Glenn Greenwald, arguably the most visible columnist in 2013 for his reporting on surveillance from classified information leaked by Edward Snowden, is leaving The Guardian to work for a start-up financed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. It will be an investigative digital outlet, large in nature, and apparently well resourced. BuzzFeed broke the story but details emerged on Reuters late Tuesday of the particular venture.
Casey Newton, writing for The Verge, argues that news is the next big thing for Twitter. It is hiring NBC digital chief Vivian Schiller as its head of news and has unfurled a couple of experimental initiatives aimed at delivering news via push notifications and on breaking news. The aim is to place Twitter as a more relevant distribution platform than actual television networks and services.
Andrew Beaujon, writing for Poynter, examines a report for the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers on online comments. It suggests political stories draw the best and worst comments, while travel, women-specific content, cars, technology, science and history stories were most suited to productive online comments. The report suggests the use of real names for comments leads to more civil comments, but it encourages news organizations to employ community managers and their journalists to join discussions.