Mediagazer: California senators call for end to CBS-TWC sparring (Dseyler/Radio & Television …)

6:35 PM ET, August 13, 2013

Top News:

How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets — This past January, Laura Poitras received a curious e-mail from an anonymous stranger requesting her public encryption key. For almost two years, Poitras had been working on a documentary about surveillance, and she occasionally received queries from strangers.

Peter Maass / New York Times:

Q. & A.: Edward Snowden Speaks to Peter Maass — In the course of reporting his profile of Laura Poitras, Peter Maass conducted an encrypted question-and-answer session, for which Poitras served as intermediary, with Edward J. Snowden. Below is a full transcript of that conversation.

Jim Romenesko:

Patch ad sales down since it was announced that layoffs and site closings are coming — “Over the last 5 sales days, we have amassed our worst results of the year,” Patch director of U.S. sales Jim Lipuma tells his ad-sales force in a memo he put out today.

Discussion: Capital New York, Business Insider, Valleywag, @romenesko and @jyarow

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:

TIM ARMSTRONG: I Made An Emotional Mistake Firing That Guy — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong just sent out the following memo to AOL staff, which we've obtained from a source inside the company. — The memo is in reference to Armstrong's firing of Patch creative director Abel Lenz on an all-hands conference call last week.

Discussion: Poynter, AllThingsD, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Valleywag, New York Times, Mashable, @ezraklein, @morningmoneyben, @pkafka, @charlesjb12 and The FJP

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Journalism Has Entered A Golden Age — CNN host Brian Stelter was kind enough to have me on his show, Reliable Sources, over the weekend. In response to one question, I said that journalism has entered a “golden age.” — Judging from the Twitter reaction, many of Brian's viewers agreed.

Gavriel Hollander / Press Gazette:

First post-paywall figures reveal slump in Sun website market share — The Sun's website lost more than a third of its market share of internet visitors in the first ten days following its move behind a paywall, new research suggests. — In the first indication of reader behaviour since …

Discussion: @domponsford

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Bleacher Report Co-Founder Bryan Goldberg Raises $6.5 Million To Launch A Site For Women, Bustle — Bryan Goldberg co-founded Bleacher Report, a sports media company that was acquired by Turner Media last year for more than $200 million. He's finally ready to announce his new venture, Bustle.

Discussion: PandoDaily, Business Insider, FishbowlNY, @mslopatto, @thestalwart, @lock, @jamilsmith, @antderosa, Pulse 2.0 and @bgoldberg

Brian Morrissey / Digiday:

For Media Now, ‘Talent Trumps All’ — NBC News yesterday announced it acquired Stringwire. The purchase added a user-generated streaming video platform but also buffed up the media organization's tech ranks with Stringwire founder Phil Grossman, who will join NBC News as a product lead out of its San Francisco office.

Discussion: @digiday and @vouchey

Dseyler / Radio & Television Business Report:

California senators call for end to CBS-TWC sparring — Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) believe that subscribers are the big losers in the ongoing retransmission consent impasse between CBS and Time Warner Cable and have called for an end to the hostilities.

Discussion: Forbes, Variety, Home Media Magazine, IVCPOST, voices.mydesert.com, TVSpy and USA Today

Brian Ries / The Daily Beast:

Syrian Electronic Army Strikes Again, Hits SocialFlow, New York Post — You might want to change your Twitter password. On Tuesday, the Syrian Electronic Army hacked Twitter accounts belonging to SocialFlow and The New York Post, writes Brian Ries. — It seems no one's safe from the Syrian Electronic Army.

The Canadian Press:

Torstar launches Toronto Star paywall — TORONTO - The Toronto Star has begun charging a fee for non-subscribers who access its web site more than 10 times a month. — The Star told staff details of the program on Monday and announced the change to readers in the Tuesday edition of its paper, the biggest-circulation daily in Canada.

Discussion: Poynter, Toronto Star and Kirk LaPointe's …

Tom Ramstack / Reuters:

U.S. WikiLeaks judge overrules objections on classified testimony — (Reuters) - The judge hearing the court-martial of Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier convicted of giving classified documents to WikiLeaks, on Tuesday overruled defense attorneys' objections over classified testimony against their client.

Discussion: Associated Press, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times and Guardian