Mediagazer: Turkey's Arrest of German Journalists Highlights Deteriorating Press Freedoms (John Beck/VICE News)

11:35 PM ET, October 17, 2014

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Whisper's Neetzan Zimmerman says the Guardian's coverage deliberately misrepresents how the service works — Neetzan Zimmerman, who runs the editorial operation at Whisper, said in an interview that a series of stories by The Guardian that raised concerns about the anonymous app's privacy …

Discussion: Ars Technica, SocialTimes, @mathewi, @sdkstl, @ryanchittum, @runasand, @ryanchittum, @jayrosen_nyu and BBC

Guardian:

Guardian responds to Whisper's denials, stands by its claims, 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

John McDermott / Digiday:
BuzzFeed and Fusion cease partnership with Whisper in response to user privacy questions

Discussion: Guardian, @donohoe, VPN Creative, The Desk, Gigaom, Digital Marketing Blog, SocialTimes, Business Insider, New York Times and PandoDaily

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Lab:

BuzzFeed now has editorial and product people in place for its forthcoming news app — Shortly after being hired as head of product for BuzzFeed's new news app, Noah Chestnut started spending more time with his phone, downloading leading news apps, reading email newsletters, and generally checking out the competition.

Discussion: @felixsalmon, @niemanlab, @mccollumashley, @mikeisaac, @mccarthyryanj, @buzzfeedben and @tomgara

Nick Bilton / New York Times:

Silicon Valley Stirs Up Hollywood — Last week in San Francisco, Vanity Fair held its New Establishment Summit, where old-media titans like Bob Iger of Disney could schmooze with new techies like Evan Spiegel of Snapchat. — But not everyone was sure what they were doing there.

Discussion: @edmundlee, @cinnerj, @travisrundlet, @mathewi, @auerswald and @nickbilton

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: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, @orrandcompany and @msteib

Martin Peers / The Information:
HBO's standalone online streaming service won't be less than pay TV retail price of $15/month

Discussion: WebProNews and Business Insider

D.B. Hebbard / Talking New Media:

Washington Post to launch a 24-page national tabloid edition to be inserted into weekend papers — The Washington Post today said that it would premiere a new 24-page national edition to be inserted into The Dallas Morning News and other newspapers. The tabloid insert will feature local …

Discussion: @michaelroston

NetNewsCheck Latest:

NYT Launches Its International Weekly In U.S. — The New York Times today announced that it will begin offering its International Weekly supplement to U.S.-based publishers, starting with an agreement with The Dallas Morning News. The New York Times International Weekly is distributed …

Discussion: investors.nytco.com, Washington Post and Poynter

John Beck / VICE News:

Turkey's Arrest of German Journalists Highlights Deteriorating Press Freedoms — Turkey's woeful record on press freedom came to international attention again this week when three German photojournalists were arrested and detained on October 11 in south-eastern Diyarbakir, accused of being spies and provocateurs.

Discussion: Today's Zaman …

David Folkenflik / NPR:

In Forcing Out Senior Executive, New CEO Mohn Puts Stamp On NPR — The ouster earlier this month of NPR's chief content officer, Kinsey Wilson, did little to stir outcry or concern among public radio listeners. — Yet because of Wilson's prominent role in seeking innovative ways for the network …

Discussion: @digiphile, @dangillmor, @elisewho, @mxpf, @npraudie, @davidfolkenflik, @lexinyt and @el_skootro

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

You can now listen to a podcast in a tweet (and keep on scrolling) — You can add audio and video players inside your tweets, just as WNYC did for a Maya Angelou interview — Back in May, we told you about how WNYC was using a Twitter Player Card to embed audio into its tweets. It was pretty nifty!

Larry Ong / The Epoch Times:

Getty photographer Paula Bronstein detained while covering Hong Kong protests — Paula Bronstein Arrest: Getty Photojournalist Detained While Covering Hong Kong Occupy Central Protests (+Photo) — Hong Kong police have arrested photojournalist Paula Bronstein.

Discussion: @byalanwong, @hkfs1958 and @buzzfeednews

Elsa Keslassy / Variety:

Netflix Forces French Biz to Try to Modernize Digital Landscape — The launch of Netflix has prompted French industryites and lawmakers to think harder about solutions to modernize the country's digital landscape. So it's no coincidence that the annual Rencontres Cinematographiques de Dijon …

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

Playlists.net Acquired By Warner Music Group — In early July we reported exclusively that Spotify community and playlist sharing site Playlists.net was in acquisition talks, with one suitor — a prominent music industry company — in the lead. Well, today comes official confirmation …