Mediagazer: Journal News will screen incoming mail after it receives suspicious powder (Andrew Beaujon/Poynter)

10:00 AM ET, January 3, 2013

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Al Jazeera Seeks a U.S. Voice Where Gore Failed — Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news giant, has long tried to convince Americans that it is a legitimate news organization, not a parrot of Middle Eastern propaganda or something more sinister. It just bought itself 40 million more chances to make its case.

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Glenn Beck Tried To Buy Al Gore's Current TV, Which Instead Sold To Al-Jazeera For $500 Million — Controversial conservative showman Glenn Beck's media company, The Blaze, wanted to buy the cable TV company Current TV, which is part-owned by Al Gore. — But, according to a WSJ report citing …

Discussion: Agence France Presse and AllThingsD

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Time Warner Cable Drops Current TV Upon Sale To Al Jazeera — NEW YORK — Time Warner Cable pulled the plug on Current TV just hours after news of the cable channel's sale to Al Jazeera became official. “This channel is no longer available on Time Warner Cable,” read an on-screen message where Current TV used to be found.

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

New Year, New Dish, New Media — When I first stumbled into blogging over 12 years ago, it was for two reasons: curiosity and freedom. I was curious about the potential for writing in this new medium; and for the first time, I felt total freedom as a writer. On my little blog, I was beholden to no one but my readers.

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Andrew Sullivan raises over $100,000 for ad-free blog in first six hours — Shortly after announcing that he would be leaving The Daily Beast and moving to a purely subscription-based business model, blogger Andrew Sullivan says he has seen “amazing” results. “We're well into the six figures,” he tells TechCrunch.

Discussion: Guardian

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Andrew Sullivan breaks from the Daily Beast; new Dish to charge $19.99/year

Discussion: The Daily Dish and Speakeasy

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Buzzfeed Raises $19.3 Million to Make LOL Content for the Social Web — Building a Giant War Chest That Signals Greater Ambitions — Buzzfeed set out to re-invent the notion of content for the social web by allowing pictures of cute animals to co-exist with serious political coverage.

Discussion: Media Decoder, BuzzFeed, Adweek, AllThingsD, paidContent, TechCrunch, @buzzfeedben, @peterlauria3, Business Insider, The Huffington Post and The Next Web

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Journal News will screen incoming mail after it receives suspicious powder — An envelope containing powder was opened by a Journal News employee Wednesday. “Emergency officials secured the room and the envelope, and the employee underwent decontamination procedures,” John W. Barry reports.

Discussion: lohud.com

Julie Moos / Poynter:
Newspaper can't have more gun permit data, county says, after publishing names, addresses outraged community

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Erik Wemple, Jack Shafer, ABCNEWS, mediabistro.com, TechCrunch and Gawker

Leslie Kaufman / Media Decoder:

Barnes & Noble Reports Tepid Holiday Sales — Barnes & Noble on Thursday reported disappointing holiday sales for the nine-week period ending Dec. 29, particularly for its struggling e-reader business. — Retails sales from the company's bookstores and its Web site, BN.com …

Discussion: Business Wire and paidContent

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Five officers in Met's phone-hacking probe face misconduct allegations — Five police officers and a civilian worker involved in the Metropolitan police's phone-hacking investigation have faced misconduct allegations, Scotland Yard has confirmed. The group included three detective constables …

Discussion: Belfast Telegraph and The Sun

Reuters:

NY Times loses bid to uncover details on drone strikes — (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday rejected The New York Times' bid to force the U.S. government to disclose more information about its targeted killing of people, including American citizens, who it believes have ties to terrorism.

Discussion: Gothamist and Politico

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Culture Editor Jonathan Landman to leave NYT — Culture Editor Jonathan Landman tells coworkers in an email that he's leaving the paper: … Landman was named culture editor in 2009 after running the Times' online operation. Reached by email, Landman said he couldn't say what he's doing next.

Discussion: The Wrap

Andy McSmith / The Independent:

Plans for the Privy Council to regulate Britain's newspapers — It was set up in 1231 by Henry III. It met every day under Elizabeth I. But under Elizabeth II it hasn't been convened for 25 years. So why does David Cameron think this centuries-old club can regulate the press?