Mediagazer: What makes something go viral? The Internet according to Gawker's Neetzan Zimmerman (Andrew Phelps/Nieman Journalism Lab)

4:30 PM ET, June 12, 2012

Top News:

New Orleans Times-Picayune Layoffs: Paper Cuts A Third Of Its Staff — Layoffs have begun at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, as the paper prepares to transition to a mostly-digital operation. The media world was rocked in late May when the Times-Picayune announced that, come the fall, it will only print three editions a week.

Discussion: Poynter, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit, Poynter, WWL-TV, @wrightthompson, The Daily Beast, New Orleans Times-Picayune and NolaVie

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Times-Picayune restaurant critic laid off — A few weeks back, when the New Orleans Times-Picayune announced plans to reduce its print schedule and lay off some staff, it spoke of robust-ifying its coverage in at least one area: The newspaper plans to continue its highly successful Picayune …

Discussion: Diner's Journal, @justinnxt and @erikwemple

John McQuaid / The Atlantic Online:

Why a Weak Website Can't Replace a Daily Newspaper in New Orleans — Today's layoffs at the Times-Picayune signal the end of daily papers as tribunes of the communities they serve. — The newspaper industry is in the midst of a mass decimation. This is due to the inexorable forces …

Discussion: Forbes, American Journalism Review, The Nation and AdPulp

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Times-Picayune tells readers: ‘This is a difficult week at our paper’ — As journalists at Advance Publications' New Orleans and Alabama papers receive word of layoffs, Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss is responding to readers angry about the plan to reduce printing and staff.

Discussion: Gambit New Orleans News …

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Wall Street Journal Reporter Gina Chon Resigns — Gina Chon, The Wall Street Journal reporter whose Iraq courtship emails with ambassadorial nominee Brett McGurk (now her husband) were leaked on Cryptome last week, has resigned. — “Gina Chon agreed to resign this afternoon after acknowledging …

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, Gawker, @poynter and The Daily Beast

Press Gazette:

Murdoch ‘asked Major to change policy on Europe’ — Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch asked former Tory prime minister John Major to change policy on Europe, he told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards today. Murdoch - owner of The Sun and The Times - warned that without change his newspapers …

Discussion: Guardian, Mixed Media, Deadline.com, Jon Slattery, Guy Fawkes' blog, Guardian, New York Times, @benfenton and @benfenton

Guardian:
Murdoch's share of newspaper market is too big, says Miliband

Discussion: Guardian and Press Gazette

Steve Jordon / Omaha World-Herald:

Warren Buffett buys Texas newspaper — The Omaha World-Herald Co. said Tuesday it has agreed to buy the Bryan-College Station (Texas) Eagle newspaper from the Evening Post Publishing Co. of Charleston, S.C. The purchase, for an undisclosed price, is to close June 30.

Discussion: Forbes, Reuters, Poynter, Newswatch, @juliemmoos and Agence France Presse

Megan Garber / The Atlantic Online:

Why the World's Most Perfect News Tweet Is Kind of Boring — Researchers have found a way to predict a tweet's popularity — with an astounding 84 percent accuracy. — Here, per one algorithm, is the Platonic version of the news tweet: … If that seems a little dull for Twitter Perfection ... well, that's the point.

Discussion: MTV Buzzworthy Blog, Softpedia News, h30507.www3.hp.com, Mashable, PC Magazine, Neatorama and Personanondata

Steve Myers / Poynter: Biggest news sources on Google News aren't shared the most on Twitter

Reuters:

DirecTV could also deploy ad skip technology — DirecTV Group (DTV.O), the largest U.S. satellite TV operator, could deploy technology that would enable its millions of subscribers to automatically skip television advertising, its top executive said on Monday.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Forbes, CNET and Softpedia News

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Random House promotes digital president Madeline McIntosh to COO — Random House has promoted Madeline McIntosh, president of sales, digital and operations, to the position of chief operating officer, effective immediately. — McIntosh, who is 43, was Amazon's director of Kindle content acquisition …

Discussion: GalleyCat

Dan Barry / New York Times:

All the News That's Fit to Screen: Movies About Journalism — BACK when paper and ink still mattered, I fell into a job as a nightside reporter at The Providence Journal, in the habitually newsworthy state of Rhode Island. This was many years ago, before exercise, sobriety and good hygiene …

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What makes something go viral? The Internet according to Gawker's Neetzan Zimmerman — In March, I wrote about Gawker's new quantity-over-quality experiment. Each day, one Gawker staffer was tasked with pageview-chasing duty, a quest to post enough cat videos, Miley Cyrus pics …

Discussion: Gawker

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Seattle Times features ‘op-ed rap’ in response to local shootings — On Sunday, The Seattle Times experimented with a new kind of editorial — an “op-ed rap” as some are calling it. — Sharon Chan, associate opinions editor/digital at The Seattle Times, asked local hip-hop artist Prometheus Brown …

Discussion: Seattle Times and Prometheus Brown