Mediagazer: Thompson to step down after Olympics (Dan Sabbagh/Guardian)

11:35 AM ET, January 27, 2012

Top News:

New York Times Co. Faces Leadership Vacuum — The departure of New York Times Co. (NYT) Chief Executive Officer Janet Robinson last month leaves the company with a leadership vacuum amid falling revenue, profit squeezed by pension costs and pressure from family members to restore a dividend once worth more than $20 million a year.

Discussion: The New York Observer, Future of Journalism, @edmundlee and Business Insider

Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:

Twitter Now Able To Censor Tweets, If Required By Law, On A Country-By-Country Basis — Until now, Twitter's not had the ability to censor certain tweets or accounts, to prevent them from being seen — if legally required — by users in particular countries.

Jillian C. York:

Thoughts on Twitter's Latest Move — Today, Twitter announced a new system that will allow the company to geolocationally block (or, to use their terms, “withhold") specific tweets in specific countries. On the company blog, Twitter explained: … It's been difficult to comment …

Discussion: WebProNews, ReadWriteWeb, MediaNama, Engadget, Wired.co.uk and Forbes, more at Techmeme »

David Lipke / WWD:

Bloomberg to Launch Luxury Lifestyle Magazine — A design spread from the first issue of Bloomberg Pursuits. — Photo By Courtesy Photo Photo By Courtesy Photo — BLOOMBERG'S FASHIONABLE PURSUITS: Users of the Bloomberg Terminal are among the richest demographic in the world …

Discussion: The New York Observer and Media Buyer Planner

Murray Weiss / DNAinfo:

Greg Kelly Accuser Claimed She Got Pregnant From Alleged Rape, Sources Say — MANHATTAN — The woman who accused Greg Kelly of raping her also claims she became pregnant as a result of the alleged sexual assault, sources told DNAinfo. — Kelly, a local TV news anchor and son …

Discussion: New York Times, New York Post, New York Magazine, Business Insider, PolitickerNY, Newsday, Gothamist, The New York Observer and Daily Mail

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:
Former FNC White House Reporter Accused of Rape

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Capital New York, TVSpy, Mediaite and rbr.com

Alex Klein / Jim Romenesko:

Yale Daily News editors sat on explosive Patrick Witt story for months — Earlier this year, national news outlets breathlessly reported that Yale's quarterback, Patrick Witt, had chosen to skip a Rhodes Scholarship finalist interview in order to lead our team against Harvard in the annual Game.

Discussion: Gawker and New York Times

KPLU News for Seattle and the Northwest:

Facebook wanted journalists to sign non-disclosures before news conference — What they DID want us to see: Facebook attorney Craig Clark, right, talks to reporters with Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, second from right, at the press conference in Seattle on Thursday.

Discussion: FleetStreetBlues, Future of Journalism, ShortFormBlog, JIMROMENESKO.COM and 10,000 Words

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Thompson to step down after Olympics — Director general will quit at the end of 2012 or early in 2013 after eight years in charge of public broadcaster — Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general, has signalled to senior colleagues that he is ready to step down, with insiders believing …

Discussion: Daily Mail, BBC, Marketing Week and Guardian

Bobbie Johnson / GigaOM:

How the Daily Mail became the web's biggest newspaper — It's official. According to figures from comScore, Britain's Daily Mail has become the biggest newspaper on the web, hauling its way past everybody else... even the grand old New York Times. — And although the Gray Lady both disputes …

Discussion: Jon Slattery and Editors Weblog

Richard Horgan / FishbowlLA:
The Problem with the Daily Mail's Latest Internet Brag

Discussion: FishbowlNY, eBookNewser and @pressgazette

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

Acta protests break out as EU signs up — MEPs of 21 EU states, including the UK, have signed off on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement — The UK and 21 other European Union member states on Thursday signed an international copyright agreement treaty called Acta …

Discussion: Michael Geist Blog, Policy Blog, WebProNews, Associated Press, Boing Boing, Mashable!, Techdirt, BBC, Fortune and Wired.co.uk, more at Techmeme »

Janet Paskin / CJR:

The Velvet Rope — Why do journalists still care about seeing their name in print? — If print media is truly in an advanced stage of decline, if journalism's great hope is online, why do journalists still like so very much to see their names in print? By now, it ought to be like …

Kevin Lincoln / Business Insider:

Facebook Just Hired A Bloomberg Journalist To Be Its Managing Editor — In what could be a sign of things to come, Facebook has hired Dan Fletcher, former social media director at Bloomberg, to be its managing editor. — Both Fletcher and sources at Facebook confirmed that Fletcher will make the move …

Discussion: ZDNet, eMedia Vitals, Forbes, The Wall Blog, Future of Journalism, The Atlantic Wire and Talking Biz News

Steve Myers / Poynter:

New York Times releases code to help journalists collaborate on WordPress, other platforms — More and more journalists use blogging platforms to write and edit stories, but those text editors are pretty basic: It's not easy to see what changes others have made to a post.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Nieman Journalism Lab

Business Wire:

News Corporation Announces Matthew Anderson to Step Down as Group Director, Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Europe and Asia — News Corporation today announced that Matthew Anderson, News Corporation's Group Director, Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Europe and Asia, will step down from his position in London effective 31 March 2012.

Discussion: Guardian, Deadline.com/hollywood and @dansabbagh

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Memo to media: Supply and demand are out of your hands — There are plenty of reasons why the traditional media business — including the advertising industry — is in the shape it is in, including a failure to move quickly enough to adapt to changing market conditions.

Discussion: Poynter and eMedia Vitals

Aziz Ali / PSFK:

Why The Graphic Novel Will Save Business Journalism — Caleb Melby recently graduated and joined Forbes Magazine. As an intern, he took on the responsibility of writing The Zen of Steve Jobs, which we wrote about last month. — The big take away point is the fact that journalism remains an industry in crisis.

Tim Currie / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How a tightly paywalled, social-media-ignoring, anti-copy-paste, gossipy news site became a dominant force in Nova Scotia — Every morning, the business and political elite in the biggest province on Canada's East Coast turns to an unlikely source of information about their own world.

Steve Myers / Poynter:

NYT publishes Chinese translation of story about workers who make Apple products — The New York Times has published a Chinese translation of its story about worker conditions inside the Chinese factories that make Apple products. “The goal was twofold: to share the content of the article …