Mediagazer: Why I Started PandoDaily — Several months ago I became obsessed … (Sarah Lacy/PandoDaily)

5:35 PM ET, January 16, 2012

Top News:

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune offers newsroom voluntary buyouts — Looking to reduce costs as it continues to grapple with a changing media landscape and challenging economy, the Chicago Tribune told employees Monday it will offer an undisclosed number of voluntary buyouts in the newsroom.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Tribune Co. and Gannett shut down New York entertainment and nightlife website, Metromix — The Tribune Co. and Gannett have shuttered the New York arm of their local entertainment and nightlife network, Metromix, Capital has learned. — The New York Metromix editor, Kirk Miller …

Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:

Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours on Wednesday to protest against SOPA — Today, founder of the non-profit behind information archive Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, announced that the site will go dark for 24 hours on Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

BBC:

Leveson Inquiry: Mirror phone hacking possibly hidden - editor — The Daily Mirror's editor has told a media ethics inquiry that phone hacking “might well have been” taking place when he was the paper's showbiz editor. — Richard Wallace told the Leveson Inquiry he had no knowledge …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Press Gazette, @benfenton, @hackinginquiry, @dansabbagh, @skymarkwhite, @dansabbagh, @lisaocarroll, @lisaocarroll, @keirsimmonsitv, @dansabbagh, Associated Press, Tangerine, @benfenton and @benfenton

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:
Trinity Mirror's Sly Bailey: ‘No evidence our journalists hacked phones’

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Murdoch rant claims are untrue, says Brown

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Sarah Lacy Debuts New Tech Site, PandoDaily — $2M+ in Funding and Guess Who's Working for Her? (Video) — As has been widely reported, well-known TechCrunch columnist and Silicon Valley journalist Sarah Lacy has a new gig: Running her own new tech news site, which debuts today.

Discussion: Gawker, parislemon, Future of Journalism, VentureBeat, AdAge, GigaOM, WebProNews and Editors Weblog, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Why I Started PandoDaily — Several months ago I became obsessed with a colony of trees in Utah called Pando Trees. Measuring 43 hectares and weighing 6,000 tons, they're pretty impressive above ground. But what really matters is what is happening below. The interconnected root system is the oldest living organism in the world.

Discussion: TechCrunch, DealBook, The Jane Dough, Uncrunched, Business Insider and Talking Biz News, more at Techmeme »

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Google calls Murdoch's piracy allegations ‘nonsense’ — News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is talking nonsense, according to Google. — Google cofounder Sergey Brin. — Murdoch, a Twitter user for only the past several weeks, used the service to fire a barrage of accusations Saturday night …

Discussion: The Wrap, paidContent, DCist, Business Insider, Digital Spy, ZDNet, VentureBeat, Daily Dot, Crikey, AllThingsD, eMedia Vitals and Forbes, more at Techmeme »

Joe Flint / Company Town: Calemzuk exits as CEO of News Corp.'s Shine Americas

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Murdoch shows he doesn't understand how content works

Discussion: Hillicon Valley and Techdirt

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Fox and Twitter Join Forces for Republican Debate — At the next Republican presidential primary debate on Monday night, Fox News will be measuring viewers' reactions to each answer on Twitter, the social Web site that acts as an online water cooler during big television events.

Discussion: The FJP, Twitter Blog, Mashable!, WebProNews and TVNewser

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

‘The Salad Days Are Over at Bloomberg:’ Dispatches From Inside America's Most Paranoid Media Company — Last week, we brought you some firsthand cries of rage, despair, and frustration from inside Bloomberg headquarters. The most paranoid headquarters in all of the New York media world?

Pat Maio / North County Times:

New owners of San Diego Union-Tribune look to build media centre — San Diego developer Doug Manchester and radio executive John Lynch, who bought The San Diego Union-Tribune for $110 million a month ago, said they could pursue other newspapers or “video and audio” enterprises to wrap …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Associated Press Opens North Korea Bureau — When Associated Press executives and journalists attempted to open a North Korean bureau last month, they arrived in Pyongyang just hours after the death of Kim Jong Il. AP journalists hit the ground running and provided text and photos …

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Lovefilm Adding ABC TV Show Archive In UK Netflix Fight — In its war with Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), Amazon's Lovefilm has licensed U.S. TV shows from ABC (NYSE: DIS) Studios through Disney UK under the “ABC TV On-Demand” VOD brand. — That service will be available for no extra charge …

Discussion: Pocket-lint, London Calling Blog, SlashGear, @robertandrews and Home Media Magazine, more at Techmeme »

Dean Starkman / CJR:

A Narrowed Gaze — How the business press forgot the rest of us — Steve Lipin didn't fit the profile of a transformative media figure when he took over the mergers-and-acquisitions beat for The Wall Street Journal in 1995. His look was studious, his manner remarkably affable and low key, given the stress of his new job.

Robert Teitelman / The Huffington Post: Starkman on the Decline of Business Journalism