Mediagazer: The Worldwide Leader in Dong Shots (Gabriel Sherman/GQ)

3:55 PM ET, January 19, 2011

Top News:

Consolidation Weighed for Newspaper Publishers — MediaNews Group Inc., publisher of more than 50 daily U.S. newspapers including the Denver Post, is eyeing a merger with Freedom Communications Inc. and possibly several other newspaper companies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Recovering Journalist, Gannett Blog, San Francisco Peninsula … and BrauBlog

Ken Doctor / Newsonomics:

The Demise of Lean Dean Singleton and the Rise of Private Equity — Dean Singleton worked the deals in corners of the U.S. for decades, building from scratch a major chain, that by circulation (though, not revenue) is probably the second largest in the country.

Discussion: Poynter, bizjournals and BrauBlog

Denver Post:
MediaNews Group announces management changes; Singleton to become executive chairman

Discussion: Poynter, paidContent and LA Observed

Associated Press:

Greenblatt Set To Craft NBC Prime-Time Strategy — NBC, the peacock network, should get a full-scale preening at the hands of its new entertainment chief once the Comcast Corp. takeover is complete. — Comcast has said that it's appointing Bob Greenblatt, the programming executive …

Brian Stelter / New York Times:
In Comcast-NBC Conditions, A Victory for Bloomberg

Discussion: rbr.com, The Huffington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic Online, Moneywood, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, NPR, TVbytheNumbers and Post Tech

Steve Myers / Poynter:
Nonprofit news orgs see validation, new funding in Comcast-NBC merger

Thanks:myersnews

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Updated: DOJ's Approval Of Comcast-NBCU Contingent On Giving Up Role In Hulu

Discussion: Ars Technica, Comcast Voices, The United States Department …, Media Decoder, The Huffington Post, Faster Forward and Company Town

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Why It's Getting Harder to Find a Good Magazine Newsstand — Problem Partly Began When Convenience Stores Dropped Skin Titles — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Magazines had better hope they get a nice prominent digital newsstand on the tablets flooding the market, because their bricks-and-mortar retail outlets are continuing to disappear.

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Playboy Magazine coming to iPad in its uncensored form in March, including full back catalog — From its very first issue in 1953 to its latest incarnation, the full catalog of Playboy Magazine is coming to the iPad this March. And not only that, it'll be faithful to its original form by arriving to your Apple slate uncensored.

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Uncensored Playboy to hit iPad in March, says Hefner (The Cutline)

Discussion: Mixed Media, Runnin' Scared and The Daily Caller

Henry Blodget / Clusterstock:

THE GOLDEN AGE OF NEWS: Mainstream Media Staffers Agog At Huge Salaries Huffpo And Daily Beast Are Paying Big-Name Stars — Oh, the wailing! — A year or two ago, you couldn't spend five minutes online without seeing some mainstream media scribe bemoaning the death of journalism and the high-paying, cushy old jobs that went with it.

Discussion: New York Observer

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

The Crisis at the Front of the Book — On a Tuesday night some weeks ago, at a jam-packed book party at Sidecar, the handsome upstairs space next to P.J. Clarke's on East 55th Street, Hugo Lindgren was leaning on the bar next to his deputy. The new editor of The New York Times Magazine …

Discussion: Poynter

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

The Dead Source Who Keeps on Giving — Fortune joins the WSJ in putting Jerome York on the record after his death — Back in March, I noticed The Wall Street Journal appearing to burn an off-the-record source a few days after he died. — Now it's Fortune's turn to put the same source on the record posthumously.

Discussion: Poynter, TechCrunch, Fimoculous.com, Gawker, Pulse2, Fortune, The Wrap and SAI

Annys Shin / Washington Post:

Blogger aims to chronicle every D.C. homicide victim — On the morning of Nov. 15, Laura Norton Amico found herself penned inside a scrum of journalists who had packed a room at D.C. Superior Court for a glimpse of the lead suspect in one of Washington's highest-profile murder cases: the 2001 killing of federal intern Chandra Levy.

Discussion: Poynter

Alicia Shepard / NPR Blogs:

How NPR's Giffords Mistake Hurt The Families — This story was updated at 4:31 p.m. to make clear that after NPR correspondent Ted Robbins told NPR's newsdesk that Giffords had not died, NPR changed its reporting. — I've since learned what real, excruciating pain NPR triggered …

Discussion: Poynter, AOL News and Runnin' Scared

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

Weinstein Co. Plans To Launch TV Division With Meryl Poster In Talks To Run It — EXCLUSIVE: Harvey and Bob Weinstein are plotting a big re-entry into television and are talking to an old pal, producer Meryl Poster, to run the new Weinstein Co. TV arm. Poster worked with the Weinsteins …

Discussion: Company Town

Gabriel Sherman / GQ:

The Worldwide Leader in Dong Shots — With his leering coverage of Brett Favre's penis (allegedly!), Rex Ryan's foot fetish, and the surprising sex life of ESPN, A. J. Daulerio has turned Deadspin.com into the raunchiest, funniest, and most controversial sports site on the Web. But at what cost to his soul?

