Mediagazer: The Pirate Bay Launches Promo Platform For Artists (Ernesto/TorrentFreak)

4:20 PM ET, January 16, 2012

Top News:

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).

Discussion: TechCrunch, @jimmy_wales, VentureBeat, New York Magazine, Future of Journalism, PC Magazine, Digital Trends, Hillicon Valley, The Huffington Post, Techdirt, Digital Trends, FT Tech Hub, WebProNews, Digital Spy and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

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

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: Press Gazette, Journalism.co.uk, @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’ — Chief executive of Trinity Mirror Sly Bailey tells Leveson inquiry there is ‘no evidence’ to support allegations of phone hacking, as she stood by her decision not to investigate the matter internally

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Murdoch rant claims are untrue, says Brown — Former PM denies allegation at Leveson inquiry that he said he would destroy mogul after he switched papers' support to Tories — Gordon Brown has made a dramatic intervention in the Leveson inquiry into press ethics, categorically denying …

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: parislemon, VentureBeat, AdAge, GigaOM, WebProNews and Editors Weblog

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

Discussion: Gawker, TechCrunch, DealBook, Business Insider, Uncrunched 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: paidContent, The Wrap, Business Insider, Digital Spy, VentureBeat, ZDNet, 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: TVNewser and Hillicon Valley

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, Mashable!, Twitter Blog, 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?

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 …

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 …

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