Mediagazer: MIT Moves to Intervene in Release of Aaron Swartz's Secret Service File (Kevin Poulsen/Wired)

8:05 PM ET, July 18, 2013

Top News:

Let Tech Blogs Celebrate Start-Ups — Sarah Lacy, in her TechCrunch days, interviewing Keith Rabois, formerly of Square. — Sarah Lacy is having a rough month. The founder of tech blog PandoDaily and perennial Valleywag target first ignited criticism with inflammatory comments …

Sandra Laville / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch admits error in criticism of police investigations — Media mogul writes to MP Keith Vaz to retract ‘incompetence’ remark but says inquiries have taken too long — Read the full text of Murdoch's letter to Vaz — Rupert Murdoch has admitted he was wrong to describe phone-hacking …

Discussion: Crikey, Hollywood Reporter, @chucktodd and Variety

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘New York Post’ gears up for early August web relaunch — Late last month, Robert Thomson, C.E.O. of the new publishing-focused iteration of News Corp., told The Financial Times that the New York Post was working on a plan to compete nationally with large, well-financed digital media brands like Buzzfeed.

Discussion: bizjournals

David Freedlander / The Daily Beast:

New York Post Looks Thinner After News Corporation Split — It's been a while since Rupert Murdoch's New York tabloid has had a jaw-dropping scoop—or a front page that went viral. And some laid-off staffers aren't being replaced. David Freedlander on why staffers are worried.

Erin Banco / New York Times:

Judge in Manning Case Allows Charge of Aiding the Enemy — The military judge in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning decided on Thursday not to drop a charge accusing Private Manning of “aiding the enemy.” If he is found guilty of the charge, he faces a life sentence in military custody with no chance of parole.

Discussion: Guardian, Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, Amnesty International, NPR and New York Magazine

Ben Wizner / Freedom of the Press Foundation:
How Today's Ruling in the Bradley Manning Case Could Adversely Affect Journalists and Whistleblowers

Discussion: Techdirt and The Huffington Post

Emily Bazelon / Slate: Bradley Manning trial and WikiLeaks: The government's charge that he aided the enemy is wrong and dangerous.

Dorothy Pomerantz / Forbes:

Don't Get Too Excited About Those Netflix Emmy Nominations — The fact that Netflix scored 14 nods at this morning's Emmy Awards nominations is the story of the day. Until recently, Netflix was a tech company distributing content that other companies made. Now, suddenly, it's a player in creating that content.

Discussion: Speakeasy, TechCrunch, New Yorker, AllThingsD, Variety, Media & Entertainment, @atdmedia, /Film, Media Money … and Digits

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:
Netflix's “House of Cards” gets first major Emmy nominations for online-only show

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:
Netflix Needs To Turn Emmy Nominations Into Subscribers

Discussion: Daily Dot

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Condé Nast Touts Biggest September in Five Years — Fashion bible Vogue seems to be the winner in the September ad page race so far. — The Condé Nast book weighed in last year at 658 ad pages; this year, publisher Susan Plagemann added 1 percentage point for a total of 665 total ad pages.

Discussion: Folio, AdAge, FishbowlNY, Mashable, WWD Media Headlines and The Huffington Post

Erik Maza / WWD: Ad Sales Tick Up for September Issues

Max Read / Gawker:

Incredible Photos Capture Last Moments of Boston Bombing Manhunt — In response to the Rolling Stone cover featuring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Instagram selfie, Boston magazine has published a number incredible of photos from behind the scenes of the manhunt that captured the accused Boston bomber …

Discussion: Boston Magazine, Guardian, The Wrap, Yahoo! News, @hunterw, WBUR, CBS News and The Verge

Ian Crouch / News Desk:
The Inconvenient Image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Steve Jordon / Omaha World-Herald:

Warren Buffett's newspaper company to buy Atlantic City paper — Warren Buffett's newspaper company said Thursday it plans to acquire the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., for an undisclosed price. The Press is owned by Abarta, a private holding company in Pittsburgh that is owned by the Bitzer and Taylor families.

Discussion: Poynter and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Jim Romenesko:

[UPDATED] Sun-Times lays off 14 production staffers — The downsizing continues at the Chicago Sun-Times. — The paper confirmed today that 14 production employees were laid off last Wednesday. The paper released this statement after I asked about the cuts:

Carrie Johnson / NPR:

Justice's Rules Mean Reporter Need Not Testify, Lawyer Says — A lawyer for New York Times reporter James Risen is citing new Justice Department guidelines about when to subpoena journalists to support his argument that Risen is covered by a common-law reporter's privilege and need not testify …

Discussion: emptywheel

Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:

Swell raises $5.4M to ‘reinvent news radio’ around your preferences — Swell wants to expand your mind. — Today the startup “reinventing news radio” closed a $5.4 million round of funding, led by elite firm Draper Fisher Jurveston. Swell provides a Pandora-like service for listening to podcasts.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Venture Capital Dispatch, AllThingsD and GigaOM

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:

Former Fox Exec Mike Darnell Moving to Warner Bros. TV — New position will put him in charge of unscripted programming for the production company behind “American Idol” rival “The Voice” — It looks like Mike Darnell has found a new gig. — Darnell, who until the end of June had served …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Associated Press, Reuters, Variety and Digital Spy

Tom Gara / Corporate Intelligence:

Media Diversity: Washington Post Expands Into Industrial Boilers … Washington Post Co. agreed to buy Forney Corp., a global supplier of products and systems for power and industrial boilers, from United Technologies Corp. (UTX), as the education and media company continues …

Discussion: Washington Post, bizjournals and Herald

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Byliner's new iPad app aims to find your next long read — Long-form journalism site Byliner has a new iPad app that aims to match readers with articles based on how much time they have to read. The app is also going to be the main vehicle for Byliner's $9.99 subscription product, Byliner Plus.

Discussion: AppNewser

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

CBS and Time Warner Cable take distribution feud public — A CBS ad warns some Time Warner Cable subscribers that they may lose access to the network. (CBS) — CBS and Time Warner Cable are taking their business battle public, with each launching ad campaigns critical of the other.

Discussion: New York Times

Kevin Poulsen / Wired:

MIT Moves to Intervene in Release of Aaron Swartz's Secret Service File — Lawyers representing MIT are filing a motion to intervene in my FOIA lawsuit over thousands of pages of Secret Service documents about the late activist and coder Aaron Swartz. Two weeks ago U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the government ...

Discussion: Wired, @emptywheel, @quinnnorton and @sinabahram

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Apple's Move Into TV Relies on Cooperation With Industry Leaders — When Apple wanted to revolutionize cellphones, it held hands with AT&T. The partners fought endlessly, but the public loved the finished product: the iPhone. — Now, as Apple tries to reimagine television …

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Business Insider, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, TUAW, BGR, MacRumors, Tech Trader Daily, Electronista, @dankennedy_nu and ParisLemon

John Cook / Gawker:

Here's Where Your Crackstarter Money Is Going — As you may recall, roughly six weeks ago we succeeded in raising $200,000 from readers in an effort to purchase and publish a video of Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. I'm disappointed to announce definitively that the money …

Discussion: Guardian

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Reading news through gestures: New York Times to release Leap Motion app — The New York Times has shown that it's not shy about embracing young technology. The newspaper of record was quick to produce its own Google Glass app, and now it's been revealed that the Times …

Discussion: TechCrunch, MacRumors and FishbowlNY