Mediagazer: The first stirrings of Rupert Murdoch's new company, nickname: ‘PubCo’ (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

9:45 AM ET, January 4, 2013

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Gore Went to Bat for Al Jazeera, and Himself — Al Gore at the Current TV studios in San Francisco in 2005. He said Al Jazeera's coverage was “thorough, fair and informative.” — Al Gore's Current TV was never popular with viewers, but it was a hit where it counted: with cable and satellite providers.

Discussion: Politico, Erik Wemple, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, @ggreenwald, Mediaite and Wall Street Journal

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Time Warner Cable Says It Will Keep ‘Open Mind’ on Reinstating Al Jazeera — Time Warner Cable minced no words when it announced on Wednesday night that it was dropping Current TV, just hours after Al Jazeera acquired the channel. “Our agreement with Current has been terminated …

Discussion: New York Times, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, AdAge, Inside TV, Guardian, The Week, Los Angeles Times, @jackshafer, The Daily Dish, Politico, Business Insider, Tampa Bay Times, The Stream and DealBook

David Zurawik / Baltimore Sun:

Why Al Jazeera buying Current is a good thing for media, country — Forget the vapid personality chatter about Al Gore and Glenn Beck — I don't care if Al Gore got more money than he ever deserved for his pathetic channel, or Glenn Beck got the short end of the stick in trying to buy …

Reuters:

Al Jazeera's new channel struggles for U.S. distribution — (Reuters) - Al Jazeera's announced plans to establish a new U.S. cable news channel via the purchase of Current TV isn't even 48 hours old and already it finds itself in a vicious battle to retain distribution rights.

Discussion: PandoDaily

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:
New Cable Channels Keep Coming Despite Content-Cost Crackdown

Discussion: Globe and Mail

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder: Questions Linger for Hosts After Sale of Current TV

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Bad news for cord cutters: Al Jazeera America won't be live streamed online

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Daily Caller, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, DealBook and AllThingsD

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:
Al Jazeera will face hurdles to succeeding with Current TV

Discussion: @rafat and ABCNEWS

Associated Press:

China says New York Times reporter was not expelled, says his visa application was incomplete — BEIJING — The Chinese government said Friday that it did not expel a New York Times reporter who had to leave mainland China this week after he failed to obtain new press credentials.

Associated Press:
Journalists confront China censors over editorial

Discussion: Big News Network.com

Evan Osnos / The New Yorker Blog:
China, the American Press, and the State Department

Discussion: TechCrunch and China Law & Policy

Ann Friedman:

Journalism Is Personal — You probably read this post at Gawker, in which Hamilton Nolan aims to put the fear of Cronkite into the aspiring Thought Catalog contributors of America. You probably also read that Andrew Sullivan is striking out on his own, hoping his readers will pony …

Discussion: Guardian

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Sullivan's new Dish raises $333,000 from over 11K people in first 24 hours

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Pressthink, GigaOM, VentureBeat, The New York Observer, The Atlantic Online, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, PSFK and Felix Salmon

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

Why Tumblr and Buzzfeed are on a collision course in 2013 — The decline and fall of traditional media empires is one side of the ongoing turmoil within the industry, but the other side is the rise of disruptive new players, and two of the most prominent names in that category are BuzzFeed and Tumblr.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Fortune, Adweek, Hollywood Reporter, The Next Web and Forbes

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

Discussion: BuzzFeed, eMedia Vitals, Bloomberg and VatorNews

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:
BuzzFeed Is Now Valued At ~$200 Million, But Investors Think It Has Billion-Dollar Potential

Discussion: AdAge, NetNewsCheck Latest, FishbowlNY and NYConvergence.com

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Digital Cracks 50% of Ad Revenue at Wired Magazine — First for the Title Is an Encouraging Sign for the Industry — Digital contributed half of all ad revenue at Wired magazine in the final three months of 2012, a first for the title and an encouraging sign for an industry …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Business Insider

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Down And Out: Spotify Halts Its Music Download Service In Europe, But How Many Were Using It Anyway? [Updated] — Spotify has made a mark in the music business with its hugely popular music streaming service, now with 20 million subscribers, 5 million of which pay monthly for it.

Discussion: AllThingsD, Pocket-lint, hypebot, The Next Web and Electronista

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: eMedia Vitals, FishbowlNY, Media & Entertainment, @dylanbyers, Capital New York, NetNewsCheck Latest, Poynter, Politico, @rajunarisetti and @keachhagey

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Press and broadcast coalition warns against changes to contempt law — National papers and broadcasters oppose law change that could see courts given power to order removal of archive web stories — A coalition of national newspapers and broadcasters are to warn against possible changes …

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

Legimi Wants To Be The ‘Spotify For Ebooks’ With A Business Model That Relies On You Reading Less — Legimi is definitely a startup I'll be watching closely in 2013. Put simply, it aims to be the ‘Spotify for ebooks,’ in which for a monthly subscription, users get access to a potentially infinite library …