Mediagazer: Jim Sciutto Leaving ABC News (Chris Ariens/TVNewser)

7:40 PM ET, December 15, 2011

Top News:

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Janet Robinson, Chief Executive of Times Co., to Step Down — Janet L. Robinson, who served as chief executive of the New York Times Company during a time of rapid change and uncertainty in the newspaper industry, will step down at the end of the month, the company announced Thursday.

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Next New York Times CEO could come from the tech sector — After seven years as CEO, Janet Robinson will become a highly-compensated consultant for the company in 2012 as publisher Arthur Sulzberger becomes acting CEO while the Times searches for her successor. Peter Kafka reports Robinson will earn $4.5 million next year.

Discussion: AdAge and The Wrap

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

NYT NEWSROOM CHATTER: Andrew Ross Sorkin In Running To Become CEO — No sooner had the news crossed that New York Times Company CEO Janet Robinson is out than the newsroom chatter began about who will replace her. — Two names have surfaced so far. — The first, NYTCo President Scott Heekin-Canedy, is a natural choice.

Guido Fawkes:

Judgement Day for Piers Morgan — It's now been confirmed that Piers Morgan will be before Leveson's show trial next week. Some weekend reading for Mr Jay...The former Mirror and News of the World editor will be under oath.

Discussion: Guy Fawkes' blog, Business Insider and Guardian

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

Piers Morgan Will Testify on Phone Hacking — Nearly six months after his alleged involvement in News Corp.'s phone hacking habit, former News of the World editor, current CNN host and now former America's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan will “explain himself” to the Leveson Inquiry next week.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

BBC:
Leveson Inquiry: Myler accepted ‘rogue reporter’ view

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian and @journalismnews

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:
McCann diary reporter: ‘I thought we had permission’

Discussion: Guardian

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Tons Of Amendments Proposed For SOPA — The “markup” process for SOPA is going to begin shortly (at 10am ET/7am PT), and it's going to be quite a circus. This is when various amendments can be proposed and debated. You can watch it stream live, if they can keep the stream up (they had trouble during the SOPA hearings).

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Wired.com, Hillicon Valley, paidContent, Lamar Smith, Business Insider and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Meet SOPA author Lamar Smith, Hollywood's favorite Republican

Discussion: Technology Liberation Front, Fortune and Techdirt, more at Techmeme »

Elizabeth Flock / Washington Post:
SOPA denounced by newspaper journalists, too

Discussion: Electronic Frontier Foundation, MediaFile, VentureBeat, The Daily Caller, Felix Salmon, Techdirt and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / The Caucus:

MSNBC Apologizes to Romney Campaign for Klan Report — Blaming its own staff for an “appalling lack of judgment,” MSNBC apologized on Wednesday for reporting that a phrase used by Mitt Romney on the campaign stump was used in the past by the Ku Klux Klan. — The brief report during the 11 …

Discussion: New York Magazine, NY Daily News, Chickaboomer and US Politics

Erik Wemple / Washington Post: Did MSNBC overapologize to Mitt Romney?

John Aravosis / Americablog:
MSNBC apologizes to Romney campaign for mentioning our post about Romney using old KKK slogan

Discussion: US Politics, Mediaite, The Huffington Post and theGrio

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Nick Davies: Dowler story had ‘very significant’ error — Guardian journalist Nick Davies said on Newsnight that there was a “very significant” error in his first 5 July story about the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone by the News of the World. — But he said it was a “distortion of the truth” …

Discussion: Jon Slattery and Guardian

Jon Slattery:
Newsnight: Public say press regulation has failed

Discussion: BBC

Alex Peake / The Sun: Guardian dodges TV clash with The Sun

Lucy Carne / Herald Sun: Guardian accused of running ‘false accusations’ about Milly Dowler's voicemails to sink News of the World

Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:

Amazon Shares Some Kindle Sales Numbers — Sort Of — Amazon has been oh-so-reluctant to talk about how many Kindle e-readers the company has sold. — But today it shed some light on the subject. — It said that its Kindle lineup of devices have continued to sell more than one million a week for the third straight week.

Discussion: MediaPost, paidContent:UK, Epicenter, Amazon.com, Bits, Business Insider, TechCrunch, GigaOM, ZDNet and Techland, more at Techmeme »

Julie Moos / Poynter:

‘The Elements of Style’ reinvented as rap video by Columbia J-school students — Jake Heller decided a few months ago to “do for journalism nerds what the Keynes vs. Hayek video did for econ nerds, by transforming ‘The Elements of Style’ into a rap video.” He told me about the process by email (below), but first here's the result:

Discussion: MediaShift, The New York Observer, NetNewsCheck Latest and Editors Weblog

Ben Smith / Politico:

Ambinder leaves Atlantic Media — When I came to Washington in 2007, having written a reported political blog in New York for a couple of years, there was only one person in town who I saw as a real rival: Marc Ambinder, who'd come to the form around the same I had, but was already …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Jennifer Preston / New York Times:

Occupy Movement Shows Potential of Live Online Video — Brad Hunstable started Ustream, an online video platform, with a fellow West Point graduate back in 2007 to help American troops overseas communicate with multiple friends and family members at the same time.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Drew Grant / The New York Observer:
Harassed New York Times Journalist Robert Stolarik Speaks On NYPD's Continued Barring of Credentialed Press

Discussion: Media Decoder

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

CBS Is Reviving ‘Person to Person,’ Made Famous by Murrow — In its latest back-to-the-future programming move, CBS News is reviving “Person to Person,” a 1950s series hosted by Edward R. Murrow that visited celebrities, politicians and other stars in their homes.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, rbr.com and TVNewser

Associated Press:

Newspaper trade group spends $245K on 3Q lobbying … NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. newspaper industry's largest trade group spent $245,241 during the third quarter to lobby the federal government on a range of issues involving journalism and the newspaper business, according to a quarterly disclosure report.

Nat Ives / AdAge:

What a Hotlink Costs Advertisers in Magazine iPad Editions — Conde Nast Charges $5,000 to Activate Each Web Address From Print Ads — How much is a hotlink worth? — It seems like a small thing, but it's one of many new questions facing magazine publishers as they try to figure out best practices …

Discussion: The New York Observer, eMedia Vitals and Gawker, Thanks:delrey

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

New Jersey's The Record Grabs Global Editor from The New York Times — The second largest newspaper in New Jersey — The Record — has hired Martin Gottlieb, Global Editions Editor of The New York Times for the past three years, as its new Editor-in-Chief. — At the Times, Gottlieb oversaw …

Discussion: NorthJersey.com and eBookNewser

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Former NoW journalist arrested over alleged payments to police — Lucy Panton, the former crime editor of the News of the World, is believed to have been arrested on Thursday morning as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged payments to police officers.

Discussion: Press Gazette