Mediagazer: Suddenly, Samsung And Others Are Trying To Make An Apple TV Before Apple Can (Steve Kovach/Business Insider)

8:05 AM ET, December 29, 2012

Top News:

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

How a bogus claim about Instagram losing users made Facebook's stock drop nearly 3% — Facebook's stock dropped 2.9% in its first minutes of trading this morning. Investors were likely responding to a report in the New York Post that Instagram, the photo-sharing that Facebook acquired this year …

Discussion: New York Post, The Verge, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Digits, The Atlantic Wire, The Huffington Post, Techdirt, Mashable!, AppNewser, SocialTimes, Mercury News, TPM IdeaLab, AdAge, The Next Web, Wired, Adweek, CNET, The Consumerist, Daily Dot, Betabeat, The Week, HyperVocal and VentureBeat

Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:

Newspaper on Cape Cod Apologizes for a Veteran Reporter's Fabrications — HYANNIS, Mass. — When an editor at The Cape Cod Times was reading the newspaper last month, she thought an article about the Veterans Day parade from the day before seemed slightly off.

Discussion: @penenberg and @bobbymacreports

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

‘Snow Fall’ Tells a Story About an Avalanche and a Newspaper's Digital Progress — With its spectacular graphics and photography, and its beautifully written narrative, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek” was a compelling project, even for those who might not have been particularly interested in the topic.

Jim Romenesko:
More than 3.5 million page views for New York Times' ‘Snow Fall’ feature

Discussion: Forbes, yelvington.com, The Atlantic Wire, LA Observed, Boing Boing and FishbowlNY

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Pearson buys $89.5m Nook stake to secure book distribution — Talk about vertical integration. Pearson is taking a five percent stake in newly-reconfigured ebook device and retail brand Nook Media in order to gain favourable distribution for its education books.

Discussion: DealBook, Stock Market, Guardian, Pearson, TechCrunch, PublishersWeekly.com and The Next Web

Jim Romenesko:

Patch editors say staff and budgets are being cut in 2013 — I asked Patch staffers Thursday to comment on a report that editors are being given more communities to cover and freelance budgets are being cut in 2013. Here are two responses that came in: — From a Patch editor:

Discussion: BostInno

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

Where The Journal News went wrong in publishing names, addresses of gun owners — In the days since The Journal News published and mapped the names and addresses of local citizens who hold gun permits, outraged critics have published the names and addresses of journalists at the paper.

Discussion: New York Magazine, US News, GigaOM, The Wrap, MediaPost, Daily Mail, Media Nation, Gannett Blog, Yahoo! News, Kirk LaPointe's …, Gothamist and The Huffington Post

Neetzan Zimmerman / Gawker:
In Retaliation for Map of Gun Permit Holders, Blogger Lists Names and Addresses of Newspaper Staff

Discussion: Techdirt, Politico, Mediaite, Washington Post and Newser

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:

Suddenly, Samsung And Others Are Trying To Make An Apple TV Before Apple Can — Three years ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show where he showed off a Slate PC, the company's interpretation of a modern-day tablet.

Mat Honan / Wired:
No One Uses Smart TV Internet Because It Sucks

Discussion: Softpedia News and TVSpy

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

News Corp buys regional sports channel in Ohio — (Reuters) - News Corp said on Friday it bought SportsTime Ohio, a Cleveland-based regional sports network that broadcasts Cleveland Indians baseball games. — The company did not disclose financial details.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Bloomberg

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

How looking beyond UK may save British newspapers — With British titles deriving up to 55% of readers from abroad, the temptation to expand internationally for growth is compelling — For most of the half century since the Guardian left Manchester, Britain's newspapers have travelled little further …

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

Talking about paywalls without talking about tablets is just wrong — Mike Masnick published a piece on Tech Dirt yesterday about how the better-than-expected success of the New York Times “paywall” doesn't mean it's actually “working.” — In March, when the Times re-introduced its subscription element …

Discussion: Smart News, NetNewsCheck Latest and Techdirt

Elliot Spagat / Associated Press:

Orange County Register Owner Eyes Tribune Papers — SANTA ANA, Calif. — The publisher of the Orange County Register said Thursday that at an investor group he leads may want to buy Tribune Co.'s newspapers after the media conglomerate emerges from bankruptcy.

Discussion: Reuters and JIMROMENESKO.COM

The Huffington Post:

Myanmar To Allow Daily Private Newspapers — YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar said Friday it will allow private daily newspapers starting in April for the first time since 1964, in the latest step toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation.

Discussion: mediabistro.com