Mediagazer: Columbia University's Tow Center gets $3M Knight grant to fund newsroom innovation research (Knight Foundation)

11:55 AM ET, January 13, 2015

Top News:

Despite free speech protests, French authorities investigating comedian Dieudonné for offensive remark — French comedian Dieudonné faces inquiry over ‘Charlie Coulibaly’ remark — Controversial comic who invented ‘quenelle’ gesture combined names of magazine and gunman on Facebook post

Discussion: @lex_looper, @epic_morphism and @ggreenwald

Austin Hunt / BuzzFeed:

Here's Who Is And Isn't Publishing The New Charlie Hebdo Cover Image — Libération, the newspaper where Charlie Hebdo staff have been working since the attack, unveiled the cover of the magazine's next edition on Monday. Some news outlets have been censoring themselves when it comes …

Discussion: Guardian, Poynter, Flatworld, Yahoo! News, Mashable, Talking Points Memo, BillMoyers.com, @mattwelch, Hit & Run, @tomgara, @passantino, @mlcalderone, @miriamelder and mUmBRELLA

Sophie Louet / Reuters:
First print run of this week's Charlie Hebdo will be 1M copies, compared to normal 60K; 2M more possible

Discussion: Agence France-Presse, @timobrien, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Wrap, Associated Press and Talking Points Memo

Henry Samuel / Telegraph:
Charlie Hebdo's Wednesday edition to include Prophet Mohammed cartoons

Discussion: New York Times, Adweek, USA Today, Latest News & Headlines, The Huffington Post, @ericuman, @szanajafi, @imbimallick, @raju, @mirandachale, Gawker, CNNMoney.com and Guardian

Knight Foundation:

Columbia University's Tow Center gets $3M Knight grant to fund newsroom innovation research — Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism to foster news innovation with $3 million in new support from Knight Foundation — Recruitment for new Knight News Innovation Fellows begins this month

Discussion: @rosental, @knightfdn, @emilybell and @towcenter

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

By refusing to compete with sites like Business Insider for ad dollars, Quartz hopes to build a profitable news business — Quartz's Digital Media Strategy Begins to Crystallize — When Atlantic Media introduced business-news publication Quartz in September 2012, it spent about $10 million on the launch …

Discussion: @raju, @miamabanta, @zseward and @marklittlenews

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Publisher Macmillan Signs On With E-Book Subscription Services Oyster And Scribd — Macmillan, one of the “Big Five” book publishers in the United States, is making its titles available on subscription e-book services Oyster and Scribd, starting today. — The news isn't exactly a surprise …

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, Gigaom, VentureBeat, Bookseller News, Mashable and Digital Book World

Mario Aguilar / Gizmodo:

Neil Young's PonoPlayer promises high-res audio, but with no discernible sound improvement and massive file sizes, it's not worth the $400 price tag — Don't Buy What Neil Young Is Selling — Neil Young's “high resolution” PonoPlayer goes on sale for $400 today. You shouldn't buy it.

Discussion: Business Insider, New York Post, @scottgum, @mathewi, @jyarow, @stevesilberman, @edbott and @splitsurround

Business Wire:

Adweek Integrates Mediabistro Editorial Properties to Form the Adweek Blog Network — With migration of nine popular industry blogs, Adweek bolsters its coverage of marketing, advertising, public relations and social media; Mediabistro to focus exclusively on professional development and recruitment services

Discussion: Adweek, Adweek, @sarahw, @laurahazardowen and @flobombin

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Most of The New York Times' most popular items last year weren't news stories — The New York Times — Last year's most popular item in The New York Times was this interactive, an image gallery of sorts that showed the photographic evolution of four sisters over 40 years.

Discussion: @raju, @benmullin, @cwarzel, The New York Times Company, @moorehn and @bydanielvictor

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BuzzFeed hires Heidi Blake to head UK investigative journalism team — Sunday Times assistant editor won awards for Qatar World Cup bid scoop and was also involved in Telegraph's Vince Cable 'I've declared war on Murdoch' sting — BuzzFeed has hired Heidi Blake, whose reporting credits include …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, @virginiahughes, @shani_o, @heidiblakest, @mattzeitlin, @richjamesuk, @ianjsilvera, @charliebeckett, @jane__bradley, @lukelewis and @tomchivers

Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:

Washington Post Folds Storyline into Wonkblog — A rare contraction in the ever-expanding Bezos era. — The Washington Post will combine Storyline, a data-driven storytelling site it launched last July, with Wonkblog. Both verticals cover public policy.

Discussion: @abeaujon, @washingtonian and @rachel_sadon

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Digital-Video Startup Whistle Sports Raises $28M from Emil Capital, Sky, Liberty Global, Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning — Whistle Sports Network, which distributes video content aimed at millennial sports fans across 225 YouTube channels and social networks, announced that it has raised $28 million in Series B financing.

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch and @waynekimmel

Los Angeles Times:

Home, office of controversial Hong Kong media mogul attacked — Unidentified attackers hurled Molotov cocktails at the home and office of a vocal anti-Communist media mogul early Monday, the latest in a string of attacks aimed at media figures in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.