Mediagazer: Steven Sotloff Was Sold To ISIS By ‘Moderate’ Rebels, Family Spokesman Tells CNN (Ed Mazza/The Huffington Post)

7:55 AM ET, September 9, 2014

Top News:

Jonathan Topaz / Politico:

Steven Sotloff spokesman blasts White House handling — A spokesman for Steven Sotloff's family contends the slain American journalist was sold to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant by Syrian rebels and says the Obama administration “could have done more” to save him.

Discussion: CNN, Reason, International Business Times, BREITBART.COM, International Business Times, Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Caller

Ed Mazza / The Huffington Post:

Steven Sotloff Was Sold To ISIS By ‘Moderate’ Rebels, Family Spokesman Tells CNN — Steven Sotloff, the American journalist murdered by Islamic State militants last week, was sold to the terrorist organization by supposedly moderate rebels in Syria, a family spokesman told CNN on Monday night.

Brendan Sasso / National Journal:

Netflix to Join ‘Internet Slowdown’ Protest Over Net Neutrality — Your videos won't load slower, but the protest could add more pressure on the FCC to enact tough rules. — If you see a spinning loading icon when you try to watch Netflix videos Wednesday, there isn't a problem with your Internet connection.

Discussion: @nationaljournal, motherboard.vice.com, Variety, Reuters, Silicon Republic and Multichannel News

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Nancy Pelosi urges FCC to reclassify broadband as a utility

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

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 — Ahead of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Esquire magazine is putting …

Discussion: @gmarkham and @nbj914

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

Ben Smith / Guardian:

BuzzFeed comes not to bury newspapers, but to improve on them — The ‘unbundling’ of news is good for readers and for print journalism too — At many newspapers, the most important half hour (if you're lucky) of the day is spent in a sober meeting, fighting over which stories will appear, and where, in the paper.

Discussion: @lexinyt and @johnmcquaid

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Letter to investor about $50M spent on BuzzFeed: Why contribute to “intellectual decrepitude”? — BuzzFeed: An Open Letter to Ben Horowitz — Ben Horowitz, the erudite cofounder of the Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) firm is a respected heavyweight in the Silicon Valley's venture capital milieu.

Discussion: @jonasnordling, @octal, @a_zeisler, @zoranbasich, @nbloom, @carlat, @johnv, @mkernohan, @eddlest, @thadmcilroy, @rorybrown, @dmkillgore, @sarahmarshall, @markfrankel and @bj_roche

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Politico Gearing Up For Europe Expansion — NEW YORK — Politico is planning to expand into Europe through the launch of a new organization based in Brussels, Belgium, the capital of the European Union. — On Monday morning, Politico CEO Jim VandeHei told senior editors that the company's plans …

Discussion: @mtblumencron, @albertozilio, @wblau, BuzzFeed and Talking Points Memo

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, New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, @ryanchittum, @stevekaplanpa and Reuters

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

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

The NFL Blows Away All Other TV Shows on Twitter — The National Football League rules TV. So it's not surprising that it rules social TV. In fact, when it comes to delivering a Twitter audience, the NFL beats the rest of the primetime schedule and it's pretty much a blowout.

Ezequiel Minaya / Wall Street Journal:

Venezuela's Press Crackdown Stokes Growth of Online Media — Digital Alternatives Expand as Newspapers and Broadcasters Struggle — CARACAS, Venezuela—Angel Alayon's Prodavinci.com blog, with its serious political analysis, drew a few dozen readers when he started five years ago.

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

SimpleReach offers to replace BuzzFeed's partner network — Even though BuzzFeed is shutting down its Partner Network that sends traffic to other websites, the publishers that belonged to it won't be left hanging. — On Monday, the viral publisher informed its erstwhile network members …

Discussion: @raju, @evanslaurab and @ben_kaplan