Top News:
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Sasha Frere-Jones to launch entertainment vertical at the LA Times — Sasha Frere-Jones, the former New Yorker music writer who left that magazine for the annotation startup Genius, will be a cultural critic at large for the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper announced Wednesday morning.
Discussion:
The New York Observer
Jefferson Graham / USA Today:
Marlene Sanders, the first woman to anchor a prime-time network newscast, dies at age 84 — Pioneering TV journalist Marlene Sanders dies — LOS ANGELES—Marlene Sanders, one of the first female broadcast TV journalists, died of cancer Tuesday at age 84.
Hollywood Reporter:
A look inside Jeff Bezos' Amazon Studios as it makes its push into original movies — Amazon's Hollywood Shopping Cart Secrets — “Can I show you my Pinterest board?” offers Roy Price, holding out his iPhone. “This is how we develop shows on Amazon.” — The head of Amazon Studios …
Discussion:
CNNMoney, Business Insider, @neilcybart, @janicebmin and @jyarow
Richard Horgan / FishbowlNY:
Bill Carter, Michael Wolff Join THR Contributing Editor Ranks — With Bill Carter, you get subject matter expertise like this: I interviewed David Letterman for the first time when I was reporting my book The Late Shift in 1993. He was then, and has remained, the most reliably great interview subject I can remember.
Discussion:
@thrmattbelloni and @janicebmin
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Judge Rejects New “Blurred Lines” Trial, Trims Damages to $5.3 Million — The judge has also ruled that Universal Music and T.I. should be held liable for copyright infringement. — The federal judge overseeing the high-profile lawsuit brought by the Marvin Gaye family against Robin Thicke …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Rolling Stone, Associated Press, The FADER, Variety and Pitchfork
Ken Doctor / Capital New York:
Skift nears profitability, is focusing on trends and the future of travel — What are they thinking? Rafat Ali's go long, go deep vertical strategy — There's bootstrap, and there's “bootstrap plus.” Bootstrap plus is what digital media entrepreneur Rafat Ali calls his Skift modus operandi.
Discussion:
@alacra1, @jayrosen_nyu and @raju
Sarah Lawson / Fast Company:
Water Deeply launches to focus on California's drought as a continuation of Lara Setrakian's pop-up news site model; Arctic Deeply to launch in October — News Site Water Deeply Will Tackle The California Drought Crisis — California's record-breaking drought crisis is now in its fourth year.
Discussion:
@waterdeeply, @kate_day and @lara
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
Browser policies, boost in Google search rankings, better analytics are slowly pushing news organizations to adopt HTTPS for secure, encrypted connections — S is for “secure”: Why news organizations are ditching (or should ditch) HTTP for HTTPS — Visit the Washington Post homepage …
Discussion:
@joebeone
Justin Lafferty / SocialTimes:
Facebook out-performs Google and YouTube with targeted ads despite plummeting reach — Adobe Q2 Report: Facebook Beats Google/YouTube at Getting You to Click on Ads — The great social video war is on, and Facebook is making up ground on Google with effective, targeted advertising.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Variety, AdExchanger, Re/code, Forbes, ZDNet and WWD
Steve Huffman / Reddit:
New Reddit CEO announces content policy update AMA on July 16, says some subreddits shouldn't exist and Reddit wasn't founded as “a bastion of free speech” — Content Policy update. AMA Thursday, July 16th, 1pm pst. — There has been a lot of discussion lately —on reddit …
Discussion:
New York Times, Re/code, Gawker, TIME, USA Today, Engadget, BuzzFeed, bizjournals, Los Angeles Times, @jamesrbuk, The Next Web, @pmarca, VatorNews, @digiphile, Washington Post, Guardian, Forbes, The Hill, @davechensky, The Drum, Business Insider, Gizmodo, The Verge and Re/code
Jasper Jackson / Guardian:
Ex-BBC director general Lord Birt says cuts to BBC budget five years ago led to reduction in original UK content, expects new cuts will lead to further decline — Ex-BBC director general accuses government of ‘raiding finances’ — Lord Birt defends corporation's ability to make programmes …
Steven Morris / Guardian:
Brighton council rapped for attempt to charge £200 recording fee for interview — Council took an uncharacteristically hardline approach when a journalist asked to record an interview with musician Martyn Ware on its beach — It was supposed to be a harmless interview with a pop star …
Discussion:
@al_therrien