Mediagazer: Times' grumbles grow (Dylan Byers/Politico)

1:20 PM ET, December 29, 2011

Top News:

Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPM:

Romney: I'm Going To Fix The Budget By Bringing Ads To Sesame Street — Here's a tangible, fundamental change to the American cultural landscape that will come with a Mitt Romney presidency. Under President Romney, Sesame Street will be brought to you by more than “The Letter Q.”

Discussion: Wonkette

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

ID's ‘On the Case’ Hires Letterman Extortionist, Former CBS News Producer Joe Halderman — TVNewser has learned that Investigation Discovery's “On the Case with Paula Zahn” has hired Joe Halderman, the CBS News producer who attempted to blackmail David Letterman in 2009.

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker and NY Daily News

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

New CNN Morning Show to Launch Jan. 2 — Soledad O'Brien will anchor first days from Iowa Caucuses — CNN will debut its new morning show team of Soledad O'Brien, Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin on Jan. 2, the day before the Iowa Caucuses, the network said Wednesday

Discussion: TVNewser and The Huffington Post

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Cable Channels Set to Begin Election Year Coverage — America's trifecta of cable news channels, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN, are just about ready to show off their election year staffs. — Each channel plans to cover the one-night Iowa caucus for a stretch of several days …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and The Huffington Post

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

At Least a Few Local Journalists Just Experienced an End of Year Miracle — News emerged Tuesday night that the new owners of the New York Times Regional Media Group would mostly likely be laying off a number of employees on Thursday. This Atlantic Wire tipster made the cut.

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Times' grumbles grow — Four days after disgruntled New York Times staffers sent an open letter of frustration to publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the “Save Our Times” campaign had amassed 270 signatures in protest of the Times' decision to freeze some employees pension plans …

Discussion: Erik Wemple

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Amazon: We Sold Over 4 Million Kindle Devices This Month; Gifting Of E-Books Up 175 Percent — Amazon has just released new data regarding its Kindle sales for the holiday season. According to the e-commerce giant, Amazon customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers.

Discussion: paidContent, VentureBeat, Business Wire, CNET, AllThingsD, mediabistro.com and Pocket-lint, more at Techmeme »

Derrick Harris / GigaOM:

Could SOPA fly if big media put skin in the game? — The biggest web-related legal controversy over the past few months — if not the entire year — has been the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The bill's shortcomings have been covered to death (including by GigaOM here and here) …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Elana Zak / 10,000 Words:
Confused by SOPA? Five Multimedia Explainers

Discussion: Prison Planet.com, Thanks:elanazak

Jim Romenesko:

Rossi: Kinsley review cut ‘Page One’ box office in half — The History Channel is airing “Page One: Inside the New York Times” at 6 p.m. ET on New Year's Eve. (It can also be streamed on Netflix.) Filmmaker Andrew Rossi answers a few of my questions about the documentary and Michael Kinsley's negative review.

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Linear TV Consumption Is Growing, But Is Ad Spend? — When you consider the internet, on-demand services, games consoles, mobiles, apps and [fill in your personal favorite here], we have more ways than ever before to watch TV content whenever and however we want.

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Conferences raise unanswered questions about fact checking — The Great Fact Checking Explosion continues to ripple as we approach 2012. — Following a November event co-hosted by Jeff Jarvis and Craig Newmark at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, I recently headed to Washington …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Alana / Nielsen Wire:

Nielsen's Tops of 2011: Digital — As 2011 comes to a close, Nielsen reviewed the top online destinations, social media sites, and smartphone devices. Google was the most-visited U.S. Web brand, while Facebook held its lead among social networks and blogs.

Discussion: Softpedia News, Fast Company, CNET, NetNewsCheck Latest, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, WebProNews, The Next Web and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Michael Cieply / Media Decoder:

Hollywood Copyright Dispute Still Flaring — LOS ANGELES — Anyone who thought the nasty legal fight between the Penske Media Corporation, owner of the Deadline.com Web site, and Prometheus Global Media, owner of The Hollywood Reporter, wouldn't get nastier just wasn't thinking.

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

The Times E-Mails Millions by Mistake to Say Subscriptions Were Canceled — Home-delivery subscribers to The New York Times and others received a mass e-mail notice on Wednesday erroneously saying that their delivery had been cancelled. — The e-mail, which the Times's spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha …