Mediagazer: Open letter to John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media (Bill Grueskin/CJR)

12:40 PM ET, September 12, 2012

Top News:

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

The Kernel sued by former contributors — The London-based blog about the tech startup scene, the Kernel, is being sued through an employment tribunal for non-payment of thousands of pounds by two of its former contributors, and is said to owe thousands more to other former staff.

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

Journal Register opens the kimono a bit — CEO John Paton gives us some hard numbers — One of my biggest criticisms of Journal Register Company and Digital First Media has been how it has cherry picked financial figures to show its transformation is succeeding, and how the press covered those incomplete numbers.

Bill Grueskin / CJR:

Open letter to John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media — Dear John, You and I have never met, but we have corresponded—a bit testily at times (more on that later). In light of last week's news, I wanted to follow up with another round of correspondence, and this time I'm doing it publicly, via the Columbia Journalism Review.

Discussion: Poynter, @rajunarisetti and NetNewsCheck Latest

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:
For Paton, Bankruptcy for Journal Register Is ‘Embarrassing’ but Necessary

Discussion: Street Fight, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog and NetNewsCheck Latest

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Glenn Beck's Show Heads to Dish Network — Glenn Beck is bringing his brand of conservative commentary back to the television set. — One year after embracing an Internet-only distribution model, Mr. Beck is repositioning his streaming network, TheBlaze TV, as an offering for cable …

Discussion: Forbes, Radio & Television …, Mediaite, TVNewser, Broadcasting & Cable, Media Decoder, Los Angeles Times, Deadline.com, Glenn Beck, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, The Atlantic Wire, The Week and New York Magazine

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

NRS: Guardian has highest combined print and online monthly readership for quality titles — A new study, which combines print and online readership figures for the first time, shows that more people in the UK read the Guardian online than in print, with the newspaper securing …

Discussion: Guardian and @jayrosen_nyu

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Web adds a fifth to UK newspaper readership, print still dominates — What does having a website do to your newspaper's readership? Either a little or a game-changing lot, depending on the title. First-ever combined UK monthly print readership and online reach (as opposed to circulation) …

Discussion: Guardian and NetNewsCheck Latest

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Patriot-News staffers will learn next month if they've lost their jobs — Two hundred and thirty employees of the (Harrisburg, Pa.) Patriot-News will be notified by the first week of October whether they'll keep their jobs, the Associated Press reports. — In late August the Pulitzer Prize …

Discussion: @sganim

Associated Press:

Harrisburg's daily Patriot-News to publish on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays starting Jan. 2 — HARRISBURG, Pa. — Harrisburg's daily newspaper, The Patriot-News, said Tuesday it will scale back the publication of printed papers to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays starting Jan. 2.

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Hillsborough report: why the Mirror refused to accept police spin — In October last year I wrote a blog item headlined The Sun's Hillsborough source has never been a secret - it was the police. So today's confirmation came as little surprise. — A couple of months later …

Dina Rickman / Huffington Post UK:
Hillsborough Tragedy: Kelvin MacKenzie, Former Sun Editor, Apologises To Liverpool For ‘That Headline’

Discussion: Huffington Post UK, @fleetstreetfox, themediablog.typepad.com, @skynewsbreak, @ianconnolly, @paulwhitelaw, @brokenbottleboy and @gavreilly

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Mayer Set to Get Yahoo's Alibaba Billions in One Week (But Will Investors Get Some Back, Too?) — According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo will officially close the multi-billion-dollar sale of half its assets in China's Alibaba Group in one week.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Business Insider, Mashable!, 24/7 Wall St. and CNET

Chris Velazco / TechCrunch:

Citing “The Math,” HBO's Alison Moore Says There Are Still No Plans For Standalone HBO GO In The U.S. — Those lucky folks in the Nordics just recently got access to an on-demand, over-the-top HBO service that bears more than a passing resemblance to HBO GO, but we here in the States haven't been quite as fortunate.

Discussion: The Wrap

MG Siegler: “The Math” — Earlier today at TechCrunch Disrupt, Ryan Lawler led a media panel.

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Roll Call editor leaving for NPR — Roll Call editor Scott Montgomery is leaving the company and heading to NPR Digital, CQ Roll Call announced on Wednesday. — CQ Roll Call Executive vice president and managing director Keith White told staffers in an email that Montgomery will leave the publication on Sept. 27.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Philadelphia newspaper owners demand immediate concessions from union — The new owners of the Philadelphia newspapers are demanding immediate concessions from the Guild that represents employees of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com, union officials Dan Gross and Bill Ross write in a blog post.

Discussion: The Newspaper Guild …

Wall Street Journal:

Publisher of the Deal Magazine for Sale — The publisher of The Deal, a magazine devoted to covering mergers, financings and other transactions, is for sale and being shopped to media and information companies, people familiar with the matter said. — Media-focused boutique bank DeSilva+Phillips LLC …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @rafat and Digits

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Scarborough: ‘I have no plans to run in 2016’ — MSNBC's Joe Scarborough says he has no plans to run in 2016, despite a report in Vanity Fair that suggests otherwise. “I have no plans to run in 2016,” Scarborough told POLITICO today, following a report by Douglas Brinkley stating …

Discussion: @dylanbyers and Mediaite

Douglas Brinkley / Vanity Fair:
Joe Scarborough to Test the Waters for a 2016 Presidential Run

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Mediaite, TVNewser and New York Magazine

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Meet Print's New Politicos — Time, Newsweek, The Nation: These are the kinds of magazines where political junkies expect to find election news. But at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, delegates rubbed elbows with reporters from magazines known less for their election coverage than for forecasting fashion trends.

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Tumblr Feeling the Heat: New York Web Giant Under Pressure To Build A Business — David Karp is starting to feel pressure from investors to turn his giant social blogging platform, Tumblr, into a business, sources say. — The venture capitalists, particularly Sequoia Capital …