Mediagazer: A Look at NatGeo's Multiyear Deep-Dive Into Food (Michael Rondon/Folio)

8:20 AM ET, October 17, 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

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: VPN Creative, Gigaom and Digital Marketing Blog

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

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.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
CBS to offer standalone web subscription service CBS All Access at $5.99/month in 14 cities

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, @ceodonovan, Forbes, Guardian and @theatlantic

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, @camerawrangler, @derekwillis, @jamesvgrimaldi, @acarvin, @itsjina, @nprmelissablock, @derekwillis, Mediaite and Inside Higher Ed

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

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: @joepompeo and MediaWire Daily

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 …

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Telegraph's Jason Seiken takes a non-editorial business role — The Telegraph Media Group (TMG) issued a bland press release today announcing “key new promotions... as part of its accelerated transformation plan.” — But it was easy to read between the lines of the corporate document.

Discussion: Press Gazette, @pickardje and @jonathanhaynes

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

Michael Rondon / Folio:

A Look at NatGeo's Multiyear Deep-Dive Into Food — Building a product line around world food consumption. — Theme issues aren't anything new for publishers, but National Geographic is building out an entire product line and set of partnerships off of a magazine series on the future of food.

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 …

Discussion: @dkiesow