Mediagazer: E-Books as a Business Strategy (Federica Cocco/Nieman Reports)

2:55 AM ET, December 20, 2011

Top News:

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Times Co. Negotiating to Sell Regional Newspapers — Updated The New York Times Company, which last week announced that its chief executive would depart at the end of the year, is close to selling its regional newspapers to the Halifax Media Group, the company announced Monday.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Poynter, St. Petersburg Times, Business Wire, rbr.com, WWD Media Headlines, The Daily Caller, Deal Journal, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Adweek, Mixed Media, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, @nytjim and paidContent

Ken Doctor / Newsonomics:
New New York Times Plan: (Digital) World Domination

Discussion: GigaOM and Poynter

Edmund Lee / @edmundlee: Heads up on @nytimes selling regional media group to Halifax. The unit is headed up by Michael Golden, Sulzbergers cousin and COO

Kim Zetter / Threat Level:

Forensic Examiner Found No Match of Cables on Manning's Laptop to WikiLeaks' — FT. MEADE, Maryland — A day after a government forensic expert testified that he'd found thousands of diplomatic cables on the Army computer of suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, he was forced …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Electronista

Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Jolt in WikiLeaks Case: Feds Found Manning-Assange Chat Logs on Laptop

Discussion: PBS

Washington Post:
Soldier's gender identity issues raised in WikiLeaks case

Discussion: Guardian, The Week and Threat Level

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:

More NYT Buyouts: Diana B. Henriques, Eric Dash, Bob Harris, and The Reporter Who Didn't Get One — IN MID-OCTOBER, a memo was sent out to all New York Times editorial staffers, from recently-installed Times executive editor Jill Abramson, managing editor Dean Baquet …

Discussion: The Future of Capitalism

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer: Goodbye, Gray Lady: New York Times Legends Take Buyouts, Internal Tributes Follow in Suit

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:

Newspapers in Europe cover death of Vaclav Havel, not Kim Jong-Il — The deaths of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il and Václav Havel, the playwright and former Czechloslovakian president, were both announced on Sunday. But depending on where in the world you woke up this morning …

Discussion: Inside

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

On Word of Kim's Death, a Varied Response on Cable News — Rarely are the contrasts between CNN, the Fox News Channel and MSNBC as visible as they are on nights like Sunday, when the death of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il was reported. — CNN, which is best known for its news credentials …

Discussion: The Boston Globe, New York Times, Poynter and The Lede

Jeffrey ErnstFriedman / MapLight:

Sponsors of SOPA Act Pulled in 4 Times as Much in Contributions from Hollywood than Silicon Valley — The House Judiciary Committee on December 15 held a markup of the so-called SOPA Act (HR 3261), a bill that has produced surprising allegiances and adversaries and has pit some of California's …

Discussion: Betabeat, VentureBeat, ZDNet and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Cable News Finally Realizing That SOPA And PROTECT IP Are Bad News

Discussion: WebProNews

Patrick Foster / Guardian:

BBC admits using notorious private investigator to trace paedophile — The BBC has admitted hiring a notorious private investigator who was convicted of supplying newspapers with illegally obtained private information about celebrities and public figures.

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

WATCH: ABC's Major New Ad Campaign — ABC News launched an initiative to re-brand its news coverage on Monday, under the new slogan “See the whole picture.” — The tagline debuted during “Good Morning America.” The new campaign emphasizes the network's ability to break down important news …

Discussion: ABCNEWS

United Press International: ABC News says Walters is not retiring

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:
ABC News Launches New Political Site

Discussion: mediabistro.com and Lost Remote

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Ad Spending Slowed to a Crawl in the 3rd Quarter, Report Finds — Like traffic on the way to the beach on a summer Friday afternoon, advertising spending in the third quarter barely moved, according to a report to be released on Monday morning. — But like that traffic …

Discussion: rbr.com and AllThingsD

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Cablevision and Time Warner to Offer ‘HBO Go’ — Nearly a year after HBO introduced its online streaming service HBO Go, the two cable hold-outs, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, are about to turn it on for their customers. — Cablevision, which mainly serves the New York metropolitan area …

Discussion: rbr.com, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, MediaFile and GigaOM

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg: Time Warner Cable Agrees to Offer Users Time Warner's HBO Go

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

30 Under 30: Media — Click for full photo gallery: 30 Under 30: Media — There was a time when you would have had to turn over a lot of stones to find 30 obvious rising stars in the media industry — 30 people who will clearly, without a doubt be running newsrooms, networks and ad agencies in 10 years time.

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

CNN Looks to Digital Acquisitions to Gain on Fox — Time Warner Inc. (TWX)'s CNN, the pioneer news network that's fallen behind newcomers Fox News and MSNBC, is looking to acquisitions as part of an effort to regain ground by pushing more programming to tablets and smartphones.

Thanks:beet_tv

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

More On That $300 Million Saudi Investment In Twitter: It's Not New — The blogosphere and tech press is all atwitter about the news that Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal invested $300 million in Twitter. While the identity of the Saudi prince as an investor was not officially confirmed before, the investment itself is not new.

Discussion: Fortune, PR Newswire and L.A. Times Tech Blog, more at Techmeme »

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
News Corp./Time Warner's Prince Alwaleed Invests $300 Million In Twitter

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Forbes, GigaOM, Digits, Boing Boing, American Times, PC Magazine, Techland, Kingdom Holding Company, rbr.com, MediaPost, CNET News and VentureBeat

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Newspaper job cuts surged 30% in 2011 — The number of jobs eliminated in the newspaper industry rose by nearly 30% in 2011 from the prior year, according to the blog that has been tracking the human toll on the industry for the last five years. — Meanwhile, a separate analysis confirms …

Discussion: Poynter

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

How the Media Is Partying for the Holidays — Media fêtes still aren't the lavish, champagne-soaked penthouse affairs they used to be, but with the economy (sort of) recovering and advertisers (sort of) returning, some say that the media's 2011 holiday celebration circuit is showing signs of a comeback.

Thanks:jaredbkeller

James Robinson / Guardian:

Ferguson medical records ‘blagged’ by NoW — News of the World obtained confidential records about Man United manager's health to stand up tipoff, says former reporter — The News of the World obtained Sir Alex Ferguson's medical records and used them to stand up a tip …

Discussion: Press Gazette