Mediagazer: Where Did Nine Million Cable Subscribers Go? (Peter Kafka/AllThingsD)

9:15 AM ET, January 5, 2012

Top News:

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:

Current says Keith Olbermann refused to anchor Iowa caucus coverage — Analyses of Tuesday's Iowa caucuses are the top of most news sites right now—including Current TV's homepage, which features images of Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich above a video featuring former U.S. vice president …

Matthew Belloni / Hollywood Reporter:

Olbermann Attorney: 'Keith's Lawyers and Current's Lawyers Are Communicating' — The lead attorney for Keith Olbermann tells The Hollywood Reporter that the disgruntled Current newsman is negotiating his next moves with his employer in the wake of a falling out over his participation in coverage of the Republican primaries.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, New York Times, Mediaite, The Wrap, Inside Cable News, TVNewser and New York Magazine

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Keith Olbermann's Days on Current Are Numbered

Discussion: Poynter, Wannabe Hacks, The Politico and TVNewser

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:
Keith Olbermann Blasts Current TV; Internal Memo Reveals Tension Over GOP Primary

Discussion: Hot Air, Inside Cable News and Mediaite

Scott Martin / USA Today:

Apple television gamble the talk of CES — Apple is the only company that consistently gets big buzz out of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — without even attending. — This year will be no different. — Connected TVs — TVs that connect to and can access content …

Discussion: TechCrunch, 9to5Google, The Verge, Pocket-lint, Softpedia News, Gizmodo, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Electronista, Fox News and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Colin Myler: the great survivor — Former News of the World editor is back - as editor-in-chief at Mort Zuckerman's New York Daily News — The man who was editing the News of the World when it was closed by Rupert Murdoch, and whose editorship of the Sunday Mirror ended after his paper collapsed a trial …

Discussion: Gawker

Azi Paybarah / Capital New York:

Mort Zuckerman changes editors, again: Kevin Convey's out, former News Corp. guy Colin Myler is in — In the Daily News newsroom this afternoon, a memo announcing that editor-in-chief Kevin Convey was being replaced was met with “shock” and “amazement,” according to newsroom sources.

Discussion: Media Nation, Guardian, Associated Press, Press Gazette, Gawker, Poynter, Adweek, New York Magazine, Capital New York, Future of Journalism, Media & Entertainment, The Huffington Post, The Politico, Jon Slattery, The New York Observer, Media Decoder and FishbowlNY

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
At ‘Daily News,’ a culture of using ‘permalancers’ gets shaken up

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Barnes & Noble May Spin Off Its Nook Business — In the middle of a holiday sales report, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) announced that it will “pursue strategic exploratory work to separate the Nook business” from the rest of the company. “We see substantial value in what we've built …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and @pkafka

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Barnes & Noble to Put Sterling Publishing Up for Sale — Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest bookstore chain, has put its Sterling Publishing business up for sale, say people familiar with the situation. — The move comes at a time when Barnes & Noble is recasting itself …

Discussion: paidContent, GeekWire, Media Decoder, Gizmodo, Electronista and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Where Did Nine Million Cable Subscribers Go? — New year, new chance to talk about cord-cutting/shaving/avoiding. Which is either a big deal that's going to get bigger, or basically imaginary, depending on who you like to listen to. — If you're in the big deal camp …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

The Case of the Unfortunate Underscore: How Twitter Verified the Fake Wendi Over the Real Wendi — I went all Encyclopedia Brown yesterday after I and many others had been led astray by an account — @wendi_deng — that Twitter had verified with its famous blue check mark over the holiday weekend …

Discussion: FT Tech Hub, MediaFile, Erik Wemple, Gawker, Business Insider and The Daily Beast, more at Techmeme »

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:

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

FT Buys Its Web App Maker; CEO Ridding's Memo — The Financial Times has acquired London-based web and application developer Assanka, which made the web app on which the publisher has based its independence from iTunes. — Assanka launched the HTML5 web app with the paper's in-house product team …

Discussion: Poynter, AllThingsD, Beyond Search and TechCrunch Europe

Clay Shirky:

Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users — This may be the year where newspapers finally drop the idea of treating all news as a product, and all readers as customers. — One early sign of this shift was the 2010 launch of paywalls for the London Times and Sunday Times.

Discussion: Recovering Journalist, Media, disrupted, stdout.be and Boing Boing

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.