Mediagazer: In the fight against clickbait, Chartbeat pursues attention metric (Andrew Nusca/Fortune)

6:15 PM ET, September 29, 2014

Top News:

Instagram, Chinese Media Restricted as Hong Kong Riots — Media in mainland China has limited its coverage of the severe social unrest taking place on the streets of Hong Kong. — In contrast, Hong Kong and international media have been carrying non-stop reports from the barricades …

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Reuters, Washington Post, Tech in Asia, Poynter, USA Today, BBC, PC World, BBC, BuzzFeed, Latest News & Headlines, New York Times, TheBlaze.com, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Verge and American Press Institute

Patrick Boehler / South China Morning Post:

Hongkongers flock to ‘off-grid’ chat app FireChat amid fears of internet shutdown — Main menu — You are here — A mobile messaging application enabling users to communicate without internet access has seen large numbers of new sign-ups from Hong Kong as pro-democracy demonstrators …

Discussion: the npr social media desk and The Independent

Patrick Boehler / South China Morning Post:
Record censorship of China's social media as references to Hong Kong protests blocked

Discussion: US News, Gizmodo, @laurencewsj, Quartz and SocialTimes

Jack Gillum / Associated Press:

Ferguson officials charge news outlets thousands of dollars to retrieve public records about Brown shooting — Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files — 2 photos — WASHINGTON (AP) — Bureaucrats in Ferguson, Missouri, responding to requests under the state's Sunshine Act …

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker, @bobreedbga, @propublica, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, @martyn_williams, @bomani_jones, @hal_duncan, @washingtoncog, @clarajeffery, @danielle_ivory, @sonofbaldwin, @nickriccardi, @pragobots, @markberman and The Newspaper Guild

Andrew Nusca / Fortune:

In the fight against clickbait, Chartbeat pursues attention metric — Chartbeat, a web analytics company that serves online publishers, believes it has a better way to measure readers' attention. There aren't many things that can capture a busy journalist's attention. A juicy scoop, for one.

Discussion: The Next Web, Chartbeat Blog, @macdiva, @mccarthyryanj, Gigaom, @megan and @mathewi

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Literary Lions Unite in Protest Over Amazon's E-Book Tactics — The authors are uniting. — Last spring, when Amazon began discouraging customers from buying books published by Hachette, the writers grumbled that they were pawns in the retailer's contract negotiations over e-book prices.

Discussion: Gawker, @dannysullivan, @electriclit, @hawthornebooks, @upstreamism, The Awl, @aburnspolitico, @siejames, Consumerist, @michaelpaulson, ThinkProgress and Engadget

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

Universal Music Group to introduce native in-video advertising in streaming music videos — Your Favorite Old And New Music Videos Are About To Get A Brand Makeover — Universal Music Group, the world's largest record label, advertising agency Havas, and ad tech company Mirriad have teamed …

Discussion: The Independent, MediaPost, MediaNama, Music Week, @rhodri, @peterlauria3 and @dochackenbush

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Newsweek places editor's note over Zakaria archives — This editor's note now sits on Newsweek's author page for Fareed Zakaria: … Zakaria's last story for Newsweek was published in September 2010, according to the archive. (The note is on that story, and others in the archive, as well.)

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, @blippoblappo and @blippoblappo

Wall Street Journal:

SoftBank, DreamWorks Animation Talks Cool — Two Sides Still Could Renew Talks or Agree on a Content Partnership — SoftBank Corp.'s discussions to acquire DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. have cooled, according to people familiar with the matter, less than two days after word first emerged of the talks.

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

With Perspective From Both Sides of His Desk, F.C.C. Chairman Ponders Net Neutrality — WASHINGTON — As a lobbyist for the cable and wireless industries, Tom Wheeler played a role in shaping almost every major telecommunications policy and innovation over the last three decades.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Thom Yorke Solo Album 'Tomorrow's Modern Boxes' Downloaded 400,000 Times Over Weekend via BitTorrent — Downloads of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's first solo album in eight years, “Tomorrow's Modern Boxes,” topped 400,000 in the first three days of he surprised fans with its release on the BitTorrent file-sharing network.

Discussion: USA Today and NME

Philip Blenkinsop / Reuters:

Belgacom strikes deal to offer Netflix in Belgium — (Reuters) - Belgian telecom operator Belgacom will begin distributing the content of Netflix this year after striking a deal with the U.S. video streaming service which launched in Belgium earlier this month.

Discussion: Variety and Multichannel News