Mediagazer: Vox and BuzzFeed to interview Obama this week, leveraging Facebook to promote the conversations (Sydney Ember/New York Times)

12:05 PM ET, February 9, 2015

Top News:

Brian Williams didn't satisfy the public with his weak apology, but shouldn't be fired — Brian Williams and Memories Retread From a Perch Too Public — For some time now, there have been two versions of Brian Williams. One is an Emmy-winning, sober, talented anchor on the “NBC Nightly News” …

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Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

NBC's Brian Williams told varying versions of rocket fire in Israel-Hezbollah war — NBC News anchor Brian Williams certainly has placed himself in dangerous situations in covering wars and natural disasters over the years. But how much danger? With Williams, the answer varies.

Discussion: Page Six, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @peterfhart, @gopblackchick, The Huffington Post, CNN, @mlcalderone and New York Magazine

The Huffington Post:
Who Could Replace Brian Williams At ‘NBC Nightly News’?

Discussion: CNNMoney, Poynter, Hot Air, Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable

Brian Williams / Inside NBC News:
Brian Williams taking temporary leave from NBC Nightly News for next several days

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

Vox and BuzzFeed to interview Obama this week, leveraging Facebook to promote the conversations — Vox and BuzzFeed Obtain Interviews With Obama — A pair of fast-growing digital media companies, Vox and BuzzFeed, have landed their first interviews with President Obama.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Facebook, CNNMoney, US News, @timfernholz, @jayrosen_nyu, @citizencohn, @ezraklein, @ethanklapper, @briggles, @spetulla, @fieldproducer, @mattyglesias, @zseward, @dangillmor, @raju, @brianstelter and Talking Points Memo

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:
Obama: Vox ‘for the brainiac-nerd types’

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wrap, Fusion, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, @iowahawkblog, @intelwire, @rbpundit, Business Insider, @lachlan, @jyuter, @hboulware and CBS DC

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Sling TV opens the floodgates, accepts sign-ups without invites — Sling TV, the online TV streaming service from Dish Networks, is now available to everyone: The service ended its invitation-only soft launch late Sunday night and began to accept sign-ups from everyone on its website.

Discussion: USA Today, Forbes, SlashGear, Electronista and The Next Web

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Dish's Sling TV to Add AMC to $20 Monthly Internet Package, Launches Nationwide

Discussion: Deadline, FierceCable, Multichannel News, PC World, Bloomberg Business, Washington Post, Re/code, The Verge and The Next Web

Netflix:

Netflix starts offering service in Cuba for $7.99 a month — Netflix Is Available in Cuba — Cubans Will Gain Access to A Broad Range of Original Series, Movies, Documentaries, Stand-up Comedy Specials and TV Shows Starting At $7.99 — Los Gatos, California, February 9, 2015 …

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Hollywood Reporter, The Next Web and Mashable

New York Times:

Hopes dwindling of Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal being approved by Washington regulators — Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal Still Up in the Air a Year Later — Cable Giants Defend Comcast Deal Cable Giants Defend Comcast Deal — David Faber of CNBC questioned the chief executives …

Jeremy Kessel / The Twitter Blog:

Twitter transparency report: worldwide requests up 40% for government info, 84% for content removal — Three years of increased #transparency ... and counting — Since we launched our first transparency report back in 2012, many other companies have followed suit (more than 30, according to this recently published list by Access).

Discussion: VentureBeat, The Next Web, @smcs, @policy and Global Voices

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

KickassTorrents loses .so home to domain name seizure, reverts to .to domain — KickassTorrents Taken Down By Domain Name Seizure — With millions of unique visitors per day KickassTorrents (KAT) is one the most used torrent sites on the Internet. — The site's popularity …

Discussion: Wired.co.uk, BetaNews and iDigitalTimes.com

BBC:

Following murder of journalist Kenji Goto, Japanese government seizes passport of Syria-bound photographer — Japan seizes passport of Syria-bound journalist — Japan's authorities have seized the passport of a journalist planning to travel to Syria, local media say.

Discussion: The Newspaper Guild and Agence France-Presse

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

Will Vevo's 10bn monthly views finally attract a buyer? — Vevo featured prominently in the end-of-year analyses of what's popular on YouTube: it accounted for 43 of the top 250 channels in 2014, ahead of nearest rival Maker Studios' 29 entries in that chart.

Tony Biasotti / Columbia Journalism Review:

Philanthropist Malin Burnham explores whether a local nonprofit would buy U-T San Diego — Could U-T San Diego become the first ‘community-owned’ major metro paper? — Philanthropist Malin Burnham has a plan: Get a local nonprofit to buy the publication — It's a buyers' market for newspapers.

Discussion: @cjr, @pkruegernbcsd and @rungomez

Jacob Bernstein / New York Times:

Judith Regan re-enters the book business with her new imprint, Regan Arts, eight years after her exit from News Corporation — Judith Regan Is Back. Watch Out. — In Judith Regan's corner office on the eighth floor of an office building on Bleecker Street is a picture frame with a quote inside …