Mediagazer: New York Times Rolls Out Archive of Vintage Print Ads, Asks for Help ID-ing Them (Michael Sebastian/AdAge)

2:30 PM ET, October 15, 2014

Top News:

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

HBO will offer a stand-alone streaming service in 2015 — HBO Says It's Going to Start Selling on the Web Next Year — HBO says it's finally ready: Sometime in the next year the pay TV service will be selling a Web-only offering. — HBO CEO Richard Plepler, speaking …

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Time Warner Has “More Than Sufficient Scale,” Will Double Earnings, Jeff Bewkes Says

Discussion: Reuters, @benfritz, Variety and Capital New York

New York Times:

Bill Simmons's Return Sets Intrigue in Motion at ESPN — A decade ago, Howard Stern got tired of fighting with the Federal Communications Commission over its decency standards and quit Viacom for satellite radio. — More recently, Glenn Beck clashed with his bosses at Fox News and started his own Internet channel, Glenn Beck TV.

Alastair Reid / Journalism.co.uk:

Hong Kong outlet wins at World Digital Media Awards — Apple Daily wins award for best mobile service as Norway's VG picks up two awards, Dagbladet, Guardian and BBC also win — A Hong Kong news organisation was commended for its digital work at the inaugural World Digital Media Awards …

Agence France-Presse:
China blocks BBC website amid Hong Kong protests

Discussion: Poynter, BBC, Tech in Asia, International Business Times, VPN Creative, newsonnews.com, TheJournal.ie, Business Insider and RSS Breaking News

Reuters:
China asks foreign media to report Hong Kong unrest “objectively”

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Catalina Albeanu / Journalism.co.uk:

BuzzFeed to build ‘new formats’ team in the UK — The team will include developers, designers and writers who will look at new ways to present stories and experiment with games and new tools — BuzzFeed is setting up a new development team based in London to look at new ways of telling stories and engaging audiences.

Discussion: @lukelewis

Todd Spangler / Variety:

NBC Sports Digital Launches ‘SportsWorld,’ Its Version of ESPN's Grantland — NBC Sports Digital has launched SportsWorld, a microsite within NBCSports.com dedicated to long-form storytelling stocked with stories, essays, videos and documentary films — an attempt to engage sports fans beyond …

Discussion: Multichannel News, NBC SportsWorld, NBCSports.com, HardballTalk, CollegeBasketballTalk, MotorSportsTalk, Awful Announcing and The Wrap

Justin Ellis / Nieman Lab:

The new Vox daily email, explained — he old email newsletter continues its remarkable return to prominence. The latest move: Vox wants to make explaining the news a little more manageable by telling you everything you need to know in the comfort of your inbox.

Discussion: Fast Company, @samkirkla, New York Magazine, @jbenton, @davisshaver, @tomgara, @dylanmatt, @jayrosen_nyu and The Daily Caller

Will Oremus / Slate:

The Decline and Fall of the San Francisco Bay Guardian — Another alt-weekly is dead. But this one wasn't just another alt-weekly. It was the San Francisco Bay Guardian, one of the most venerable, staunchly independent, and defiantly weird of America's great alternative weekly newspapers.

Discussion: SFist, San Francisco Chronicle, PandoDaily, USA Today, Cision, @mattlynley, San Francisco Peninsula … and SFWeekly

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC playing catch-up with Vice News, says Newsbeat editor — Louisa Compton admits frustration at being ‘shackled’ by technology that can take up to five hours to upload a video — The editor of BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat has admitted the corporation is playing “catch-up” with Vice News and that she is …

Discussion: @lexinyt and @shanesmith30

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

White House pool reporters test own news distribution system — White House journalists are creating an alternative system for distributing their media “pool” reports in response to the Obama administration's involvement in approving and disapproving certain content in official reports.

Discussion: Mediaite

WBIR-TV:

Knoxville's Metro Pulse newspaper shutting down — (WBIR) Knoxville's Metro Pulse alternative weekly newspaper is ceasing operations as of Wednesday afternoon, staff members told 10News. — News of the closure quickly spread over social media as Metro Pulse tweeted at 1:17 p.m. Wednesday.

Discussion: @rockytopmba, @briancrice, @wigging and @jharrisonavl

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Judge Is Skeptical About Aereo's New Bid for Survival — The judge asks Aereo's lawyer, “How many bites at the apple does one get?” — On Wednesday, New York federal judge Alison Nathan considered a preliminary injunction against Aereo, the controversial tech service that upon launching …

Discussion: FierceCable

Knight Foundation:

18 news and information ideas receive Knight Prototype Fund support — Knight Prototype Fund winners met this summer to share ideas in Pittsburgh. Photo: Michael Bolden. — Eighteen projects will each receive $35,000 in funding and time to test their media and information ideas …

Discussion: Nieman Lab

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Fortune.com's traffic up 27.5 percent since launch — Fortune.com, which launched in June after nearly a decade of the business magazine placing its content on CNNMoney.com, has seen its traffic increase by more than 25 percent in its first four months online.

Discussion: @heather_muse

Rebecca Greenfield / Fast Company:

“Ebola Deeply,” Launching Today, Is The Only Place You Should Be Getting Ebola News — Lara Setrakian hopes her newest website, Ebola Deeply, shuts down in six months. While that might seem like a strange goal for any other new venture, it's pure optimism for Ebola Deeply …

Discussion: Gigaom

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Inside Gannett's editorial innovation lab — When Gannett Digital created an interactive feature for the Des Moines Register called Harvest of Change, it wasn't just notable because it incorporated cutting-edge technology, virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.

Colin Mann / Advanced Television:

Bloomberg launches Media Source content platform — Business information provider Bloomberg has launched Media Source, a new online platform designed to make it easier for broadcasters, publishers and other companies to access Bloomberg's media. Media Source showcases Bloomberg's full library of photos …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Bloomberg, Broadband TV News and IP&TV News

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

SoftBank Snaps Up Global Video Site DramaFever To Increase Its Entertainment Focus — Fresh from announcing a $250 million joint venture with media giant Legendary, SoftBank is increasing its focus on entertainment with an undisclosed deal to buy DramaFever, a five-year-old startup that streams global TV shows and movies online.

Discussion: Adweek, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, Financial Times, VentureBeat, Deadline, Multichannel News, Gigaom and Business Wire

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

New York Times Rolls Out Archive of Vintage Print Ads, Asks for Help ID-ing Them — ‘Madison’ Debuts With Ads From the 1960s — Vintage ads that appeared in The New York Times are getting their own digital archive that will live on the Times' website. Called Madison in reference to Madison Avenue …

Discussion: Gigaom, Engadget, @jayrosen_nyu, @derekwillis, nytlabs, @mikeisaac, FishbowlNY and @harrisj

Marc Graser / Variety:

Walmart Launches InstaWatch to Increase Digital Downloads from Discs — The addition of digital copies of movies with Blu-rays was meant to help make the physical discs more popular to consumers. Few shoppers are actually redeeming the codes, however, with some saying the process is too time consuming or just plain confusing.

Discussion: USA Today, Home Media Magazine, Hollywood Reporter and Reuters

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

Netflix movie push aims to freshen streaming content — (Reuters) - Netflix Inc is on a mission to start closing the yawning gap between the theatrical debut of movies and their availability for online streaming, forcing Hollywood to rethink where to release new films.