Mediagazer: Bill Simmons's Return Sets Intrigue in Motion at ESPN (New York Times)

12:25 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 — The chairman and CEO opens the entertainment conglomerate's investor day — Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeffrey Bewkes told an investor day Wednesday that the company is in “a new era” …

Discussion: Reuters, 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.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, Business Insider, PopWatch, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Awful Announcing, @jonathanmahler, @cianaf, @jayrosen_nyu, @michaeldavsmith, @a_s12, @mattyglesias, @craigcalcaterra, The Wrap and ParisLemon

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 …

Reuters:

China asks foreign media to report Hong Kong unrest “objectively” — A Chinese official told foreign media in Hong Kong on Wednesday that China has seen interference in the city's pro-democracy protests from outside forces and called on international journalists to report “objectively”.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

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

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, @jbenton, @davisshaver, New York Magazine, @tomgara, @dylanmatt, @jayrosen_nyu and The Daily Caller

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, The Wrap, CollegeBasketballTalk, MotorSportsTalk, HardballTalk, NBCSports.com and Awful Announcing

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: San Francisco Chronicle and Hit & Run

Joe Eskenazi / SFWeekly:
San Francisco Bay Guardian Closed by San Francisco Media Company

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

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 …

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.

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

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

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, @jayrosen_nyu, Engadget, @derekwillis, nytlabs, @mikeisaac, @harrisj and FishbowlNY

Alexandra Steigrad / WWD:

Bauer Media introduces flat $9.99/month fee for digital titles in Germany, UK, and US — Bauer Media Group Introducing Flat Fee for Digital — The Bauer Media Group is introducing a flat fee for its digital products. — The Hamburg, Germany-based media firm has partnered with rate provider Readly.

Discussion: MediaPost

Shan Li / Los Angeles Times:

Los Angeles Times sues O.C. Register alleging breach of contract — The Los Angeles Times filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Orange County Register, accusing the embattled newspaper of breach of contract and failure to pay more than $2 million in delivery fees.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, LA Observed, @ckrewson, ABC News and Orange County Register

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

BBC:

Former Sunday Mirror journalist Graham Johnson charged with hacking into mobile phone voicemail systems — Ex-Sunday Mirror journalist charged — Ex-Sunday Mirror journalist Graham Johnson charged with hacking mobile phone voicemail messages by UK prosecutors

Discussion: Guardian, ITV, Reuters and Telegraph

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Phone hacking: Rebekah Brookss husband loses £600,000 costs claim — Judge also refuses claim from ex-NoW managing editor, saying ‘the defendants’ conduct brought suspicion on themselves' — Rebekah Brooks's husband Charlie has lost his bid to recover the £600,000 in legal fees …