Mediagazer: News organizations embrace social data in 2012 election coverage (Jeff Sonderman/Poynter)

1:40 PM ET, January 4, 2012

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Tight Race Catches TV Anchors by Surprise — From their respective television studios in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, the liberal MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow and the conservative Fox News commentator Karl Rove looked to Iowa and saw the same thing: a Republican race that was “tight as a tick.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Media Decoder, Chickaboomer, TVNewser, The Caucus and ABCNEWS

Dylan Byers / The Politico:

Current: Olbermann declined offer to anchor Iowa coverage — Keith Olbermann was noteably absent from Current TV's coverage of tonight's Iowa caucus results, setting off some speculation that the channel wanted to keep him off the air. This evening, Olbermann himself tweeted …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Big Journalism, TVNewser and paidContent

David Zurawik / The Baltimore Sun:
CNN the TV place to be for coverage of amazing, super-tight Iowa race

Discussion: Iowa Caucuses, Sacramento Bee, NPR and Poynter

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Iowa Caucus 2012: Political Reporters Caught In Their Own Media Crush

Discussion: Jack Shafer and Pressthink

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Should CBS also disclose its ties to Romney's Bain Capital? — Last week MSNBC and NBC News starting disclosing that its parent company, NBCU is a partner in the Weather Channel with Bain Capital, of which Mitt Romney is a partner. Now Fortune reports CBS News, at least Radio, might want to start disclosing this:

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Media Matters for America and UnBeige

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

It's Official: Yahoo Announces PayPal President Scott Thompson As Its New CEO — The search is over. Yahoo just named Scott Thompson as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012. It's been four long months for Yahoo after ousting Carol Bartz in September.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson: 'We'll Be Back to Innovation'

Discussion: Forbes and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

Filkin report: Police should record all contact with press — Report into the relationship between the police and the press recommends records kept of all contact and warns police against reporters flirting and using alcohol to get information — Metropolitan police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe …

Discussion: Guardian, Poynter and @dansabbagh

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Met police warned over drinking with journalists — Report warns of risks of ‘flirty reporters’ and calls for an end to traditional chats between police and reporters in pubs — Metropolitan police officers have been ordered to avoid “flirting” with and accepting alcohol from journalists.

Discussion: Guardian, Press Gazette, @athomson6 and @benfenton

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Newspaper Guild Sends Letter to Sulzberger Packed with 560 Signatures — On December 23, the Newspaper Guild of New York posted an open letter criticizing Arthur Sulzberger Jr. for freezing pensions — while giving departed CEO Janet Robinson hers early — and for not budging in negotiations.

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

WSJ Cleared Over Europe Sales Fixing, Now Finger Points At ABC — The Audit Bureau of Circulation in the UK will not take action against Wall Street Journal (NSDQ: NWS) Europe for a circulation-boosting programme associated with the resignation of WSJ's Europe publisher and EMEA managing director Andrew Langhoff recently.

Discussion: Guardian, Poynter, Journalism.co.uk, Talking Biz News and Reuters

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
ABC's ‘thorough review’ into Wall Street Journal sales scandal is a whitewash

Discussion: Media Decoder, Press Gazette and abc.org.uk

Andrew Laughlin / Digital Spy:

Apple in running for Premier League TV rights, says report — Apple is interested in joining the billion pound battle to win the next round of bidding for Premier League TV rights, as part of plans to boost its Apple TV service. — Charles Sale over at The Daily Mail claims that the US company …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Pocket-lint, Telegraph, Electronista, 9to5Mac, MacRumors and Softpedia News

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Premier League Rights: Google And Apple Unlikely To Bid

Discussion: GigaOM and Future of Journalism

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Stephen Lawrence's parents thank Daily Mail for ‘going out on a limb’ — Newspaper's ‘Murderers’ headline in 1997 put the case at heart of public consciousness, say David Cameron and Ed Miliband — The parents of Stephen Lawrence have praised the Daily Mail for “going out on a limb” …

Discussion: Press Gazette, Daily Mail and Editor's Blog

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

On Yacht, Murdoch Catches the Twitter Wave — Some people sunbathe and drink daiquiris on their Caribbean vacations. Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation, joined Twitter. — On Dec. 31 the media mogul, on board his 184-foot yacht, Rosehearty …

Discussion: Mixed Media, Softpedia News, Media News, The Atlantic Wire, Vanity Fair, Telegraph, Guardian, Business Insider and The Caucus

Emily Bell:
What Would Rupert Do?* The Lessons of a Tweeting Murdoch.

Discussion: FP Passport, Digiday and Storyful

Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:

Google Chrome's ‘sponsored posts’ explained — Google has acknowledged that an ad campaign for its Chrome browser appears to have violated the company's own policies, landing it in some hot water this week when SEOBook's Aaron Wall and Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan highlighted some problems.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Search Engine Land, GigaOM and Gawker, more at Techmeme »