Mediagazer: Why White House used Medium for State of the Union: “We're trying to find audiences where they are” (Erik Wemple/Washington Post)

2:50 PM ET, January 22, 2015

Top News:

Why White House used Medium for State of the Union: “We're trying to find audiences where they are” — Medium editor on SOTU coup: ‘People are already here’ — Newish publishing platform Medium scored a coup yesterday evening when the White House published President Obama's prepared State …

Discussion: Gigaom, Poynter, @sulliview, @andybechtel, @jayrosen_nyu, @kreissdaniel, @anildash, @dangillmor, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, @lisenstromberg, @pfeiffer44, OnPolitics, @ryan, iMore, VatorNews, Guardian, CNN, ABC News and Latest News & Headlines

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
State of the Union Drew Lowest TV Audience in 15 Years

Discussion: CNNMoney.com, Nielsen, TVNewser, Politico and Broadcasting & Cable

Nathaniel Lubin / White House Blog:
State of the Union online: over 1.2M views of White House live stream, 400K views of transcript on Medium

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, White House.gov Blog, @whitehouse, Washington Post, @jtsthehill and CNNMoney.com

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Bill Gates is guest-editing The Verge in February — Technology will build a better, safer, healthier world by 2030 — I'm very excited to announce that Bill Gates will be The Verge's first ever guest editor in February. This is a new type of collaboration for us, but there's no one better …

Discussion: Poynter, Forbes, @urbanstrata, FishbowlNY, @verge, @jyarow, @jasonkirksbn, UK Blog on The Huffington Post, @caseynewton and @adrjeffries

Antoni Slodkowski / Reuters:

Japanese reporter's bid to save friend led to Islamic State abduction — (Reuters) - It is an unlikely friendship that ties the fates of war correspondent Kenji Goto and troubled loner Haruna Yukawa, the two Japanese hostages for which Islamic State militants demanded a $200 million ransom this week.

Discussion: The Independent and TIME

Martin Fackler / New York Times:
Japan Says Efforts to Contact Islamic State About Hostages Have Failed

Discussion: NBC News, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, NY Daily News, Telegraph, International Business Times, @nytimesworld, News24, @nytimes, New York Times and NBC News

Paul Rosania / The Twitter Blog:

Twitter rolls out “While you were away” feature to iOS users, coming soon to Android and web — While you were away... Today we're introducing something new to your home timeline: a recap of some of the top Tweets you might have missed from accounts you follow.

Discussion: The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, SocialTimes, TechCrunch, Re/code, @johnbattelle, Ubergizmo, @twitterads, @jayrosen_nyu, Cult of Mac, New York Times, App Advice, Mashable, GeekWire, VentureBeat, The Next Web, The Verge, MacStories, MacRumors, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, Engadget and iMore

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Garrett Graff named editor of Politico Mag — Garrett Graff, the former editor-in-chief of the Washingtonian, will be editor of Politico Magazine, Politico editor Susan Glasser announced in a staff memo Thursday. — Graff, who succeeded Glasser as acting editor when she became editor …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Capital New York

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Super Bowl Ads: NBC Turns to Tumblr to Post Spots After They Air on TV — NBC Sports has launched a new Super Bowl page on Yahoo's Tumblr that the programmer will use to feature Super Bowl XLIX's TV ads immediately after they air on NBC on Sunday, Feb. 1. — The new NBC Sports Tumblr page …

Discussion: AdAge, NetNewsCheck Latest, Multichannel News, Wall Street Journal, Broadcasting & Cable, Forbes and WWD

Tim Peterson / AdAge:
Facebook enabling advertisers to target people posting on Super Bowl topics in near real time

Discussion: Poynter, TVSpy, LostRemote, SocialTimes, Forbes, Cult of Mac, AdExchanger, AdAge and Radio & Television …

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Amazon launches Kindle Textbook Creator to help schools turn PDFs into digital books — Amazon has unveiled a new program designed to help educational establishments and authors produce ebooks for students. — With KDP EDU and the Kindle Textbook Creator, Amazon is expanding its Kindle Direct Publishing …

Discussion: Amazon.com, TechCrunch, GalleyCat, Engadget, Gigaom, GeekWire and The Next Web

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Saavn, 'India's Spotify', Reveals It Has 11M Monthly Users And Hires Ex-Google Exec — It's looking like 2015 will be a big year for India's music streaming space. A week after Rdio's arrival in the country, Saavn — a New York/India startup that was among the first to cater to India …

Discussion: RAIN News, Music Business Worldwide, @jonrussell, Music Week, www.gizbot.com/ and @mahesh10feb

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Tumblr's Creatrs Network connects Tumblr's top artists with brands to help make ads — Tumblr wants its best artists to create ads people actually like — Tumblr's beautiful, GIF-filled feed is what keeps bringing visitors back, and it wants to make sure the feed stays that way even as brands begin to fill it with ads.

Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, The Next Web and Mashable

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Four Sun journalists accused of making corrupt payments face retrial — Jury discharged after failing to reach verdict on charges against Chris Pharo, Ben O'Driscoll, Jamie Pyatt and Graham Dudman — Four Sun journalists accused of making corrupt payments to public officials face a retrial …

Discussion: BBC, ITV and @lisaocarroll

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Journalist and Anonymous advocate Barrett Brown sentenced to 63 months in prison on charges stemming from Stratfor hack — Barrett Brown has been sentenced to 63 months in prison — After years of legal battles, Barrett Brown's legal saga has finally come to a close.

Discussion: @danstuckey, @dellcam and The Daily Dot

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Rdio Teams Up With Caribbean Operator Digicel To Expand Into 24 New Countries — A week after entering India, Rdio has expanded into 24 additional markets in the Caribbean and Central America region to take its streaming service to 85 countries worldwide. None of the new countries have anything …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Gigaom, App Advice, The Next Web and hypebot

Joe Coscarelli / New York Times:

How Björk and Madonna acted quickly when digital thieves leaked album tracks — Björk and Madonna Deal With Leaks of Album Tracks — When nearly 30 new Madonna songs, many of them unfinished demos, surfaced online last month, the singer and her team reacted both emotionally …

Discussion: @kathryngoldman and @joecoscarelli

Bruce Weber / New York Times:

Tony Verna, Who Started Instant Replay and Remade Sports Television, Dies at 81 — The Army-Navy game of 1963 was an important one in that season's college football landscape. With a Heisman Trophy winner and future pro star at quarterback, Roger Staubach, Navy, the No. 2 team in the nation …

Discussion: @dleonhardt

Gregory Ferenstein / VentureBeat:

Netflix says piracy is still a major competitor, cites Popcorn Time's rise in the Netherlands — Netflix CEO shows why piracy is a major threat again (in 3 charts) — Netflix had thought it beat back the threat of piracy. Back in 2011, when it popularized movie streaming …

Discussion: @startupljackson, Cult of Mac, Businessweek, The Verge and TorrentFreak

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

Journalism site success means uniquely defining beats and a different mission than industry standard — A brief sketch of the “full stack” (intellectually speaking...) news and information company. — Meaning: it has its own way of doing things, its own ideas about what is worth doing, and it implements them from end to end.

Discussion: Andreessen Horowitz, @monkbent and @jayrosen_nyu

Benhuh / Medium:

Facebook Hoaxsters and Satirists, Bring Your A-Game to Cheezburger — In defense of having fun at the expense of the ignorant. — On the surface, Facebook's anti-hoax campaign seems like a good thing. I can't remember the number of times I facepalmed at watching genuine outrage …

Discussion: @somecody, @randfish, @benhuh and NPR