Mediagazer: Dissolving titles that separate digital employees in media companies (Alvin Lim/INMA)

9:55 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: @neetzan, @digiphile, @jayrosen_nyu, @matthewkeyslive, @petersterne, PandoDaily, @jennydeluxe, @neetzan, @kevinroose, The Verge and Capital New York

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

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, @soundcloud, @jherskowitz, The Verge, The Next Web and hypebot

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

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: The Dish and @digiday

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: @ckrewson, Poynter, @ckrewson and @ckrewson

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, Gigaom, BuzzFeed, CNN, The Verge, Gawker, @garonsen, TIME, Design is Law, Forbes, Washington Post, @bimadew, @evawiseman, VICE, Raw Story, Mashable and The Awl

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, The Wrap, FierceCable and FishbowlNY, 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, Gigaom, Fast Company, The Verge, Business Insider, @twitpic, BetaNews, Engadget, @jngross and The Next Web

John Glenday / The Drum:

Google faces tax on links to Spanish papers, threatens to drop them from Google News — Google ordered to cough up for each link to Spanish newspapers — Search giant Google faces being hit by a substantial bill in Spain after authorities there ordered it to pay a fee every time it links …

Discussion: thetimes.co.uk

Alvin Lim / INMA:

Dissolving titles that separate digital employees in media companies — When new media isn't new anymore, perhaps it's time for media companies to rethink the way they assign titles working in the digital space. — Why is a journalist who works for a Web site is designated as an …

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Pageviews aren't perfect, but ad buyers see flaws in attention measures — Publishers are selling attention, but are advertisers buying? Turns out even those who support the use of attention minutes see limitations on its adoption. — It's a tempting idea.

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Publishers want out of Apple's Newsstand jail — Apple was supposed to save publishers, but these days, it seems like publishers need to be saved from Apple. — Three years ago, Apple introduced Newsstand, a feature that gave iOS users a dedicated home for their digital magazines and newspapers.

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.