Mediagazer: CNN's Head of Digital Is Out Amid Widespread Cuts at Turner (Jason Abbruzzese/Mashable)

10:00 AM ET, October 17, 2014

Top News:

John McDermott / Digiday:

BuzzFeed and Fusion cease partnership with Whisper in response to user privacy questions — Whisper: The anonymous app that isn't so anonymous after all — Whisper's chummy relationship with the publishing world appears to be backfiring. The Guardian published a story Thursday revealing …

Discussion: Capital New York, New York Times, @jimwaterson and @ashk4n

Guardian:

Guardian responds to Whisper's denials, urges media and users to keep pressing Whisper — Whisper: the facts — Executives from the anonymous social media app have dismissed as a ‘pack of lies’ the Guardian's revelation that they track users. But the evidence is clear — Whisper app tracks ‘secret’ users

Discussion: VPN Creative, @youranonnews, @ashk4n and @bartongellman

Guardian:

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”

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @neetzan, @donohoe, @neetzan, @kevinroose, @jennydeluxe, @petersterne, PandoDaily, @digiphile, @matthewkeyslive, The Verge and @jayrosen_nyu

Donald R. Winslow / NPPA:

Syracuse disinvites WashPost Pulitzer photographer due to Ebola fears — UPDATED at 9:12 p.m. CST with response from Syracuse University — Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Michel du Cille of The Washington Post, who returned from covering the Ebola crisis in Liberia 21 days ago …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, @camerawrangler, @derekwillis, @jamesvgrimaldi, @acarvin, @itsjina, @nprmelissablock, @derekwillis, Mediaite and Inside Higher Ed

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

TV's Move to the Web Can Strengthen Its Cable Business — It's a pivotal time for TV: One by one, big networks are stepping out of the cable bundle and giving viewers a chance to watch their stuff on the Web. But those networks also assume they're going to make most of their money from the cable bundle, for many years to come.

Discussion: Gigaom

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

Discussion: @ceodonovan, The Atlantic Online, Forbes, Guardian, @theatlantic and Re/code

Gideon Spanier / London Evening Standard:

Vice to launch local editions in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico — Vice News to expand in London and overseas — Vice News, the hip online video-news organisation that has reported from global trouble spots such as Syria and Ukraine, today said it will launch …

Discussion: Guardian

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

IWantMedia site will go dark Monday — Fourteen-year-old IWantMedia.com will go dark on Monday. — Patrick Phillips, the founder of the IWantMedia site, who sold it to Guggenheim/Prometheus Partners for a mid-six-figure deal four years ago, is exiting after clashing with the current management team.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @joepompeo and MediaWire Daily

Claire Duffin / Telegraph:

Authors' concerns after court rules writer can't publish sex abuse memoir — Leading authors including Sir Tom Stoppard, William Boyd and John Carey have criticised court judgment as posing a ‘significant threat to freedom of expression’ — Leading authors have expressed their “grave concern” …

Discussion: Associated Press and @stephenfry

Justin Ellis / Nieman Lab:

Breaking up the pledge drive: Boston's WBUR wants to build a new model for public media funding — embership is having a moment in the world of media. Companies like The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times among others are attempting to develop new sources of revenue …

Discussion: @indira_l and @justinnxt

Hurriyet Daily News:

Turkish journalist briefly detained for tweets in first ‘reasonable doubt’ raid: Lawyer … A journalist was briefly detained in southern Turkey over his tweets criticizing the government, in the first police raid that a court has warranted using the controversial new “reasonable doubt” regulation, his lawyer claimed on Oct. 17.

Discussion: Today's Zaman …

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, Reuters, @jherskowitz, @soundcloudjobs, Music Week, WebProNews, The Verge, VentureBeat, @soundcloud, The Next Web, @yvg and hypebot

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: TVNewser and The Wrap, Thanks:@toddwasserman