Mediagazer: Cats, politics, $46 million in funding and a UK launch: It's time to start taking Buzzfeed seriously (Patrick Smith/TheMediaBriefing)

2:35 PM ET, January 3, 2013

Top News:

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.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Guardian and Business Insider

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

Discussion: The Wrap, @mlcalderone and TVNewser

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, VentureBeat, Fortune, The Wrap, Adweek, @buzzfeedben, AllThingsD, Hollywood Reporter, paidContent, TechCrunch, The Next Web, @peterlauria3, Business Insider and SocialTimes

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

BuzzFeed Is Now Valued At ~$200 Million, But Investors Think It Has Billion-Dollar Potential — BuzzFeed, a media company that makes viral content, announced a $19.3 million fundraise this morning. — Last January, it announced a $15.5 million round, and it has raised $46.3 million to date.

Patrick Smith / TheMediaBriefing:

Cats, politics, $46 million in funding and a UK launch: It's time to start taking Buzzfeed seriously — As a reader of this site, it's unlikely you're a regular reader of Buzzfeed.com. — But if you care about the evolution of online media in a real-time, socially-connected world without the barriers …

Discussion: Bloomberg and VatorNews

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

The Atlantic Will Experiment With Online Pay Models In 2013 — The Atlantic is two things every legacy publishing company would like to be: profitable and more reliant on digital advertising revenues than on print. But while that may have been good enough in 2012, for 2013 the magazine has a new goal …

Discussion: Capital New York, Politico, @dylanbyers, @rajunarisetti and @keachhagey

Leslie Kaufman / Media Decoder:

Barnes & Noble Reports Tepid Holiday Sales — 9:44 a.m. | Updated Barnes & Noble on Thursday reported disappointing holiday sales for the nine-week period ending Dec. 29, particularly for its struggling e-reader business. — Retail sales from the company's bookstores and its Web site …

Discussion: Business Wire, PublishersWeekly.com, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, Electronista, paidContent and AppNewser

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Washington Post Video Channel To Launch Online — NEW YORK — The Washington Post announced plans Thursday to launch an online political channel in Summer 2013. Marty Baron, who took over this week as the paper's executive editor, told staff in a memo that the channel's …

Discussion: Politico, @wapoombudsman and @jeffsonderman

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, The Raw Story and Erik Wemple

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

Discussion: Jack Shafer, New York Times, Erik Wemple, Washington Post and TechCrunch

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: Poynter, TechCrunch, Guardian and PandoDaily

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

Discussion: CJR, TIME, WE ARE YOUR FEK, GigaOM, The Daily Dish and Speakeasy

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Michele Norris to Return to NPR in New Role — Updated Michele Norris, the NPR host who took a 15-month leave of absence while her husband worked for the Obama campaign, will return to the public radio network in February, NPR said Thursday. — But Ms. Norris, one of NPR's most familiar voices …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and FishbowlDC

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: PressGazette and The Sun