Mediagazer: India orders ISPs to block Dailymotion, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and 30 other websites (Anupam Saxena/Times of India)

2:30 PM ET, December 31, 2014

Top News:

Jana Winter / The Intercept:

Sony Hackers Threaten U.S. News Media Organization — The cyberterrorists who hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer servers have threatened to attack an American news media organization, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by The Intercept. — The threat against the unnamed news organization …

Adam Clark Estes / Gizmodo:

FBI: The Sony Hackers Also Targeted CNN (Probably) — According to an official FBI bulletin obtained by The Intercept, the same hackers who broke into Sony Pictures and stole a devastating amount of data made threats against an American “news media organization” as well. (It's probably CNN.)

Discussion: TechCrunch and @samfbiddle

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

Skift travel site to launch print magazine Jan 13 that focuses on annual travel trend forecast — Travel industry site Skift tries print — Skift, the travel-industry site, is the latest digital media operation to launch a print magazine, which comes out Jan. 13.

Discussion: @rafat and @raju

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

After two months in Kindle Unlimited program, profits for one Amazon author dropped 75% — Amazon Offers All-You-Can-Eat Books. Authors Turn Up Noses. — Authors are upset with Amazon. Again. — For much of the last year, mainstream novelists were furious that Amazon was discouraging …

Discussion: Seattle Weekly, retailwire.com, copyfight.corante.com, GalleyCat, @robspillman, @dianegreco, @qsteele1, @qsteele1, @leahraeder, @jennibuchanan, @johntmarohn, @booklist_keir and @leahraeder

John Scalzi / Whatever: Finite revenue pool makes Kindle Unlimited a zero-sum game for writers and publishers

New York Times:

Sony Cyberattack, First a Nuisance, Swiftly Grew Into a Firestorm — LOS ANGELES — It was three days before Thanksgiving, the beginning of a quiet week for Sony Pictures. But Michael Lynton, the studio's chief executive, was nonetheless driving his Volkswagen GTI toward Sony's lot at 6 …

Discussion: Politico, Wall Street Journal, Gawker, Hit & Run, Mashable, Engadget, Digital Spy, The PJ Tatler, PandoDaily and NK News

Ben Quinn / Guardian:

Photojournalist arrested after filming with drone near Gatwick airport — Eddie Mitchell, with approval from the CAA to commercially operate small unmanned aircraft, held for hours by police — A freelance photojournalist who carries out aerial photography work using a flying drone …

Discussion: London Evening Standard, The Independent, ITV and Press Association

Kevin Draper / The Concourse:

46 Vox posts that misinformed readers, and the corrections that show magnitude of the mistakes — 46 Times Vox Totally F**ked Up A Story — If you work in the media, you're going to get things wrong. Accuracy and timeliness are in conflict, and when you're dealing with vast amounts of information, accuracy will sometimes suffer.

Discussion: PandoDaily, @alexrkonrad, @zanchema, @adamthierer, @ewerickson, @antderosa, @digidave, @nero, @walterolson, @tomgara, @kausmickey, @allisonkilkenny, @carmeldea, @ddbaxte, @mattdeluca, @joshuafoust, @mikeisaac, @chrisreed99, @owillis, @jbenton, @varadmehta, @ryanchittum and @sarahcnyt

Anupam Saxena / Times of India:

India orders ISPs to block Dailymotion, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and 30 other websites — Pastebin, Dailymotion, Github blocked after DoT order: Report — NEW DELHI: A number of Indian users are reporting they're not able to access websites such as Pastebin, DailyMotion and Github …

Discussion: Quartz, @buzzindelhi, @pranesh_prakash, @declanm, Quartz, The Economic Times, TechCrunch, PandoDaily, Digit, Tech in Asia, India - The Huffington Post, The Next Web, BuzzFeed, Business Insider, TechWorm, The Indian Express, Scroll.in and Techdirt

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

The New York Times' continued overuse of anonymous sources enabled US government's accusal of North Korea in Sony hack — AnonyWatch: Department of Ridiculous Reasons — For many months now, I've been keeping track of the overuse of anonymous sources in The Times as a way of discouraging a practice that readers rightly object to.

Discussion: @dangillmor, @ggreenwald, @bradmeacham, @mlcalderone and @dmcmonagle

Reporters Without Borders:

Independent Siberian news channel TV-2 ceased over-the-air broadcast at midnight local time, limited to cable transmission until early February — Russia - Independent Siberian TV station's forced closure imminent — One of western Siberia's few independent TV stations, Tomsk-based TV-2 …

Discussion: Guardian, The Media Freedom & Right …, RTTNews, presstv.ir, Digital Journal and Siberian Times

MENAFN:

Egypt- Al Jazeera journalists await Thursday appeal session, hopes are on ‘intervention’ — (MENAFN - Daily News Egypt) The three Al Jazeera English journalists imprisoned in Egypt await an appeal on Thursday, while their hopes largely rely on foreign pressure on the Egyptian authorities.

Discussion: CBS News, Iowa Public Radio, Guardian and Associated Press

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Disney enlists Maker Studios to create “Star Wars” short-form sponsored videos online ahead of next film release in December 2015 — Disney Enlists Maker to Create ‘Star Wars’ Series Online — Maker Studios, the Web video network owned by Walt Disney Co. (DIS) …

Discussion: @lucas_shaw and MakingStarWars.net, Thanks:@lucas_shaw

Michal Lev-Ram / Fortune:
How Disney CEO Bob Iger uses technology to keep every division of his company relevant

Discussion: @fortunemagazine, TUAW, @eileentso and adafruit industries blog

Guardian:

Newly released government files show British PM Thatcher considered forcing BBC to run ads — Margaret Thatcher considered forcing BBC to run advertising — Newly released government documents reveal Tory prime minister's concerns over the 'extravagance of some of the BBC's spending'