Mediagazer: Whisper monitors users working for media companies and is developing a version of its app to conform to Chinese censorship rules (Guardian)

7:10 PM ET, October 16, 2014

Top News:

Whisper monitors users working for media companies and is developing a version of its app to conform to Chinese censorship rules — Revealed: how Whisper app tracks anonymous users — Company shares some information with US Department of Defense — User data collated and indefinitely stored in searchable database

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Whisper's Neetzan Zimmerman responds to Guardian report: “We do not track or follow our users” — Whisper Just Wrote A 5-Page Response To A Scathing Security Report: ‘We Do Not Track Or Follow Our Users’ — Two reporters at The Guardian spent three days at Whisper's Santa Monica headquarters …

Discussion: Capital New York, @neetzan, @matthewkeyslive, @jayrosen_nyu, @petersterne, @jennydeluxe, @neetzan, @kevinroose and The Verge

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

CBS to offer standalone web subscription service CBS All Access at $5.99/month in 14 cities — CBS Launches Live and On-Demand Web Video Subscription Service — Yesterday, HBO announced plans to sell Web video subscriptions. Today, CBS. — CBS? — Yup, CBS: The broadcaster …

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:
The cable bundle has unraveled more in the last 24 hours than in the previous 24 months

Discussion: Forbes, The Atlantic Online, Guardian, @ceodonovan and Business Insider

Brian Fung / Washington Post:
HBO's taking on Netflix like never before. But now they'll share the same headaches, too.

Discussion: Variety, The Verge, @chashomans, @niteshm2 and Re/code

Alexis Giles / SoundCloud:

Twitter partners with Soundcloud to launch Audio Card, a new way to share audio in timeline — Introducing SoundCloud tracks in your Twitter timeline with audio cards — Get ready to play some fresh SoundCloud tracks in your Twitter timeline on your mobile.

Discussion: The Twitter Blog, VentureBeat, Reuters, @jherskowitz, The Next Web, The Verge, @soundcloud and hypebot

Brian Morrissey / Digiday:

Mail Online's edit staff moonlights as ad creators — For many publishers trying to jump on the native advertising gravy train, the biggest challenge is running sponsor content that's actually high quality. The irony of this is publishers have plenty of experts in creating compelling content with their journalists.

Discussion: @digiday

Kyle Wagner / Deadspin:

The Future Of The Culture Wars Is Here, And It's Gamergate — Over the weekend, a game developer in Boston named Brianna Wu fled her home after an online stalker vowed to rape and kill her. She isn't the first woman who's been forced into hiding by aggrieved video game fans associated with Gamergate …

Discussion: New York Times, New York Magazine, Guardian, BBC, Gawker, Gigaom, CNN, BuzzFeed, TIME, Design is Law, Forbes, The Verge, @garonsen, Washington Post, @bimadew, @evawiseman, VICE, Raw Story, Mashable and The Awl

Joel Mathis / Philadelphia Magazine:

Interstate General Media will fold Inquirer.com and PhillyDailyNews.com into Philly.com — Inky, Daily News Websites Shutting Down — The websites for the Inquirer and Daily News will shut down in December, leaving Philly.com as the sole website distributing the journalism of the two papers.

Discussion: Poynter, @ckrewson, @ckrewson and @ckrewson

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

BBC Uses WhatsApp For An Ebola Health Alert Service In West Africa — While Snapchat may reportedly be talking to a dozen news organisations for a “Snapchat Discovery” service, another big name in mobile messaging is also breaking new ground with big media.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, The New York Observer, BBC, Mediaite, Latest News & Headlines, @alexmaccallum, @ingridlunden, PandoDaily, @jonrussell and @dyerworld

The Center for Investigative Reporting:

WikiWash shines light on Wikipedia edits in meaningful way — Journalists and citizens now have a new tool to help them expose misinformation on Wikipedia. — WikiWash (Beta) is a prototype for a free public tool that helps uncover spin and bias on the popular Internet encyclopedia by tracking page edits.

Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:

CNN's Head of Digital Is Out Amid Widespread Cuts at Turner — KC Estenson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com, is being let go amid major cuts at the news outlet, according to a source at CNN. — Estenson, who has been with CNN since 2008, is among the most senior employees …

Discussion: The Wrap, Mediaite and FierceCable, Thanks:@toddwasserman

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Twitpic Couldn't Find An Acquirer, Will Shut Down After All On Oct 25th — The reports of Twitpic's survival were greatly exaggerated. Despite claiming it had found an acquirer to save it from death following a trademark complaint from Twitter, the photo sharing service today announced …

Discussion: Twitpic Blog, Fast Company, BetaNews, Engadget, @jngross, @twitpic and The Next Web

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

AT&T/DirecTV to FCC: Critics Are Off Base; OK Deal ‘Swiftly’ — In joint comments at the FCC, AT&T and DirecTV have asked the FCC to reject petitions to deny their proposed deal and approve the merger ASAP. — As with Comcast's reply to its Time Warner Cable deal critics …

Discussion: The Hill

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

How the American Society of News Editors retooled to focus more on digital tools and editors — How ASNE has become similar to ONA (and vice-versa) — A quick scan of the program from September's American Society of News Editors convention might lead you to believe you'd stumbled into the wrong Chicago hotel.

Discussion: The New York Observer