Mediagazer: One year after Tina Brown exit, Daily Beast traffic surges (Hadas Gold/Politico)

9:10 AM ET, October 2, 2014

Top News:

A mixed bag on apps: What The New York Times learned with NYT Opinion and NYT Now — The New York Times' announcement today that it was cutting 100 positions in its newsroom was coupled with changes to two of its most closely watched experiments, each just a few months old: NYT Now and NYT Opinion.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, USA Today, @raju, @jbenton, @nycjim and @osulop

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

New York Times to cut 100 jobs through buyouts and layoffs, NYT Opinion to be shuttered — New York Times Plans Cutbacks in Newsroom Staff — The New York Times plans to eliminate about 100 newsroom jobs, as well as a smaller number of positions from its editorial and business operations …

John Herrman / The Awl:
NYT Opinion was interesting software but op-ed franchise stopped accumulating fans decades ago

Discussion: @jfruh, @nbj914, @timfernholz and @mathewi

Reuters:

France's Orange to market Netflix in November - CEO — France's biggest telecom operator Orange has reached an agreement with Netflix to offer the video streaming service on its set-top boxes from November, its chief executive Stephane Richard told Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday.

Discussion: The Next Web and Bloomberg

Elsa Keslassy / Variety:
Report: Netflix Attracts Over 100,000 French Subscribers in Two Weeks

Discussion: Bloomberg, VentureBeat, TBI Vision, Rapid TV News, Broadband TV News and Home Media Magazine

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

£600k salary for outgoing Newsquest chief Paul Davidson as company makes £53m profit in 2013 — The UK's third largest newspaper group Newsquest made an operating profit last year of £52.8m on turnover of £289m. — Both profit and turnover were down from the 2012 totals …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Newsquest reports 11% fall in profits

Discussion: Press Gazette, Herald Scotland, allmediascotland and HoldTheFrontPage

Krishnadev Calamur / NPR:

One System, Two Media: How China, Hong Kong Are Covering The Protests — Hong Kong media are providing wall-to-wall coverage of the protests calling for the resignation of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, but in mainland China there has been little to no mention of the unrest.

Discussion: New Yorker and BBC

Agence France-Presse:
Hong Kong demos throw Beijing propaganda machine into overdrive

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Hollywood Reporter, Mashable, Associated Press and Wall Street Journal

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Egypt Seizes Newspapers to Censor an Article — CAIRO — The Egyptian authorities on Wednesday confiscated all the copies of one of the country's largest private newspapers in order to censor an article, just days after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed in an American television interview that there was …

Discussion: @rajivwashpost and Daily News Egypt

Emily Steel / New York Times:

With Four New Adam Sandler Films, Netflix Takes Aim at Theaters — Netflix plans to announce on Thursday that it has struck a deal with the comedian Adam Sandler to produce and star in four new feature films that will appear exclusively on the streaming service.

Discussion: Forbes, Variety, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, Engadget, UPROXX and Gigaom

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Google threatened with $100M lawsuit for failure to remove nude images of hacked celebrities — Celebrities Threaten “Despicable” Google for “Facilitating” Hacked Nude Photos — In a letter that rips Google for acting “like the NFL” and turning a blind eye, a lawyer representing celebrities warns of consequences

Discussion: Page Six, International Business Times, London Evening Standard, Daily Mail, Fashion Magazine, mirror, hngn.com and Business Insider

Andrew Chung / Reuters:

Sirius XM will appeal copyright ruling in $100 million lawsuit — Satellite radio provider Sirius XM Holdings Inc will appeal a California federal judge's decision finding it liable of copyright infringement for airing pre-1972 songs by the band, The Turtles, and failing to pay royalties.

Discussion: AllAccess.com, Radio Ink Magazine and Wall Street Journal

Press Association:

Music consumption helps drive UK technology sales by £11bn — Each 1% increase in demand for music translates to 1.4% boost in sales of smartphones and 2.2% for tablets, study finds — Music consumption in the UK has had the knock-on effect of driving technology sales to the tune …

Discussion: allmediascotland, Music-News.com, Music Ally and Herald Scotland

Hadas Gold / Politico:

One year after Tina Brown exit, Daily Beast traffic surges — It's been one year since Tina Brown left The Daily Beast, and the site seems to be doing better for it. — In a memo to staff on Wednesday, Editor-in-Chief John Avlon said internal numbers on all platforms showed 21.3 million unique visitors …

Discussion: @olivianuzzi

Edmund Lee / Re/code:

Financial Times Editor Lionel Barber: “Now Software's Driving the Journalism” (Q&A) — Lionel Barber, the 59-year-old, Oxford-educated editor of the Financial Times, comes across exactly the way you'd expect a 59-year-old, Oxford-educated editor of a significant newspaper to act: Gracious, opinionated, maybe a bit deliberative.

Discussion: @starexplorer, @niemanlab, @sub8u, @shannonpareil and Talking Biz News

Nic Christensen / mUmBRELLA:

BBC ramps up Australian online news operation — The BBC is following its British counterparts The Guardian and The Daily Mail in ramping up its Australian news operation, but will look to add a more international perspective to local news. — As part of the push the British public broadcaster …

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Publishers give the movie review a refresh — Digital technology has brought wholesale change to the way people watch TV and movies, from viewing on demand to skipping ads to on their own schedule, skip through ads and fast forward. Against that backdrop, publishers are modernizing the review.

Discussion: @efelsenthal

Lenny Bernstein / Washington Post:

Reporting on Ebola: First rule is you don't touch anyone — MONROVIA, Liberia — I was goofing around with a small group of young children outside their home on a muddy, cratered road in the New Kru Town slum here. I made a scary face and the kids skittered, giggling, behind a low wall at the front of their shanty.

Discussion: @jfdulac

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Authors Guild Met With DoJ to Seek Investigation Into Amazon's Practices — Guild Says Retailer Is Abusing Its Market Power in Hachette Dispute — Authors are looking to escalate their fight with Amazon.com Inc. by seeking a government investigation into what they say is the online retail giant's abuse of its market power.

Discussion: Bookseller news

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Ed Richards to step down as Ofcom chief executive — Executive who shaped the Communication Act that created the media and communications regulator to leave after 11 years — Ed Richards is to leave media regulator Ofcom after 11 years. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

Discussion: Telegraph, London Evening Standard, The Drum, broadcastnow.co.uk and Mobile Today

Mark Scott / New York Times:

Netflix's Chief Executive Pushes Net Neutrality in Europe — On Wednesday, Reed Hastings, the Netflix chief executive, took his net neutrality bandwagon to Europe. — Speaking at a conference in Brussels, Mr. Hastings — who has been a vocal critic of plans that would allow Internet service providers …

Discussion: Mediashift and Forbes

Denise Lavoie / Associated Press:

New York Post settles lawsuit over “bag men” cover — BOSTON (AP) — The New York Post has settled a defamation lawsuit over a cover three days after the Boston Marathon bombing that featured a photo of two Massachusetts residents with the headline “Bag Men.” — Neither side would disclose terms of the settlement.

Discussion: Mediaite