

Top News:

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Slovakian Piano Media acquires Press+ and aims to take paid digital content global — Only close watchers of paid digital content (paywalls) will have heard of Piano Media, a little three-year old Eastern European start-up that has steadily been adding clients.

Discussion: Nieman Lab and Reuters

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Wall Street Journal launches perks program for subscribers — The Wall Street Journal is buttering up its paying customers with a complimentary membership program that tacks on special perks to their print and digital subscriptions. — Members of WSJ+, an opt-in program …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review

Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:
The Information announces two hires, including WSJ media reporter Martin Peers as columnist

Discussion: New York Times, The New York Observer, @mvpeers and Talking Biz News

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Nancy Pelosi urges FCC to reclassify broadband as a utility — A good number of politicians have recently made statements in favor of net neutrality, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is going further than most of them today and asking that the Federal Communications Commission reclassify broadband …

Discussion: Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Free Press Blog and The Hill

Brendan Sasso / National Journal:
Netflix to Join ‘Internet Slowdown’ Protest Over Net Neutrality

Discussion: motherboard.vice.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, Reuters and @nationaljournal

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Esquire uses interstitial ad with donate button on article to benefit James Foley scholarship, partnering with TinyPass and Atavist — Esquire Sets Up Paywall to Benefit James Foley Memorial Fund — Asks Readers to Pay $2.99 for Single Article — TV and Technology

Discussion: @nbj914 and @gmarkham

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

With a Big Push From Facebook, Facebook Video Is Booming. Heads Up, YouTube. — Do you like watching videos on Facebook? — You're not alone. And you're going to be seeing a lot more of them. — That's the word from Facebook, which is excited about the rapid uptake of its new …

Discussion: Facebook, Variety, @pkafka, @socialtechmo, @mccollumashley, @kevdonahue, @galenwnewton, @lapuravida and Digiday

Jason Deans / Guardian:

Victims of press intrusion brand new regulator Ipso a sham — Parents of Milly Dowler and Madeleine McCann among signatories of letter attacking publishers for rejecting Leveson — Madeleine McCann's parents Kate and Gerry were among 30 victims of press intrusion who signed the letter.

James Doleman / The Drum:
Questions remain over new press regulator IPSO as it launches

Discussion: Guardian, Harborough Mail, Border Telegraph, Herald Scotland, iMediaEthics, BBC, Press Association, HoldTheFrontPage and The Independent

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Bloomberg News Stands Out With Editorial Policy to Not Report on Itself — On the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, Michael R. Bloomberg appears at No. 15, with a net worth of $33.6 billion. But on his own company's ranking, the Bloomberg Billionaires index, he appears nowhere.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @hblodget, @markscott82, @pierrebri, Talking Biz News, @edmundlee and New York Magazine

Re/code:

Reddit raising over $50M for less than 10% of the company, at a valuation upwards of $500M — Reddit Raising a Big Round, and Some Y Combinator Players Are in the Mix — Reddit, the social news site with a big Web footprint, is raising a big funding round — with help from some of the people …

Discussion: The Awl, Gigaom, New York Times, The Verge, New York Magazine, CNET, Valleywag, Mashable, Forbes, @chrisyeh, PandoDaily, @danprimack, VentureBeat, Gawker, Silicon Republic, Business Insider, Guardian and TechCrunch

Catalina Albeanu / Journalism.co.uk:

Future offers free digital editions with print in September — Future makes use of its own in-house publishing software to offer free digital access to its print readers at no extra cost — Credit: C. Regina on Flickr. Some rights reserved. — Future plc announced a group-wide offer …

Jonathan Peters / Columbia Journalism Review:

Why California's smartphone ‘kill switch’ law should concern journalists — An antitheft measure creates the risk that the government could interfere with newsgathering — Imagine this. — You're a journalist covering a street protest, and the local police chief doesn't like the photos you're tweeting from your iPhone.

Discussion: @jonathanwpeters

Emily Steel / New York Times:

Nielsen Finds Older Adults Are Embracing Digital Video — Digital video may be most popular with children and young adults, but it increasingly is being embraced by viewers of an older set. — People 50 to 64 years old watched an average of 19 minutes a day of digital video during …

Discussion: MarketingVox News & Trends

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

American Reader to drop its web content and focus on print — One of the consequences of the print industry's downward slide over the past several years has been the trend of newspapers and magazines going “digital-only”—ditching costly paper products, with their diminished circulation …

Discussion: The New York Observer and American Press Institute

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Twitter Announces Its First Commerce Product — A “Buy” Button On Mobile — After months of reports and rumors, Twitter is announcing its first commerce product. — The company first signaled its interest in this area last year, when it hired former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard to lead its commerce team.