Mediagazer: AOL Adds More Video Help by Buying Content Syndicator Vidible for Around $50 Million (Peter Kafka/Re/code)

9:25 AM ET, December 2, 2014

Top News:

Kevin Roose / Fusion:

Documents from hack of Sony Pictures reveal salaries of over 6k employees, including top execs — Hacked documents reveal a Hollywood studio's stunning gender and race gap — Sony Pictures Entertainment, one of the largest film studios in Hollywood, appears to have been the subject of a massive, devastating computer hack.

Greg Gilman / The Wrap:
Sony Hack Attack: Studio Has Made Progress in Restoring Critical Business Systems, Insider Says

Discussion: Gawker and Variety

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

New York Times didn't publish police officer Darren Wilson's address; executive editor Dean Baquet outraged at targeting of two reporters — Should The Times Have ‘Left It Out’ — and What, Exactly, Was ‘It’? — When in doubt, leave it out. So goes the old expression about editing a news story.

Discussion: @amychozick, @chuckcjohnson, @davebaldwinjax, @chuckcjohnson, @timobrien, @gcraig1, @palafo, @wesleylowery, @bydanielvictor and @carrasquillo

David Weigel / Bloomberg Politics:
NYT reporters Julie Bosman and Campbell Robertson harassed by Darren Wilson supporters after publishing name of street where he owns home

Discussion: @wesleylowery, Western Journalism, St. Louis Public Radio, @wesleylowery, @wesleylowery, @daveweigel, @daveweigel and @daveweigel

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Lab:

Business reporters flock to Ello for a more intimate crowd, easy blogging, room for images — Finance media's hottest club is Ello — By now, you've probably heard of Ello, the anti-Facebook social networking site founded by a handful of graphic designers.

Discussion: @niemanlab, @meghanemorris, @perlberg, @mattzeitlin, @matt_parsons, @jyarow, @stevekovach and @niemanlab

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Serial's success lies in Koenig's narration style and likely won't translate to other mediums or help other podcasts grow despite the buzz — Why ‘Serial’ Won't Do Much for Podcasting or Hollywood — Given how much ink has been spilled about solving the whodunit featured in the new podcast …

Associated Press:
Murder case behind Serial podcast phenomenon heads to appeals court

Discussion: Junkee and Jezebel

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

To Gain the Upper Hand, Amazon Disrupts Itself — Sometime last summer, a quarter-billion dollars went missing at Amazon. — Analysts were expecting the usual gangbusters third quarter. But it was about $250 million short of forecasts. — Here is one way to look at the disappointing results …

Discussion: Talking Biz News and @jeffjohnroberts

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Times Newspapers posts £1.7m profit, first in 13 years — Times and Sunday Times report subscriber increases — Times Newspapers (TNL) has posted a £1.7m operating profit for the year ended 30 June 2014, its first profitable year since 2001. — It marks a considerable turn-around …

Discussion: London Evening Standard, TheMediaBriefing and @caitlinmoran

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

How Vox Media expects to turn a profit — and justify a $380 million valuation — $380 million: That's the value of digital media startup Vox Media following its latest big cash infusion. — It's a stunning number — stunning just like the August investment that valued BuzzFeed at $850 million.

Discussion: USA Today, LinkedIn Pulse and Re/code

Chris Sutcliffe / TheMediaBriefing:
Despite having similar reach, Vox is valued at less than half of BuzzFeed

Discussion: Gigaom, @rafat, FishbowlNY, FishbowlDC, Mashable, TechCrunch, New York Times and The Awl

John Bohannon / Science:

Nature, 48 other journals in group will use ReadCube software to let subscribers share screen-only versions of papers for free — Nature publisher hopes to end ‘dark sharing’ by making read-only papers free — The publisher of the prestigious Nature family of scientific journals today unveiled …

Discussion: Nature, Chronicle of Higher Education, Techworld.com, CNET, Vox, Good E-Reader, @digiphile, @rickypo, Scientific American …, @surt_lab, @thewinnower, @richvn, @joe_pickrell and @louwoodley

Jeremy Barr / Capital New York:

Vice Media and Knight Foundation create $500k training fund at CUNY's Tow-Knight Center — Vice, Knight Foundation create ‘innovators’ fund at CUNY — Vice Media, Knight Foundation and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism announced plans Monday evening for a $500,000 journalism innovation fund …

Discussion: Poynter

Bloomberg:

China's Wanda Group Holds Talks to Buy Lions Gate, MGM in Hollywood Push — Dalian Wanda Group Co., which controls the second-biggest U.S. cinema chain, is in talks to acquire a stake in film studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., billionaire chairman Wang Jianlin said.

Discussion: C21Media, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, The Wrap and Variety

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Penguin Hatches A Cloud Reader For Pelican Books — It likely hasn't passed you by that traditional book publishers aren't having the best of times these days. Indeed, when it comes to reading you could say it is the best of times and the worst of times. (TC's Jon Evans …

Discussion: Good E-Reader

Anjali Shastry / American Journalism Review:

Q&A with Emergent's Craig Silverman on accuracy in journalism and the spread of rumors on the web — Rumors, Lies and the Internet: 7 Questions for Craig Silverman — Craig Silverman, 37, is the founder of Emergent.info, a fact-checking website for consumers.

Discussion: Poynter