Top News:
J.K. Trotter / Gawker:
NYPD increasing patrols near Gawker, BuzzFeed, Daily Beast offices after Charlie Hebdo attack — The NYPD Is Patrolling Gawker Because of the Charlie Hebdo Attack — The New York City Police Department has assigned police officers to guard the Manhattan offices of at least three media outlets …
Discussion:
JIMROMENESKO.COM, Capital New York, Politico, Mediaite, PandoDaily, @brianstelter, @mlcalderone and The Week
Economist Group:
Zanny Minton Beddoes appointed new editor of The Economist — The Economist Group announced today (January 22nd) that Zanny Minton Beddoes has been named as the 17th editor of The Economist. — She succeeds John Micklethwait, the editor for the past nine years, during which time the circulation grew from 1.1 million to 1.6 million.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, @maggiejordanacn, @bklynmiddleton, Politico and Guardian
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, @jasonkirksbn, UK Blog on The Huffington Post, @caseynewton, @urbanstrata, @verge, @jyarow, @adrjeffries, Forbes and FishbowlNY
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.
Linda Ge / The Wrap:
DreamWorks Animation to Cut 500 Jobs, Release Fewer Films — DreamWorks Animation will release two films per year, down from three, and cut approximately 500 jobs across the board in a restructuring of its core feature animation business, the company announced Thursday.
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
Michael Roston / Nieman Lab:
Don't try too hard to please Twitter — and other lessons from The New York Times' social media desk — The past year brought major changes to The New York Times. The social media desk's editors joined a new department, Audience Development. Our team gained new resources as we combined efforts …
Discussion:
@niemanlab
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
RELATED:
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:
Wall Street Journal, @johnbattelle, @jayrosen_nyu, Cult of Mac, Re/code, Ubergizmo, @twitterads, SocialTimes, The Wrap, TechCrunch, New York Times, App Advice, Mashable, GeekWire, VentureBeat, The Next Web, The Verge, MacStories, MacRumors, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, Engadget and iMore
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
The case for Marissa Mayer, as key metrics suggest the turnaround at Yahoo is on track — Marissa Mayer's Plan for Yahoo Takes Hold. The Question Now Is Time. — When Marissa Mayer was offered the chief executive job at Yahoo in the summer of 2012, she had a script for returning …
Discussion:
@pmarca, @_maggiehenry, @sicilydickenson, @ruikaneya, @wucker and @anildash
John Otis / Committee to Protect Journalists:
How Ecuador's plans to make communications a public service is threat to free press — Attempts to amend Ecuador's constitution to categorize communications as a “public service” has sparked a fierce debate, with one critic drawing comparisons to the way dictators such as Stalin and Hitler used …
Discussion:
@albertocairo
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:
Wired, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, SocialTimes, Mashable, The Next Web and Wall Street Journal
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Television Becomes a Force at Sundance Film Festival — PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Television Festival this is not. — That snarky, small-screen nickname is nonetheless being tossed around by some of the Hollywood attendees who are gathering here for the 31st Sundance Film Festival, which starts on Thursday.
Discussion:
@nytimes and The Corsair
Jaime Fuller / Washington Post:
Three YouTube stars interview US president and bring both serious and frank questions — This is what happens when the White House does a YouTube interview — President Obama met with three YouTube stars — each with millions of followers — to discuss his State of the Union address on Thursday.
Discussion:
Voice of America, TheBlaze.com, Mashable, Mashable and White House.gov Blog
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:
Music Business Worldwide, @jonrussell, Music Week, www.gizbot.com/, @mahesh10feb and RAIN News
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
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, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gigaom, GalleyCat and The Next Web
Marc Graser / Variety:
Annapurna Pictures Forms Virtual Reality Division — Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures has formed a virtual reality division as part of a joint venture with VRSE.farm, a partnership with artist Chris Milk. — New venture will give filmmakers the opportunity to develop virtual reality content and explore new ways of storytelling.
Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
New possible metrics for the value of news and ads: time spent, time well spent, time saved — Time spent or time well spent — how to think about Web traffic — The search for meaningful digital audience metrics took a turn for the better in 2014 when Chartbeat and others began touting …
Discussion:
@rickedmonds, @cfrech, @mbusse and @chartbeat
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
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, Globe and Mail, The Wrap, Forbes, Broadcasting & Cable, NetNewsCheck Latest, Multichannel News and Wall Street Journal
RELATED:
Tim Peterson / AdAge:
Facebook enabling advertisers to target people posting on Super Bowl topics in near real time
Facebook enabling advertisers to target people posting on Super Bowl topics in near real time
Discussion:
SocialTimes, Poynter, AgencySpy, TVSpy, LostRemote, Cult of Mac, Forbes, Marketing Pilgrim, AdExchanger, AdAge and Radio & Television …