Mediagazer: As tech, media, and telecom collide, ignorance of any one sector leads to failures like Joost (Benedict Evans)

1:05 AM ET, January 26, 2014

Top News:

Jonathan Mahler / New York Times:

When ‘Long-Form’ Is Bad Form — LAST week, the sports and pop culture website Grantland published a story called “Dr. V's Magical Putter” — a piece of “long-form,” as we now call multi-thousand-word, narrative-driven reported articles — about a woman named Essay Anne Vanderbilt …

Discussion: Gawker, @buzzfeedben, @jonathanmahler, @leshinton, @adamklaff, @sternbergh, @glennf, @jasonschreier, Prof Chris Daly's Blog and The Big Lead

Ben Smith / Medium:

What The Longform Backlash Is All About — Taking the best of the magazine craft online. And leaving the rest on paper. — BuzzFeed executive editor Doree Shafrir and I started talking about hiring a “longform” editor in the spring of 2012, at the urging of our most experienced writer, Michael Hastings.

Discussion: @ezraklein, @peretti, @ryanlawler, @carr2n, @jayrosen_nyu, @tcarmody, @michaelluo, @brianstelter, @mattapuzzo, @adambvary and Guardian

Megan Finnerty / Arizona Republic:

Friend of Dr. V blames Grantland story for timing of suicide, but not for the suicide itself — Friend blames timing of Gilbert inventor's suicide on fear of impending article — It was just after noon Oct. 18 when Gerri Jordan walked into the bedroom of her Gilbert home and found …

Discussion: @danreilly11 and @dangillmor

Evan Osnos / New Yorker:

Why China Needs to Rethink the Way It Treats the Foreign Press — An unusual collaborative investigation by journalists in the United States, Britain, Germany, Hong Kong, and elsewhere has refocussed attention on one of the Chinese government's most neuralgic issues: the private wealth of top leaders and their families.

Discussion: @adamgoldmanwp, Softpedia News, @icijorg and Sinosphere

Al Jazeera English:

Peter Greste's letter from Egyptian jail — Al Jazeera reporter tells the ordeals of his two colleagues, held in a draconian “Scorpion prison”. — Writing from Tora Prison, Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste has outlined the fate of his fellow journalists, detained for two weeks without charge in Egypt.

Discussion: @hamishnews and Guardian

Al Jazeera English:
McCain condemns detention of Al Jazeera staff

Discussion: Guardian and Poynter

Benedict Evans:

As tech, media, and telecom collide, ignorance of any one sector leads to failures like Joost — Ignorance — “However vast any person's basic reading may be, there still remain an enormous number of fundamental works that he has not read.” - Italo Calvino

Discussion: @jchengwsj, @stevesi, @mccarthyryanj, @soundboy, @minethatdata, @rubenharris, @h4ryb and @nathanchubbard

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

The ‘Hoax Economy’ gives way to a new breed of fact checking. — The ‘Hoax Economy’ gives way to a new breed of fact checking. — There's a new genre of headline taking over the internet. It's got a simple message: don't believe that headline. — If you've been watching Twitter …

Discussion: @jwherrman

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Jury finds Courtney Love not liable in landmark Twitter defamation case — Courtney Love Wins Twitter Defamation Trial — After eight days of testimony, the singer prevails in a trailblazing case. — Courtney Love — On Friday, a California jury decided that Courtney Love …

Discussion: SPIN, NBCNews, Gigaom, Poynter, @eriqgardner, Business Insider, Twitchy and Kirk LaPointe's …

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

In the latest battle to profit from control of the internet, the consumer is stuck in the middle — On a message board under a thread titled, “Is Comcast blocking Netflix,” customers of the nation's largest ISP are complaining about the poor quality of Netflix streaming during evening hours and wondering what's going on.

Discussion: Bright Side Of News* and The Verge

Robinson Meyer / The Atlantic Online:

Get Rid of ‘Viral’ Headlines With This One Weird Browser Extension — From “incredible” to “painfully ordinary” — The Upworthy headlines will find you. In tweets, in emails, in wall posts from well-meaning family: Viral Headline English, with its blithe incredulity, will hunt you down …

Discussion: @peterkoechley, @1uigi, @jonggordon, @dkthomp, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Daily Dot, ANIMAL, AdAge and Boing Boing

Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:

As part of Time Warner Cable deal, Charter CEO tentatively offers up NY systems to Comcast — Charter CEO Signals Openness in Push For A Time Warner Cable Deal — Cable Operator Willing To Give Up New York-Area Systems to Rival Comcast, Sources Say — Charter Communications Inc. might …

Discussion: @angryarb and @shaliniwsj

Reuters: Charter hires firm to ready Time Warner Cable proxy fight-sources

Tamara Baluja / J-Source:

How well are Canadian newspapers doing with paywalls, tablets? — Are paywalls the gamble that will save the newspaper industry? Is a free tablet app the way to go? It's too early to know what works as an online strategy, but we did get a glimpse into how some newspapers have been faring …

Discussion: @dailynewshack and @byjameskeller

Howard Stutz / Las Vegas Review-Journal:

New weekly newspaper planned for Las Vegas — The much-rumored launch of a free weekly publication that eventually could replace the Las Vegas Sun was announced Thursday by Greenspun Media Group. — The Sunday will be distributed at 1,500 locations around Las Vegas starting Feb. 9.

Discussion: Las Vegas Sun News and Associated Press