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, Deadspin, New York Magazine and Gawker

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Times Names New Metro Editor — Carolyn Ryan, who helped lead The New York Times to a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the downfall of Eliot Spitzer when he was governor of New York, has been named the paper's metropolitan editor. — Ms. Ryan, 46, has worked at The Times for three and half years.

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“Gee, you guys are spending an awful lot of money”: The Bay Citizen editor on funding quality news — Seven months into its bid to reinvent the metro newspaper, The Bay Citizen, the San Francisco-based nonprofit news site, has so far raised a total of $14.5 million in philanthropic gifts …

Discussion: rbr.com and Poynter

Katherine Rosman / Wall Street Journal:

How Adam Got @Adam and Became Cool Online — All Rob Goldman ever wanted was to be himself. In the Silicon Valley start-up obsessed world he inhabits, that means being facebook.com/rob or @Rob on Twitter. — But Mr. Goldman can't get what he wants, even at a website he founded.

Anthony Kaufman / Speakeasy:

Sundance 2011: 7 Film Companies To Watch … Sundance is mostly known as a film “festival,” but the event is equally a marketplace—the most important in the world, in fact, for the buying and selling of American independent films. While the indie film business has gone through a cooling period …

Discussion: Online Video News

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Groupon experiences growing pains with customers, merchants — The Internet phenom experiences growing pains with customers and merchants — and hold on to your ‘expired’ coupons. — Groupon Inc. signage is displayed outside the company's headquarters in Chicago. (Tim Boyle / Bloomberg)

Jim Edwards / BNET:

Julia Allison's Campaign to Rewrite History Is Coming Along Nicely — Relentless self-publicist and former Sony (SNE) pitchwoman Julia Allison has persuaded WordPress to remove a blog devoted to criticizing her. Allison's father, lawyer Peter Baugher, also sent a cease-and-desist letter to the anonymous authors of the blog.

Amy Wicks / WWD Media Headlines:

David Pecker: Chairman of the Tabloids — Anthrax. Bankruptcy. Scandal. One of those alone would be enough to ruin the career of any media honcho. — Then there's David Pecker. — The chairman, chief executive officer — and perennial cheerleader — of American Media Inc. has survived …

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Alan Taylor brings “Big Picture” prowess to The Atlantic — Starting in February, The Atlantic will have a new section on its website: In Focus, a photography blog featuring “photo essays on the major news and trends of the day.” — Editing the site will be Alan Taylor …

Discussion: Fast Company, Gedankengang, Poynter, kottke.org, mediabistro.com and MediaMemo

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

Why the Orange County Register saw record mobile traffic last weekend — This past weekend, nearly 25 percent of The Orange County Register's digital traffic came from mobile devices — a new record for the paper. — Sonya Quick, who heads up social and mobile newsroom initiatives at the Register …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Erik Huggers to leave BBC for Intel — Director of future, media and technology will join US computer firm as corporate vice-president — Erik Huggers, the BBC's director of future, media and technology, is to leave the corporation at the end of February.

Discussion: paidContent, themediablog.typepad.com, BBC and paidContent:UK

Media Week:

Hachette to close teen magazine Sugar after 16 years — Hachette Filipacchi is to close teen print magazine Sugar in March, which has suffered flagging circulation figures, and ahead of an anticipated group sale to US publisher Hearst. — Sugar: Hachette Filipacchi is set to close its teen print magazine

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Publisher asks journalists not to comment on Obama novel — Time's Joe Klein said he didn't write Simon & Schuster's forthcoming Obama novel. Several other Beltway figures, in media and politics, have also denied being the anonymous author behind “O: A Presidential Novel,” which hits book stores next week.

Discussion: Poynter, Scocca, Mixed Media, GalleyCat and Gawker

Joe Mullin / paidContent:

After 200 Lawsuits Against Sites, Righthaven Targets Online Commenters — So far, the copyright-enforcement venture Righthaven has only made a few thousand dollars per settlement with its publisher targets, according to news reports. To make any real money, Righthaven will have to widen its sights.