Mediagazer: Will Vevo's 10bn monthly views finally attract a buyer? (Stuart Dredge/Music Ally)

4:30 AM ET, February 9, 2015

Top News:

Brian Williams / Inside NBC News:

Brian Williams taking temporary leave from NBC Nightly News for next several days — A Personal Note from Brian Williams — In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions.

David Carr / New York Times:

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” …

Discussion: Page Six, Washington Post, Pressthink, @jayrosen_nyu, @sippey, @kimseverson, The Huffington Post, CNN and The Week

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

Discussion: Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable and The Hill

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, CNNMoney, Facebook, @jayrosen_nyu, @ezraklein, @ethanklapper, @briggles, @spetulla, @fieldproducer, Talking Points Memo, @mattyglesias, @zseward, @dangillmor, @raju and @brianstelter

Andy Carvin / Medium:

Graphic footage: fanning the flames or bearing witness? — Reported.ly editor-in-chief Andy Carvin challenges his own assumptions of when it's ethical to publish graphic footage and when it isn't. — Contains graphic images. — THE SLIDESHOW BEGINS with a photo of a trail …

Discussion: Gigaom

Agence France-Presse:

Ukraine arrests TV journalist on treason charges after he denounces draft in YouTube video — Ukraine Arrests Journalist After Call to Dodge Draft — KIEV: — Ukraine's security service arrested a journalist on treason charges on Sunday after he posted a video online urging people …

Discussion: @homo_viator and @markamesexiled

Lydia Tomkiw / Nieman Lab:

With aggregation and translation, Russia's free-press-in-exile site Meduza is reaching English readers — At a moment when the world's attention has again turned towards Eastern Europe, a new media outlet is using a mixture of translation and aggregation to bring news from Russia to an English-speaking audience.

Al Jazeera English:

Egypt sets Feb. 12 retrial date for Al Jazeera journalists Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy — Egypt sets retrial date for jailed Al Jazeera staff — Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy to appear in court on February 12. — Egyptian authorities have set a date for the retrial …

Discussion: Reuters, CNN, Guardian, CTVNews, Associated Press, BBC, Sky News and Mashable

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: San Diego Reader

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.

Will Oremus / Slate:

Why do writers inaccurately call the software that writes AP news stories “robots”? — Automated Insights' AP earnings reports: “Robot journalists” a misnomer? — Automated journalism is no longer science fiction. It's time to change what we call it.

Diana Marszalek / NetNewsCheck:

New Orleans' The Lens facing a crucial year after string of funding setbacks, unexpected move — Can N.O. Lens' Critical Reporting Sustain? — New Orleans nonprofit investigative site The Lens is facing a crucible year after a string of funding setbacks that may be directly tied to some of its hard-hitting reporting.

Discussion: @evandmac, @emilybell and @myersnews

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Newsweek held story about CIA/Mossad role in assassination of top Hezbollah operative for a year, at the CIA's request, then got scooped by the Washington Post — What the CIA didn't want Americans to know — Agency brass tried to spike a story implicating the CIA in the killing of a top Hezbollah terrorist.