Mediagazer: AOL considering changes to its brand, including a name change, to better reflect properties like Huffington Post, TechCrunch, ad platforms, CMO Allie Kline says (Jillian D'Onfro/Business Insider)

11:55 AM ET, January 18, 2016

Top News:

Iran frees Post reporter Jason Rezaian, 4 other Americans, officials say — VIENNA — Iran released Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and three other detained Iranian Americans on Saturday in exchange for the freedom of seven people imprisoned or charged in the United States …

Discussion: @brett_mcgurk, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Farsnews, @nakashimae, iMediaEthics, Al Jazeera English, CBS San FranciscoCBS …, @michaelcrowley, NBC News, @caphillstyle, The Huffington Post, @postbaron, @jeffbezos, @jeffbezos, Guardian, @mppregent, CBS New YorkCBS New York, @susanmodaress, @jeffbezos, @arezaian, The Daily Caller, @nycjim, The Week, TVNewser, USA Today, Guardian, @umarcheema1, @roxanasaberi, CNN, Business Insider, BBC, ThinkProgress, @parshalltalk, @cameliafard, Bloomberg Business, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, Re/code, The Huffington Post, Full Feed, Poynter, @washingtonpost, Vox, SPJ News, @daviduberti, @pkhakpour, Mediaite, Media Nation, Refinery29, Poynter, Forbes, New York Times, The Huffington Post, @samuelaadams, Agence France-Presse, The Independent, @davidclinchnews and CNNMoney

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Washington Post editors Martin Baron and Douglas Jehl traveled to Germany to meet freed reporter Jason Rezaian on his way home — Jason Rezaian is on his way home — Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian is free from Iranian custody and on the way to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Post, @brett_mcgurk, @brianstelter, @sarablask, @normanlinnell, @brianstelter, @postbaron, @jimsciutto, Mashable, NBC News and Mediaite

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Iran tried to stop Jason Rezaian's wife leaving the country with him, according to his brother — Jason Rezaian's brother: Iranians ‘continued to manipulate’ until very end — Jason Rezaian's departure from Iran, after 545 days behind bars, was delayed when Iranian officials tried to stop his wife …

Discussion: @brianstelter and @brianstelter

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

Here's Why We Held The Story On The U.S.-Iranian Prisoner Exchange — In early fall, HuffPost foreign affairs reporter Jessica Schulberg landed a hell of a scoop: a State Department official was willing to talk on the record about the most sensitive of diplomatic operations …

Discussion: Poynter, Columbia Journalism Review, @porter_anderson, @davewiner, Slate, Washington Post, bookforum.com, @dandrezner, Business Insider, Poynter, @dandrezner, @vivian, @katz, @mathewi, @jeremymbarr, The Daily Caller and Fusion

Washington Post:
Freeing a reporter: Secret diplomatic talks and private back channels

Discussion: New York Times, @billbindc, @lrozen, New York Times, @brianstelter, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Business Insider and @brianstelter

Michael O'Connell / Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos calls NBC's audience projections remarkably inaccurate and irrelevant because Netflix does not rely on advertisers — Netflix's Ted Sarandos Reacts to NBC Outing His Ratings: “Remarkably Inaccurate Data” — “I hope they didn't spend any money on it.”

Discussion: Multichannel News, The Wrap, New York Times, Vox, Business Insider, EW.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Tech Times, Wired, The Next Web, @bastardmachine, @mathewi, EW.com, @poniewozik, Business Insider, Variety and Talking Biz News

Karl Bode / Techdirt:
Netflix Pretends It Will Crackdown On VPNs Just Days After Admitting It's Futile To Do So

Discussion: Geek.com, Wired, @shanedingman, ReadWrite, @mmasnick, Computerworld News …, Thurrott.com and TorrentFreak

Wall Street Journal:
As Netflix expands globally, local and regional rivals discuss banding together to outbid it on content rights

Discussion: @whatthebit

Meredith Blake / Los Angeles Times:

Sean Penn says he's ‘sad about the state of journalism’ in ‘60 Minutes’ interview — Charlie Rose, left, with actor Sean Penn during an interview in Santa Monica about Penn's meeting with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The interview aired Sunday on “60 Minutes.”

Jillian D'Onfro / Business Insider:

AOL considering changes to its brand, including a name change, to better reflect properties like Huffington Post, TechCrunch, ad platforms, CMO Allie Kline says — AOL's identity crisis: The company may ditch the ‘AOL’ brand — Verizon-owned AOL has an image problem.

Discussion: Digiday, VatorNews, brandchannel, AdExchanger, @harrymccracken, @rafat, @alexia, @mathewi, The Next Web and Beyond Search

Chava Gourarie / Columbia Journalism Review:

How using models, simulations, and game-like features can help explanatory journalism — Could ‘explorable explanations’ help tell a new kind of story? — Newsrooms have become increasingly focused on interactive journalism and creative graphics as they look for new ways to progress storytelling in the digital age.

Discussion: @cjr

James Warren / Poynter:

Interview with Steve Brill, co-founder of Press Plus, the company that helped newspapers with paywalls and meters, on paying for journalism, new media, and more — Newspaper bosses ‘paralyzed’ by change, clueless about paid content, says Steve Brill — A stumbling newspaper industry …

Discussion: @edmundogs, @mccarthyryanj and @mathewi

Voice of America:

Airstrike in Yemen Kills Freelance Journalist Working for VOA — Freelance Yemeni journalist Almigdad Mojalli was killed Sunday morning in an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition on rebel-held Sana'a while on assignment for Voice of America. — Mojalli, a freelance journalist for VOA …

Discussion: @irinnews, New York Times, @irinnews, Voice of America, Al Bawaba, @yemen411 and Agence France-Presse

Kevin Tofel / ZDNet:

Alexa can now read Kindle books aloud from an Amazon Echo for free — You won't get the tone of a professional voice actor, but Alexa can read your Kindle books aloud: Best of all, there's no charge. — With so much recent focus on using an Amazon Echo to control smart home devices …

Discussion: Tech Times, SlashGear, @mgsiegler, Digital Trends, @ckindel, Mashable, The Verge, Android Central, Engadget and The Next Web

South China Morning Post:

Missing Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai appears on Chinese TV, says he turned himself in over 2003 crime for which he received suspended sentence — Missing Hong Kong bookseller appears on state television, claiming he turned himself in over 2003 drink-driving death