Mediagazer: New ‘Observer’ editor Ken Kurson is a media veteran with family ties and, possibly, an abstemious hand (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

1:45 PM 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: Mediaite, TVNewser, Politico, Erik Wemple, The Daily Beast, Kirk LaPointe's …, Business Insider, @ggreenwald, The Raw Story, CEPR and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal:

Al Jazeera Embraces Cable TV, Loses Web — Al Jazeera used the Web to build a following in America, which it hopes to exploit on cable television through Wednesday's purchase of Current TV. But to keep cable operators happy, Al Jazeera may have to make a difficult bargain: Giving up on the Web.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and MarketingVox News & Trends

New York Times:

Al Jazeera in America — Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network, has long wanted to gain a bigger American television audience, and it may have finally found a way to do that by buying Current TV. But as the deal was being signed, Time Warner Cable announced it would immediately stop carrying Current …

Discussion: Cision, The New Republic, The Wrap and Los Angeles Times

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Why is the ‘Times’ editorial board making a cause out of Al Jazeera? — There's something oddly tin-eared about the New York Times' editorial today on the purchase of Al Gore's cable network, Current, by Al Jazeera. The editors argue, a little wanly, that it's a shame that Time Warner Cable won't carry the new network.

Discussion: Media Decoder

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Cybersquatters Hop On AlJazeeraAmerica.com — As I reported yesterday, it isn't entirely clear what Al Jazeera's new U.S. network will be called. — While beIN and beIN News are said to be options, the New York Times reports that the current working name is “Al Jazeera America.”

Discussion: Politico, FishbowlNY and GalleyCat

David Zurawik / Baltimore Sun: Why Al Jazeera buying Current is a good thing for media, country

Reuters:
Al Jazeera's new channel struggles for U.S. distribution

Discussion: SNL Financial and PandoDaily

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

Discussion: B&C and Globe and Mail

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
Time Warner Cable Says It Will Keep ‘Open Mind’ on Reinstating Al Jazeera

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Inside TV, Mediaite, AdAge, The Huffington Post, Politico, The Week, The Daily Dish, @jackshafer and DealBook

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: MediaShift, Bloomberg, DealBook and Business Insider

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

Discussion: @rafat and ABCNEWS

David Carr / Media Decoder:

New York Observer Hits Reset Again, Names Ken Kurson New Editor — It will come as something short of a surprise to those who follow the Manhattan media scene that The New York Observer has picked a new editor. After all, the newspaper has already had five editors in the seven years since Jared Kushner …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, FishbowlNY, @tomscocca, New York Magazine, @johnjcook, @espiers, @weareyourfek, @weareyourfek, @koblin, @espiers and @felixsalmon

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

New ‘Observer’ editor Ken Kurson is a media veteran with family ties and, possibly, an abstemious hand — The New York Observer's new editor-in-chief is a political consultant, longtime professional associate of Rudy Giuliani and close friend of Jared Kushner, who owns the paper, and his father Charles.

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: NetNewsCheck Latest, Fortune, Adweek, Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, The Next Web, Elapsed Time and parislemon

Tom Gara / