Twitter abuse case echoes news orgs’ comment moderation dilemma

Twitter’s pointed passivity in the Caroline Criado-Perez rape threat case is about more than just the cost of policing tweets. The site is clinging to its critical yet unstable distinction as a communications platform, not a publisher, to shirk legal responsibility for offensive and unlawful tweets. News organizations are tiptoeing this same line as they develop their commenting policies: While many think moderation is “essential,” passivity sometimes better protects them.

For the El Tiempo publishing house in Colombia, alliances are the key

Jon Ruiz, CEO of Casa Editorial El Tiempo, editor of Colombia’s leading national newspaper and many other publications, joined the company in 2004, having worked for Unilever for five years and Philip Morris for 15 years. On October 30-31, he will give a presentation at the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Latin America 2013 conference in Bogotá. We spoke to him before the event to get an idea of ​​the challenges that a successful Latin American publisher faces in the Internet age.

Il Fatto online is Italy’s third most-visited news site

The Italian news title has found a lot to celebrate during the first six months of 2013. Not only did an Audiweb survey show that ilfattoquotidiano.it’s homepage was the third most-visited of all of Italy’s general news homepages, the publication was also voted Italy’s most independent online news source, according to a Human Highway poll.

OC Register goes against all reason

How can a newspaper succeed that, according to the prevailing opinion in the industry, acts in contrary of all rules of rationality – and this just in the U.S.? The Orange County Register shows how.

Report: Thomson Reuters plans radical restructuring project

Thomson Reuters, the international press agency specialising in financial news and coverage, may soon implement a radical shake-up of its services, if reports from website The Baron prove to be accurate. Run by former Reuters journalists, this site claims to have seen documents mapping out proposals for two alternative five-year economic plans for the press company.

Business Insider gives sponsor limited content control; is it ethical?

Business Insider’s “The Future of Business” section gives underwriter SAP limited editorial control, raising ethical concerns. Though SAP can’t shoot down headlines or specific language, the company has ultimate veto power for all posts published on the blog it sponsors, Ad Age reported. This prevents BI from covering any of SAP’s competitors for “The Future of Business,” which mixes staff-written pieces with others by SAP.

Bernard Tapie becomes sole shareholder of La Provence after split with Hersant family

In the south of France, regional news titles La Provence and Nice-Matin are finding that things aren’t so quiet in the country. Yet the local news hitting the national papers has nothing to do with events reported by these two papers, and everything to do with the issues surrounding their ownership.

Axel Springer sells its regional papers to Funke Mediengruppe in 920 million euro deal

German publishing houses Axel Springer and Funke Mediengruppe said yesterday (25 July) they have reached an agreement whereby Funke will acquire Axel Springer’s regional newspapers, TV program guides and women’s magazines.

WSJ: Interactivity will become the norm

Though The Wall Street Journal’s interactive, first-person point-of-view video on the Affordable Care Act generated lots of buzz earlier this month, such features will soon become the norm at the newspaper, Neal Mann, multimedia innovations editor, told Journalism.co.uk.

ABC emulates BBC with links to commercial news sites

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will pilot a new service designed to funnel its online audience to other news media sites. Managing director of the ABC Mark Scott will unveil the plans in a speech to the Australia American Chamber of Commerce in Sydney, reports The Australian, which managed to get an advanced copy of Scott’s announcement.