Mediagazer: The most reliable (and unreliable) blogging services of 2011 (Royal Pingdom)

11:05 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: AllThingsD and AdAge

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, Guardian and Business Insider

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:
Piers Morgan Will Testify on Phone Hacking

Discussion: The Huffington Post

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

Discussion: Guardian

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

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Guardian, @journalismnews and 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: Wired.com, Media Matters for America, Policy Blog, Hillicon Valley, paidContent, Lamar Smith, TechCrunch and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Grant Gross / Computerworld:

House committee appears headed toward approving SOPA — The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee slowly moved toward approval of the controversial copyright enforcement bill Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), although the panel was able to debate only a handful of amendments Thursday.

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

Discussion: Technology Liberation Front, Fortune, Techdirt and Sunlight Foundation …

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 »

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Milly Dowler hacking was tip of the iceberg — The Guardian's story was the most dramatic element of a torrent of evidence faced by the News of the World — Did a mistake in the Guardian's Milly Dowler story cause the closure of the News of the World? — The last 72 hours has seen …

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Nick Davies: Dowler story had ‘very significant’ error

Discussion: Jon Slattery, Guardian and Herald Sun

Jon Slattery:
Newsnight: Public say press regulation has failed

Discussion: BBC

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

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, Erik Wemple, Americablog, Chickaboomer, NY Daily News, The Huffington Post, Mediaite and theGrio

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

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: Business Insider, TechCrunch, GigaOM, ZDNet, Techland, Bits, MediaPost, paidContent:UK and GeekWire, 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

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

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: rbr.com, Broadcasting & Cable and TVNewser

Drew Grant / The New York Observer:

Harassed New York Times Journalist Robert Stolarik Speaks On NYPD's Continued Barring of Credentialed Press — Robert Stolarik and the cop who blocked him — On Monday, a video emerged from the protests over the World Financial Center Plaza, where Occupy Wall Street protesters had yet another clash-in with the police.

Discussion: Media Decoder

Jennifer Preston / New York Times:
Occupy Movement Shows Potential of Live Online Video

Discussion: Future of Journalism

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

Dennis Romero / The Informer:

Newspapers Dead Within Five Years, USC Predicts — As if the ink-stained wretches of the newspaper world need anymore bad news, the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future says the print product some of you like to pick up of your driveway every morning will go the way of the dinosaur within five years.

Discussion: Media, disrupted, FishbowlNY, The Huffington Post, rbr.com, About.com Journalism, USC Annenberg School …, Gannett Blog and Poynter

Tom Watson MP:

John Yates on Lucy Panton — Culture Media & Sport Select Committee - 24th March 2011. — Q78 Jim Sheridan: How would you describe you relationship with Lucy Panton? — John Yates: I have known Lucy for a number of years. I have been around crime and serious crime for probably the best part of 15, 20 years.