Mediagazer: Sundance 2011: 7 Film Companies To Watch (Anthony Kaufman/Speakeasy)

9:30 PM ET, January 19, 2011

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Relax, Everyone: Apple Isn't Bending Its Rules for Playboy — Hugh Hefner got a little over-excited. About the iPad, that is. Image via Wikipedia — Playboy founder Hugh Hefner touched off some excitement with a series of ebullient tweets yesterday, announcing that current and past issues …

Discussion: Mediaweek, Apple Headlines, SAI, Techland, New York Magazine, msnbc.com, Runnin' Scared and NetNewsCheck Latest

Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Playboy Magazine coming to iPad in its uncensored form in March …

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

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Gizmodo

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

One Down: Spotify Signs Sony to U.S. Deal — This doesn't get them into the States, but it gets them a lot closer: Music service Spotify has finally signed with Sony for a U.S. distribution deal. Multiple sources tell me the deal, which has been very close since last fall, is now closed.

Discussion: The Next Web, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb

Johnnie L. Roberts / The Wrap:
Executive Musical Chairs Won't Save Broken Record Business

Discussion: Communication Prof's News … 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.

Discussion: Poynter

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, BrauBlog and LA Observed

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:
Consolidation Weighed for Newspaper Publishers

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

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

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 …

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

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Comcast Voices, Thanks:myersnews

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

Discussion: Ars Technica, Newsbook, Beet.TV, New York Times, Moneywood, rbr.com, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, The Atlantic Online, Faster Forward, NPR, Media Decoder, TVbytheNumbers, Post Tech and paidContent

MediaShift Idea Lab:

How Can We ‘Gamify’ the News Experience? — One of the biggest emerging conversations over the past year in Silicon Valley is around “gamification.” Simply put, this is the idea of applying game mechanics, particularly those found in videogames, to all sorts of non-game experiences.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and NetworkEffect

Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

AOL Is Launching A Flipboard-Killer, “Editions” — AOL is getting ready to launch its own iPad magazine called “Editions.” — The tag line for the magazine is “The Magazine That Reads You.” — We don't know much about it, but it sounds like it will be an app like Flipboard, using your interests to figure out what you like.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Nieman Journalism Lab, Electronista and The Next Web

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, Talking Biz News, TechCrunch, Fimoculous.com, Gawker, Pulse2, Fortune, The Wrap and SAI

Journalism.org:

A SPECIAL REPORT ON THE MEDIA AND THE TUCSON SHOOTING — The aftermath of the January 8 shooting spree in Tucson dominated the American news media last week in a way events rarely do: the tragedy registered as the third-biggest story in a single week since PEJ began tracking coverage in January 2007.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, TVNewser and On Media's Blog

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

1.4 million fans can't be wrong: NPR's Facebook page — “They swear like sailors, but boy, they're smart.” — That's how NPR strategist Andy Carvin described the 1.4 million fans who comment and share stories through NPR's Facebook page. The page — originally created by an NPR enthusiast from the UK …

Discussion: Lost Remote and NetNewsCheck Latest

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, Future of Journalism, NetNewsCheck Latest and Poynter

Glynnis MacNicol / The Wire:

WHOA: Piers Morgan Beats Fox's Sean Hannity In 9pm Demo — CNN may have a hit on their hands. — Early ratings numbers from Nielsen for Piers Morgan's second CNN show with Howard Stern reveal that (as he promised) he beat competitor Sean Hannity in the ever-coveted 25-54 demo: 551,000- 506,000.

Discussion: Mediaite, AdAge, Moneywood, The Wrap, On Media's Blog and Broadcasting & Cable

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

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.

Discussion: Gawker

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

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: AOL News, Runnin' Scared and Poynter

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Suzanne Malveaux Tapped to Anchor ‘CNN Newsroom’ — CNN has tapped White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux to anchor the 11 AM to 1 PM block of “CNN Newsroom.” Malveaux will start her new assignment January 31, and will relocate to CNN's headquarters in Atlanta.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Mediaite, FishbowlDC and Broadcasting & Cable

Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:

The Washington Post Enters The Facebook Advertising Business — This week The Washington Post formally announced the launch of SocialCode, the latest company to enter the hot market of third-party Facebook advertising solutions. — The social network connection for The Washington Post is deep rooted.

Discussion: paidContent, TechCrunch, Inside Facebook and rbr.com, more at Techmeme »

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

Mark Stephens Warrior / Media News International:

Robert Bakish Named President and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks — New York : Viacom Inc. has announced that it has appointed Robert Bakish to the newly created position of President and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks. — Mr. Bakish was previously President of MTV Networks International.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap and Multichannel

The Wrap:

Will Tribune Co. Sell its Newspapers Post-Bankruptcy? — What will be the fate of the Tribune Company's flagship newspapers when the giant media company emerges from bankruptcy later this year? — While a judge is expected to approve a reorganization plan in March to clear away …

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: The Wrap and Online Video News

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