Mediagazer: Times Co. Agrees to Sell Regional Newspaper Group (Tanzina Vega/Media Decoder)

12:55 AM ET, December 28, 2011

Top News:

Tanzina Vega / Media Decoder:

Times Co. Agrees to Sell Regional Newspaper Group — Updated The New York Times Company announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to sell the company's Regional Media Group to Halifax Media Holdings, of Daytona Beach, Fla., for $143 million in cash.

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, The New York Observer, The Wrap, The Boston Globe, Reuters, The New York Times Company, Beyond Search and The Huffington Post

Jim Romenesko:

FAQ for NYT Regional Media Group employees — The New York Times Co. announced this afternoon that it's selling its Regional Media Group newspapers to Halifax for $143 million. Here's the letter that regional media group employees received along with an FAQ. Here's one question and answer:

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

The Times Names a New Deputy Managing Editor — The New York Times said Tuesday that it was promoting its longtime design director, Tom Bodkin, to deputy managing editor, the latest change to the masthead since Jill Abramson took over as executive editor in September.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, JIMROMENESKO.COM and The Huffington Post

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

New York Times Staffers Express ‘Profound Dismay’ With Management — NEW YORK — New York Times staffers unhappy with management are letting publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. know it. In recent days, more than 270 current and former Times employees have signed an open letter expressing their …

Discussion: saveourtimes.com, Subtraction.com and FishbowlNY

Jim Romenesko:

New York Times drops many podcasts — “The New York Times has decided to get out of the podcast business,” listeners of The Caucus podcast were told last week. That's not exactly right, I'm told. “Yes, we're re-evaluating our podcast schedule for the coming year,” a Times spokeswoman tells me.

Rebecca Shapiro / The Huffington Post:

CNN Under Fire After Uncut Version Of Ron Paul Interview Surfaces — An uncut version of Ron Paul's seemingly testy interview with CNN surfaced on Sunday, and has raised questions about whether or not the network may have unfairly edited the interview. — Paul was interviewed by CNN's Gloria Borger last week.

Steve Kornacki / Salon:

How the media made Ron Paul — The racist-newsletter saga is a reminder of how good he had it when the press thought he was a nobody — Ask just about any candidate's hardcore supporters whether the media is giving their guy a fair shake and chances are you'll be greeted with an emphatic …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Forbes and Mediaite

Tim Mak / Politico:

SOPA is the end of us, say bloggers — The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress's Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers aruging their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill passes.

Discussion: Boing Boing and Wonkette, more at Techmeme »

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Would Obama Veto SOPA? Extremely Doubtful — I usually like the work of Arik Hesseldahl, who's pretty sharp in his reporting, but it appears he may have waded into a subject where he doesn't have much knowledge, in arguing that Obama would likely veto SOPA should it pass out of Congress and land on his desk.

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Obama Likes the Internet, So He'll Probably Veto SOPA if It Gets That Far

Discussion: ZDNet, more at Techmeme »

Jeremiah Owyang / Web Strategy:

End of an Era: The Golden Age of Tech Blogging is Over — That's right. We're at the end of an important period. The tech blogosphere as we know it, is over. — Four Trends Show the End of this Era: — Like the film industry, the Golden Era is the emergence period, when fresh innovation in a new medium is born.

Darren Murph:

Chris Grant is leaving Joystiq, and other crazy clarifications / confessions — It's true. One of the most upstanding people I've ever had the pleasure to work alongside of is leaving Joystiq at the end of this year, and he's taking two of his confidants with him.

Discussion: VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Kevin Lincoln / Business Insider:
AOL Loses Another Star Editor To Jim Bankoff's Growing Media Empire

Discussion: Joystiq

Clara Guibourg / The Local:

Swedish editor charged with weapons crimes — Thomas Mattsson, editor-in-chief of one of Sweden's largest newspapers, has been charged for instigating a weapons offense. Mattsson heads the Expressen daily newspaper, and in the fall of 2010 he gave one of the newspaper's reporters permission …

CNN:
Swedish journalists receive 11 years in jail

Discussion: Erik Wemple

Edward Cody / Washington Post:

France refuses to arrest journalist sought by tribunal for former Yugoslavia — PARIS — France refused Monday to carry out an arrest mandate from the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal against a French journalist convicted of contempt for revealing confidential information about the tribunal's work.

Hermione Way / The Next Web:

‘Olive’: The first cinema film shot on smartphone, but will it democratize Hollywood? — Last week I was invited to a private screening of Olive - The first cinematic-quality feature film to be shot entirely on a smartphone. First-time director Hooman Khalili used a Nokia N8 cellphone …

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

DigiTimes: Apple iTV to launch as 32- and 37-inch models in summer 2012 — Citing their usual industry sources within the Asian supply chain, DigiTimes claimed Dec. 27 that Apple is prepping an HDTV for a summer 2012 launch that will be initially available in 32-inch and 37-inch variants.

Discussion: PC Magazine, GigaOM, DigiTimes, Forbes, AllThingsD and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Afghanistan Low on News Agenda — The 10-year-old war in Afghanistan remained just a blip on the American news media's radar in 2011. — Of all the news content in newspapers and on the Web, television and radio this year, Afghanistan accounted for about 2 percent of coverage …

Discussion: Forbes