Mediagazer: How Esquire Survived Publishing's Dark Days (David Carr/New York Times)

8:25 PM ET, January 24, 2012

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Is Julian Assange's Talk Show For Real? — Larry King...Charlie Rose...Julian Assange? — Well, maybe. The voluble, volatile Wikileaks founder is getting his own talk show, or so he says. Beginning in March, Assange will be “hosting a series of in-depth conversations with key political players …

Discussion: Guardian and Fast Company

Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:

Julian Assange Is Getting His Own TV Show — Julian Assange has announced that he's going to have his own TV show, where he'll interview “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries”, and it's going to be hitting the screens in spring. Is there anything this man won't do?

Discussion: CNET, The Next Web, Digital Spy, The Atlantic Wire, New Statesman, Guardian, Mashable!, Charlie Beckett, PandoDaily, Future of Journalism, New York Magazine, Gawker, Editors Weblog and WikiLeaks

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

ABC News and Yahoo! Launch New Political Web Shows — ABC News's partnership with Yahoo! has resulted in several new web shows launching this week. — Two of the shows are extensions of long-running blogs from George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper. “George's Bottom Line” …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Forbes, Broadcasting & Cable, NetNewsCheck Latest and Media Buyer Planner

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

How ABC News built a top social media presence with a small dedicated team — Upon his return to “This Week” earlier this month, George Stephanopoulos introduced a new feature that's expected to become a staple of the show. “Your Voice This Week” uses Twitter and search trends to tell …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and MediaPost

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

E-Book Bummer: Growth Slower Than Thought—'Incremental, Not Exponential' — 2011 is widely perceived as a year of outrageous e-book growth, but some new research suggests otherwise. According to new data from Bowker and the Book Industry Study Group, the number of book buyers who also purchased …

Dianna Dilworth / GalleyCat:
B&N's Jim Hilt Says Print Isn't Dead

Discussion: eBookNewser

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent: Barnes & Noble: We're ‘Not Competing’ With Independent Bookstores

Alexandra Topping / Guardian:

Leveson must back ban on sexualised images in media, women's groups say — Explicit newspaper pictures censored in inquiry evidence but Leveson warned change would require ‘rock-solid legislation’ — When Lord Justice Leveson launched his inquiry into the ethics of the press …

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:
John Kampfner: Westminster lobby coverage ‘extraordinarily pliant’

Discussion: Guardian

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
More questions for Mahmood to answer at his Leveson recall

Discussion: George Galloway, allmediascotland, @skynewsbreak and Journalism.co.uk

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Gannett Goes Long With Acquisition Of Fantasy Sports Ventures — Gannett (NYSE: GCI) Co. has bought The Big Lead and a family of other sports blogs. The company hopes the acquisition, when combined with its existing USA Today properties, will vault it into the major leagues of the online sports scene.

Discussion: MediaPost, rbr.com, Poynter, NetNewsCheck Latest and FishbowlNY

Jim Hopkins / Gannett Blog:
Memo: GCI to reveal new model for weak USCP; plan could be biggest news revamp in five years

Discussion: AllThingsD and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Jon Miller, News Corp.: It's All About Video For Us Right Now — Jon Miller, the chief digital officer for News Corporation (NSDQ: NWS), described his company's digital strategy today as very “focused on video”, with a view that even properties that come from a print tradition should be producing more video content than they are today.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Epicenter, Future of Journalism and CJR

Felicia Pride / FishbowlNY:
News Corp To Train Wall Street Journal Reporters To Film Videos on Their iPhones

Discussion: TVNewser and GalleyCat

Richard Huff / NY Daily News:

Lara Logan: Life is not about dwelling on the bad — Exclusive Interview: CBS news star talks about PTSD, her recovery, her family, her work and the women that inspire her — CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan in Tahrir Square moments before she was assaulted by a mob of protesters.

Discussion: msnbc.com, PopWatch, Mediaite and TVNewser

Peter Ogburn / FishbowlDC:
New York Daily News Takes Passive Stance on Commenters Doubting Logan's Rape

Discussion: TVSpy

Tami Abdollah / scpr.org:

Former LA Times editor Russ Stanton moves to KPCC — Former Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton will be the new vice president of content for Southern California Public Radio's KPCC. — The hire is part of an aggressive effort by the nonprofit news organization to become …

Discussion: Company Town, LA Observed and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

Mitt Romney's Taxes — All the major papers are devoting lots of resources to covering Mitt Romney's tax return, putting the national spotlight on how taxes, and particularly on how little taxes the ultra-wealthy actually pay. — It's top story right now on the home pages of The New York Times …

Discussion: Forbes, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Reuters, Fortune, The New Yorker Blog and ProPublica

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

News agency chief: Why Google News doesn't work — A news agency has expressed unease over how Google News operates and criticised the search engine's reluctance to discuss the “closely guarded” criteria it uses to judge media organisations. — Michael Leidig, the founder and owner …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

David Kenny Replacing Mike Kelly As CEO Of The Weather Channel Companies — In a surprise move, The Weather Channel Companies is swapping out CEOs. David Kenny is replacing Mike Kelly as CEO effective immediately; the Akamai-Digitas vet also will be chairman of the company owned by a consortium …

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Wrap, AdAge, Multichannel News, Adweek, Cision, rbr.com, mediabistro.com, Hollywood Reporter and TVNewser

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:
Yahoo Board Member David Kenny Is Going To Be CEO Of The Weather Channel

Discussion: AdExchanger.com and Broadcasting & Cable

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:

George Lewis retiring from NBC after 42 years * — George Lewis, the venerable NBC News correspondent in Los Angeles, is hanging up his microphone on January 31. What's he doing today, on his last day in the field? Covering the Oscar nominations for the NBC Nightly News.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Politico:

New Yorker's ‘Obama Memos’: Why post-partisanship didn't pan out — The White House likes to describe them as “process” stories and is famously uncooperative with reporters trying to do them, so the tantalizing glimpse into President Barack Obama's decision making that appears in The New Yorker this week …

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Audiobooks.com launches unlimited book streaming service for $24.95 a month — If you're a voracious audiobook listener and want access to as many books as you could possibly listen to, the just-launched Audiobooks.com streaming service might be worth looking into.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Mashable!, CNET and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Social TV Startup Bluefin Labs Lands $12 Million Investment — A Bet That Social Data Will Become Essential for TV Marketers — If there's any doubt that social TV is poised to become big business, Bluefin Labs is trying to put that to rest. The Cambridge, Massachusetts social-analytics startup …

Discussion: Lost Remote, Adweek and Future of Journalism