Mediagazer: Robert Feder's media blog becomes part of Chicago Tribune's premium tier, with freemium model (Robert Feder)

5:45 PM 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, Columbia Journalism Review, Digiday, USA Today, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, Talking New Media, The New York Observer, @raju, @osulop, @jbenton, @nycjim and bookforum.com

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

Robert Feder:

Robert Feder's media blog becomes part of Chicago Tribune's premium tier, with freemium model — A personal note about my blog — I have some important news to share with you about my blog. But as long as I have your attention, let me first thank you for your loyalty and support.

Discussion: @martindave and AllAccess.com, Thanks:@martindave

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

How The Washington Post's Carol Leonnig Broke Open The Secret Service Scandal — NEW YORK — With the Secret Service under fire for a series of security lapses in presidential protection, there is one journalist who seems to have all the information. The White House, Congress and even Julia Pierson …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, The Daily Caller, InsideSources, Slate, @markmemmottnpr, @postroz, @cestlah, Gawker, US News, The New York Observer and Wall Street Journal

Daniel Miller / Los Angeles Times:

Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger gets two-year contract extension — Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Iger's contract has been extended two years through June 2018, the Burbank-based company said Thursday. — The executive, who has been CEO of the world's largest …

Discussion: New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and Variety

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: Netflix, Forbes, Variety, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, Gigaom, @andygreenwald, The Verge, @noahshachtman, @ditzkoff, UPROXX and Engadget

Sarah Mitroff / CNET:

Evernote adds Context feature, automatically showing news stories from media partners like WSJ, TechCrunch, Fast Company, and Inc. Magazine — Evernote brings chat and news stories to its note-taking app — At the company's developer conference, Evernote adds a few new features to its note-taking system …

Discussion: Dow Jones, The Next Web and The Verge

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter UK TV Ratings Go Live This Month, The First Of 6 New Markets With Kantar — Twitter is today putting in place the latest piece of its global “social TV” strategy, which involves measuring how its users share and discuss TV programs and related content on Twitter's network.

Discussion: Telecompaper, Broadband TV News and Rapid TV News

Rich McCormick / The Verge:

Intel responds to pressure from anti-feminist campaign #GamerGate, pulling ads from Gamasutra — Intel buckles to anti-feminist campaign by pulling ads from gaming site — #GamerGate supporters try to silence calls for video game equality — Intel has pulled an advertising campaign …

Discussion: @gamasutra, @mysterygrip, @gimpnelly, @jessethorn, @caseynewton, Re/code, @icculus, Ars Technica, Boing Boing and nichegamer.net

National Union of Journalists:

NUJ calls for urgent investigation of RIPA's use to spy on journalists — The NUJ has condemned a further case in which police have misused the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) in order to secretly access material from journalists and their sources.

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian and Gravesend Reporter

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Ready for a Vice Talk Show? Vice News to Develop Scheduled Live Shows With Skype — Weighing Two Talk Show Formats to Involve Its Audience — Vice News has gained attention with long live feeds from Ferguson, Mo., but is now moving to also schedule live programming online. — Hispanic Fact Pack 2014

Discussion: Media Week

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Scribd's unlimited ebook service gets 15K new titles from romance publisher Harlequin — The market for ebook services is starting to get more exciting as major book publishers start accepting the idea that consumers want a “Netflix for books” to satisfy their voracious reading habits.

Discussion: Canada NewsWire Group, PC World, Publishers Weekly and Good E-Reader

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Amazon's crowdsourced publishing platform will launch soon for mystery, romance and sci-fi authors — Amazon's crowdsourced publishing initiative is for romance, mystery/thriller and sci-fi/fantasy authors, and will open to the public in a couple of weeks. Separately, Amazon is launching a community called WriteOn.

Discussion: The Digital Reader and Publishers Weekly

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 Agence France-Presse

Yoree Koh / Wall Street Journal:

Twitter, MIT Create New Research Lab to Analyze Every Tweet — Twitter is giving every tweet ever made publicly to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the name of research. — With a $10 million investment from Twitter, data scientists at MIT's Media Lab are creating a new research group …

Discussion: newsoffice.mit.edu, Gigaom, Businessweek, bizjournals, International Business Times, Computerworld, Boing Boing, VentureBeat and The Next Web

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

The NFL's Flirtation With the Web Is Over (For Now) — One day, a tech giant like Google or Apple might stream pro football games to American homes. But not anytime soon: DirecTV has renewed its deal to carry the NFL's “Sunday Ticket” subscription package.

Discussion: @pkafka and Variety

Variety:

SoftBank Investing $250 Million in Legendary, Forms Joint Venture — Japanese banking and technology giant SoftBank Corp. has closed a deal to invest $250 million in Legendary Entertainment. As part of the pact, the companies will form a joint venture designed to promote and create business opportunities …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, Deadline, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Times, StreamDaily and Engadget

Corilyn Shropshire / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune Media's Gracenote buys Australian TV, movie data provider — Tribune Media Co.'s Gracenote said Thursday that it has acquired HWW, an Australian provider of television and movie data in a deal worth $19 million. — The deal is expected to broaden Gracenote's international reach …

Jim Milliot / Publishers Weekly:

HarperCollins increases royalty rate by 10% on direct sale print, digital, and audio — HC Offering Authors Direct Sales Option, Higher Royalty — HarperCollins is ramping up its direct sales efforts by giving its authors the chance to earn a higher royalty rate by selling their titles directly to consumers.

Discussion: Gigaom, Publishers Lunch, Digital Book World and @publisherswkly