Top News:
Samuel Gibbs / Guardian:
BBC online services back up after widespread outages took its website and iPlayer offline for several hours — BBC suffers widespread outages taking website and iPlayer offline — UK public broadcaster apologises as its internet services are taken down by ‘technical issue’ affecting its website …
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BBC:
Sources: BBC websites hit by DDoS attack — ‘Technical issue’ hits BBC websites — “Technical issues” made the BBC's websites intermittently unavailable on Thursday morning. — The problems began about 0700 GMT and meant visitors to the site saw a message informing them about an “internal error”.
Discussion:
@bbcpress, Wired.co.uk, The Independent, Mashable, Deadline, @redhotsquirrel, The Independent, NDTV Gadgets360.com, International Business Times, Daily Mail, BBC, The Drum, mirror, UPI, Telegraph, Business Standard, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, The Independent, @joelmgunter, Newsweek, Independent.ie, CNNMoney, The Register, Mirror.co.uk, bit-tech.net, Business Insider Australia, walesonline, Hollywood Reporter, Telegraph, 9news.com.au, PC Magazine, Associated Press, Computerworld, Mirror.co.uk, New York Times, Variety and Daily Express
Rob Price / Business Insider:
Twitter is reversing its ban on political watchdog Politwoops — Four months after being banned by Twitter, Politwoops is coming back. — If you're not familiar with it, Politwoops is a kind of social media watchdog. It automatically monitors the Twitter feeds of politicians and highlights whenever they delete a tweet.
Discussion:
The Twitter Blog, Open State Foundation …, Sunlight Foundation Blog, The Huffington Post, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Politico, USA Today, New York Times, @politwoops, VentureBeat, Motherboard, @openstateeu, Fortune, @tapbot_paul, Gigaom, The Verge, Re/code, @amp6, The Daily Dot, @digiphile, Mediaite, Reuters, The Independent, hexanews.com, Sun-Times National, International Business Times, Tech Times, TechCrunch, @nacin, SiliconBeat, UPI, Engadget, CNN, The Week, Mashable, Newsmax, Raw Story, @legalnomads, Gizmodo, The Next Web and New York Magazine
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Crowdfunded ‘Star Trek’ Movie Draws Lawsuit from Paramount, CBS — ‘Axanar’ aims to be a professional-quality prequel and has raised more than $1 million. — For decades, Paramount and CBS have tolerated and even encouraged fans of the Star Trek franchise to use their imagination at will …
Discussion:
Variety, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, @burnettrm, The Wrap, Rolling Stone, Global News, Epicstream, EW.com, Vulture, CINEMABLEND, Mercury News, io9, SlashGear, Paste, TorrentFreak, Guardian, Courthouse News Service, Digital Trends, International Business Times, Engadget, The A.V. Club, Deadline, UNITED STATES DISTRICT …, Gizmodo Australia, /Film, New York Daily News, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Ars Technica, The Verge, UPROXX, @bsgmuseum, Forbes, Techdirt, @eriqgardner, @jenocidoll, @andykhouri, @wellesnetcom, IOL, The Independent, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, Comicbook.com, io9, Spinoff Online, Vine Report, Den of Geek, Polygon and Los Angeles Business …
Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Washington Post drops progressive columnist Harold Meyerson, claiming poor social media metrics and excessive discussion of two topics — Washington Post Claims It Dropped A Progressive Columnist Because Of Poor Readership. Readers Aren't Happy. — Bernie Sanders says the columnist's “insights will be sorely missed.”
Brian Rohan / Associated Press:
Egypt shuts down Facebook's Free Basics internet service on telco provider Etisalat, reasons unclear — Free Internet service for over 3 million Egyptians shut down — BEIRUT (AP) — Social media site Facebook says a program that had been giving free basic Internet services to over three million Egyptians has been shut down.
Discussion:
New York Times, Mashable, SlashGear, VentureBeat, International Business Times, TechCrunch, BBC, DW.COM, Quartz, The Register, Reuters, USA Today, The Verge, Fortune, Gigaom, Egyptian Streets, Ubergizmo, Tech Times, BuzzFeed, Gizmodo UK, Engadget, @brian_rohan and BuzzFeed
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New York Times:
Egyptian authorities shut down art gallery and raided an independent publishing house, raising concerns about continued free speech issues
Egyptian authorities shut down art gallery and raided an independent publishing house, raising concerns about continued free speech issues
Discussion:
South Carolina SC, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Nigeria, KTEP, Los Angeles Times, NPR, @kenroth, @lizsly, StepFeed, i24news, StepFeed, Egypt Independent, Egyptian Streets, artnet News and ARTnews
Alex Sherman / Bloomberg Business:
Sources: Nexstar to finalize new offer for Media General, at about $2.2B, or $17.50 per share, as soon as Thursday — Nexstar Said to Finalize Media General Proposal Soon as Thursday — Offer would trigger at least 4-day window for Meredith counter — Nexstar tapping three banks for $4.5 billion in debt financing
Discussion:
FishbowlNY, Folio and @sherman4949
Agence France-Presse:
Two Bangladeshi students sentenced to death over blogger murder — A Bangladesh court sentenced two students to death on Thursday for the 2013 murder of a secular blogger, delivering the first convictions over a series of brutal killings that have rocked the Muslim-majority nation.
Discussion:
BBC, euronews, Business Standard, The Daily Caller, Business Standard, Wall Street Journal, The Indian Express, BT.com, Agence France-Presse, Voice of America, presstv.ir, Reuters, Associated Press, International Business Times, NEWKERALA.COM for News …, CNN, International Business Times and DW.COM
Michael S. Rosenwald / Washington Post:
In the age of Amazon, used bookstores are making an unlikely comeback — Early next month, Pablo Sierra is opening a used bookstore in Northwest Washington — an unlikely bet in the digital age made even more inconceivable, given that his only experience with books is reading them.
Jeremy Barr / Ad Age:
Q&A with Huffington Post founding editor Roy Sekoff, whose last day is December 31, on experimentation and innovation, cultivating readers, and taking a break — Q&A: The Huffington Post's Founding Editor Gets Ready to Move On — Roy Sekoff Last's Day, After 11 Years, is Dec. 31
Discussion:
@jeremymbarr and @kzaleski
Agence France-Presse:
Charlie Hebdo to release million copies of special issue one year after attack — Satirical magazine to release double issue on 7 January to mark a year since 12 people were killed in jihadi killings on its Paris office — French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday …
Discussion:
Guardian, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, The Local, Times of India, The Times of Israel, India.Com, Politico, Arutz Sheva, DW.COM, Robot 6, Mirror.co.uk and Politico
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
Facebook tests multiple, topic-based feeds on its mobile app in place of one main News Feed, also tests wider rollout of Marketplace feature with its own tab — Facebook is testing multiple news feeds on mobile — Facebook is testing multiple, topic-based feeds on its mobile app in place of one main News Feed.
Discussion:
The Whip, TIME, Daily Mail, Mashable, Scroll.in, Digital Spy, Komando.com, The Independent, The Economic Times, bizjournals, all, SocialTimes, Ubergizmo, The Drum and Tech2