Press Gazette
Washington correspondent Nico Hines exclusively revealed on The Times website that singer Beyonc's rendition of the national anthem at President Obama's inauguration was pre-recorded. The story went viral in the US and was splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the country. Speaking to Press Gazette Hines said the story was a "simple" one. There had been rumours that the Marine Corps Band had not played their accompanying music live, so he phoned them up to ask about Beyonc as well.
Journalism.co.uk
North London's hyperlocal culture website, Kentishtowner, is set to launch the first of a new monthly print edition today. A total of 5,000 copies of the 16-page "high-quality" tabloid will be circulated, with the hyperlocal predicting readership of 20,000. The newspaper will be distributed across pubs, bars, stores and cafes in the area. According to a release, the site, which launched in 2010, has a "regular audience" of 30,000 monthly visitors and more than 6,600 followers on Twitter.
The Telegraph
Despite a series of high profile cases involving so-called "trolling", computer hacking, harassment and abuse via anonymous accounts, Twitter provided information to investigators just once in the second half of last year, its second biannual Transparency Report said. It was the only time Twitter provided British authorities with information in full or in part, out of 25 requests. In comparison, authorities in the U.S. asked for information about Twitter members on 815 occasions and received it in 562 cases.
Journalism.co.uk
Onswipe, which launched 18 months ago in the U.S., has "no specific plans" to focus on pushing its product to UK publishers at present, but chief executive and co-founder Jason Baptiste told Journalism.co.uk it is likely to happen "sometime in the near future". The UK is appealing due to the "common language, great brands, and as it's our second largest audience", providing publishers using Onswipe with 6.6% of their traffic compared to U.S. traffic of 72%.
The Drum
Guardian news & Media has signed a multimedia partnership with lifestyle platform NOWNESS.com as The Guardian seeks to broaden its fashion, art, travel and gastronomy video content. The partnership launched with the showcase of a short film, titled 'L.E.D Surfer' by fashion photographer and film maker Jacob Sutton. Shot on the slopes of Tignes in south eastern France it depicts snowboarder William Hughes illuminate the slopes in an LED suit.
Press Gazette
Trinity Mirror is to cut approximately 40 editorial jobs as it aims to become a "digitally-focused news operation". Trinity has begun consulting affected journalists and is hoping enough will apply for voluntary redundancies. Some 92 editorial jobs are to be cut from Trinity's regional titles in England and Wales and 52 new jobs are to be created split between the national and regional titles. This means a net reduction of 66 regional press journalists and an increase of 26 jobs at national level is proposed.
Digital Trends
Rdio is expanding beyond the United States to offer a promotional period of six months of free music streaming to 14 countries located all around the world. Anyone interested in the music streaming service can sign up for an account without having to enter in payment information. Residents of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom can now listen to over eighteen million songs for free.
PaidContent.org
German music rights group GEMA has filed a lawsuit against YouTube, alleging that the video site is misleading users about the details of an ongoing licensing dispute between the two parties. The lawsuit is the latest escalation in that dispute, which has been going on since 2010, and resulted in German YouTube users being unable to view many popular music videos on the site. GEMA is now asking a Munich-based court to issue a cease-and-desist order in order to prevent YouTube from blaming GEMA for this mess.
The Telegraph
The 'Fair Data' badge will only be available to those businesses that sign up to the new mark's principles. Backers hope it will allow "members of the public to easily identify those organisations which collect, use and retain personal data properly and ethically, and those that do not." Organised by the Market Research Society, the mark is aimed at public and private sector organisations.
BBC
Judith Vidal-Hall, former editor of Index On Censorship magazine, is the first person in the UK to begin legal action. "Google claims it does not collect personal data but doesn't say who decides what information is 'personal'," she said. "Whether something is private or not should be up to the internet surfer, not Google. We are best placed to decide, not them." Google declined to comment on the latest action, which has been launched to coincide with the sixth annual Data Privacy Day in the UK.