Mediagazer: Virginian-Pilot journalists: Corporate management pressure is stifling coverage (Corey Hutchins/Columbia Journalism Review)

2:56 AM ET, January 16, 2015

Top News:

Testimony from former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice sheds light on how US government pressures journalists to withhold security stories — Condoleezza Rice Testifies on Urging The Times to Not Run Article — WASHINGTON — White House officials favor two primary tactics …

Discussion: Politico, RT, @jasonleopold, @joshgerstein, @denniscearl, @jasonleopold, Courthouse News Service, @fmanjoo, @adamgoldmanwp and Associated Press

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:

Vox's one-week experiment updating articles older than two months brought in 500K new readers for 88 stories; “refreshes” will continue — Refreshing the evergreen — One of things we're exploring at Vox.com is how to make better use of all the reporting, writing, and coding we've done before today.

Discussion: @seanmcarroll, @channay and @cjr

Corey Hutchins / Columbia Journalism Review:

Virginian-Pilot journalists: Corporate management pressure is stifling coverage — In the wake of an investigation, “we're walking around with duct tape over our keyboards” — Things are not as they should be these days at The Virginian-Pilot, the largest newspaper in Virginia.

Discussion: @cjr and @cjkmedia

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

Dish agrees on terms to bring back Fox news, business channels — Dish Network Corp said the Fox News and Fox Business channels will return soon to the satellite TV provider's lineup after both sides agreed on Thursday to the major terms of a multi-year deal.

Discussion: Adweek, Gigaom, Deadline, @jonerlichman, International Business Times, Hollywood Reporter, Multichannel News and Variety

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

Source: FCC to vote Feb. 26 on petitions from two cities asking to preempt state laws that limit municipal Internet service — The FCC will vote next month on whether to help cities build their own Internet — Telecom regulators will vote on petitions in February from two cities …

Discussion: The Verge, The Hill, Multichannel News and Ars Technica

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Gawker Media merging Gizmodo and io9 teams into a tech super-hub — Gawker Media said Thursday it is combining its tech-focused blogs — Gizmodo, which tends to focus on hardware, and the more entertainment-oriented io9, as well as several smaller blogs like Paleofuture — into a single unit run by current io9 editor Annalee Newitz.

Discussion: Gawker Politburo, @mathewi, @nicknotned and @digiphile

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

Inside the NY Times' audience development strategy — It was the fall of 2014, and Alexandra MacCallum was filling out her new audience development staff as The New York Times' newly appointed assistant managing editor for outreach. The timing couldn't have been more awkward …

Discussion: Gigaom, @mathewi and @niemanlab

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:

Amazon executive hopes for era of peace with publishers — NEW YORK (AP) — The overseer of Amazon.com's Kindle e-book and publishing divisions is preaching peace. — With a monthslong standoff between Amazon and Hachette Book Group over e-book revenues settled and a multiyear agreement in place …

Discussion: Gigaom

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:
Apple: 1 million new iBooks customers each week since iOS 8 launch

Discussion: GeekWire, AppleInsider, Publishers Lunch, Business Insider, 9to5Mac and VentureBeat

David S. Bernstein / Boston Magazine:

In latest staff upheaval, Boston.com fires associate editor after satirical post about Boehner death threat — Boston.com Is Still a Mess — The dust has barely settled on the Sichuan Garden fiasco as the site finds itself apologizing to the Speaker of the House.

Discussion: Boston Herald, @vpaulalvarez, Associated Press, WGBH News and @dbernstein

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Timeline Launches News App To Give You The Context Behind The Day's Headlines — One big complaint about current news coverage is that there's not enough context — an article or TV report might tell you what happened today, but it gives you no understanding about the history that led up to today's news.

Discussion: @harrymccracken, @saharhghazi, @pierrebeugnot, @bhatnaturally, Fast Company, Business Insider and @ollywainwright

Adam Sherwin / The Independent:

BBC has ‘greater responsibility’ than other broadcasters to recruit women in news and current affairs, report says — Broadcasters must do more to recruit women in news and current affairs since current initiatives to do so are failing, a House of Lords report has found.

Discussion: Guardian, Telegraph, BBC and broadcastnow.co.uk

hklaw.com:

News Media Coalition Announces Partnership to Test Small News Drones at FAA Test Site — A coalition of 10 news media companies is pleased to announce that it has partnered with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) for the testing of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to gather news.

Discussion: New York Times, Poynter, ap.org, @mattwaite, Politico, Up North Live, USA Today, @farhip and Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

The New York Times is using its reader survey panel for journalism — For two decades, The New York Times has had a reader insight panel — a subset of its audience that it occasionally surveys to “better understand the reading habits, lifestyles and interests of Times readers.

Discussion: Washington Post, @ylichterman and @niemanlab

Capital New York:

Natasha Vargas-Cooper leaves The Intercept for Jezebel — Natasha Vargas-Cooper has resigned from The Intercept, Capital has learned. — Vargas-Cooper, a staff writer, clashed with the site's new editor in chief, Betsy Reed, especially over her interview with the lead prosecutor …

Discussion: @emmacargo, Natasha VC, Boing Boing, @paulcarr, @tchopstl, @tweetsintheme, @petersterne, @tmcgev, @r_bushey and The Intercept

Dylan Byers / Politico:

CNN's Christiane Amanpour questions Zucker over Charlie Hebdo decision — CNN's Christiane Amanpour questioned network president Jeff Zucker in front of CNN's global staff on Wednesday over his decision not to air images of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, sources at the network told POLITICO.

Discussion: Washington Post, @dylanbyers and New York Times

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Sorry, journos: Heavy use of social media is not stressful, study says — The Pew Research Center's latest internet study, out this morning, uses some intricate survey methodology to come to a straightforward finding: heavy users of social media, Facebook particularly, are not stressed by the experience.