Mediagazer: Crowdsourcing during a crisis has its drawbacks (Joanna Plucinska/Poynter)

6:55 PM ET, September 12, 2014

Top News:

Digital First Media to consider sale of some or all of its newspapers — By Digital First Media — NEW YORK — Digital First Media, the operator of The Denver Post, announced Friday that it will “evaluate and consider strategic alternatives” that could lead to the sale of some or all of the company.

Jim Romenesko:

Digital First Media's York Daily Record shuts off power mid-afternoon to save money — Digital First Media CEO John Paton told his employees this morning that “after a rocky five years, the newspaper industry is firmly back on its feet again.” — It is? Then why did Paton's York (PA) …

Discussion: @jbenton, @dancow, @coreypein, @amuhs, @chrismegerian, @tjholmes_rs and @ajfriedenberger

John Reynolds / Guardian:

Huffington Post banned from posting on Reddit section in attribution row — Social media site accuses some HuffPo Good News editors of ‘parasitic business model’ and sourcing content without credits — The Huffington Post's Good News section has been accused of lifting content from Reddit without crediting the source.

Discussion: International Business Times, Newsweek, Press Association and The Daily Caller

Erik Wemple / Washington Post: Huffington Post disputes Reddit ban

Tanya Dua / Digiday:

The YouTube-ification of Vimeo: Now with more baby videos — If you've hopped on to the New York City L train recently, chances are that you've come across a sea of blue: shrink-wrapped subway cars, plastered with Vimeo messaging. “If other video sites are the BQE, Vimeo is the High Line.”

Wall Street Journal:
Facebook is trying to lure YouTube's biggest content creators, discussing advertising

Discussion: Forbes, Marketing Pilgrim, Fast Company, Times of India, Reuters, Tubefilter, Wall Street Journal, ValueWalk and Reuters

ABC News:

‘So Little Compassion’: Foley Parents on Gov't ‘Threats’ … The mother of slain American journalist James Foley said she wasn't necessarily surprised that the U.S. government threatened her family with prosecution should they raise money to pay her son's ransom, but she was astounded by how such a devastating message was delivered.

Discussion: CNN, Gawker, USA Today, Boing Boing, Talking Points Memo, ABC News, 7online.com, @bro_pair, @wntonight, @wikileaks, @meekwire, @shannonbream, @trdeghett, Poynter, The Week and Reason

Bloomberg:

Weather Channel Talks to Banks on Options Including Sale — The buyout firms that own Weather Channel Cos. have spoken to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. about strategic options including a possible sale, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Multichannel News and Gawker

Guardian:

Guardian newspaper to showcase new look and brand new ‘Journal’ section — The Guardian newspaper will be showcasing a new look from Saturday 13 September, with a completely redesigned Weekend magazine, a brand new ‘Journal’ section featuring long reads, and a generally refreshed look and feel.

Discussion: Guardian, @rosegeorge3, @sarahoconnor_ and Poynter

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Apple Users Download Free U2 Album Two Million Times — Some of you do not want the U2 album Apple is giving away. But lots of you were willing to download it. Or, at a minimum, your iPhones and MacBooks did. — iTunes users have downloaded more than 2 million copies of “Songs of Innocence” …

Discussion: Billboard, Business Insider, AppleInsider, Digiday, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac and MacRumors

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

BBC denies plan in place to double licence fee for independent Scots — The BBC has stood by its position of not reporting the impact that Scottish independence would have on its services. — It comes after The Guardian today reported that the corporation had kept secret an internal study revealing …

Discussion: Forbes

Tara Conlan / Guardian:
Independent Scotland ‘faces doubling of BBC licence fee’

Discussion: Daily Mail

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Financial Times to debut big redesign Monday — The Financial Times will hit newsstands Monday with its first major redesign in seven years. And between the lines (set in a new typeface, called Financier, developed by rockstar New Zealand type designer Kris Sowersby) it's possible to read …

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

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Bloomberg Current, social media experiment, is ending — Bloomberg Current, a social discussion platform for business, curated and managed by its users that has been a Bloomberg News beta test, is ending at the end of the month. — Bloomberg Current has allowed members to post, discuss and share content.

Discussion: @ranjanxroy

Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:

Foreign Journalists in China See Decline in Reporting Conditions — Conditions for foreign journalists working in China have gone from bad to worse over the past year, with the Chinese authorities increasingly seeking to influence coverage by intimidating reporters and their interview subjects …

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, @jayrosen_nyu, @herbertnyt and @comradewong

Kevin Gallagher / Freedom of the Press Foundation:

Fifteen Months After the NSA Revelations, Why Aren't More News Organizations Using HTTPS? — More than fifteen months after the NSA revelations laid bare the overwhelming scope of online surveillance and fueled the demand for privacy, virtually none of the top news websites …

Discussion: @csoghoian and @headhntr

Capital New York:

The 60-second interview: Felix Salmon, senior editor, Fusion — CAPITAL: Fusion has done a great job at recruiting notable names, especially in the digital media realm. Tim Pool, you joined from Reuters... SALMON: I was just talking to someone, who is also on the shopping list, as it were.

Jonathan Marino / TheStreet.com:

Parade Magazine Goes up for Sale — NEW YORK ( The Deal) — Advance Publications' M&A march continues with its auction of Parade Publications, whose Sunday news magazine has been a staple in papers around the country since 1941. — The auction, which was first reported by the New York Post …

Joanna Plucinska / Poynter:

Crowdsourcing during a crisis has its drawbacks — With all the talk of database journalism and mapping data, one would think crowdmapping would be taking off. But, it's unclear how useful the practice is for journalists, especially with data collected in dangerous humanitarian crises, like the one in Syria.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Google forced by European law to remove positive article — Google has been forced by Europe's “Right to Be Forgotten” law to remove an article about an artist named Dan Roach from its search results. The article ran in the U.K.'s Worcester News in 2009, and unlike many of the articles memory-holed by the law, was positive.

Discussion: Press Gazette, Guardian and HoldTheFrontPage

Michael Wolff / Hollywood Reporter:

Vice lured backers from A&E to Fox for a $2.5B valuation through CEO Shane Smith's showmanship — Michael Wolff on Vice Media: Why Hollywood Is Drinking the Kool-Aid — The Brooklyn digital property's CEO, Shane Smith, touts a $2.5B valuation and has lured backers from A&E to Fox by claiming magical access to young men.

Discussion: clickhole.com