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

10:15 PM ET, January 3, 2013

Top News:

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: Guardian, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, AdAge, The Week, Tampa Bay Times, Inside TV, Quartz, Los Angeles Times, @jackshafer, The Daily Dish, Business Insider, TVLine and thenation.com/blogs/180

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Bad news for cord cutters: Al Jazeera America won't be live streamed online — Cord cutters won't be able to tune into Al Jazeera America, the new cable news network that was announced Wednesday in conjunction with the news that Al Jazeera has purchased Al Gore's Current.tv.

Discussion: Media Decoder, AllThingsD, Business Insider, DealBook, The Stream and BBC

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.

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Questions Linger for Hosts After Sale of Current TV — Eliot Spitzer, Jennifer Granholm, Joy Behar and the other hosts on Current TV have no idea what comes next. — On Wednesday, their television home was sold to Al Jazeera, which plans to remake Current into an international news channel …

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

Discussion: Guardian, ABCNEWS and @rafat

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Glenn Beck Tried To Buy Al Gore's Current TV, Which Instead Sold To Al-Jazeera For $500 Million

Discussion: Glenn Beck, @mlcalderone and The Wrap

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: CJR, PSFK, Guardian, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Gawker and The Daily Dish

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Sullivan's new Dish raises $333,000 from over 11K people in first 24 hours — On Thursday, Andrew Sullivan pronounced himself “somewhat gob-smacked” by readers' response to his immensely popular blog the Dish leaving the Daily Beast, going independent and charging $19.99 a year.

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

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, Media & Entertainment, @dylanbyers, @rajunarisetti, Politico, FishbowlNY, @keachhagey, Poynter and NetNewsCheck Latest

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 …

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.

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

Discussion: VentureBeat and NetNewsCheck Latest

Evan Osnos / The New Yorker Blog:

China, the American Press, and the State Department — It's time for the State Department to take up the matter of American reporters in China, and Chinese reporters in America. — The work of the American press in China has become so contentious, and so central to our understanding …

Discussion: Quartz and China Law & Policy

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

Leslie Kaufman / Media Decoder:

Barnes & Noble's Strategy Is Questioned as Holiday Nook Sales Decline — For Barnes & Noble, the digital future is not what it used to be. — After a year spent signaling its commitment to build its business through its Nook division, Barnes & Noble announced on Thursday that holiday sales …

Discussion: Barnes & Noble, Inc., PublishersWeekly.com, AllThingsD, TechCrunch and paidContent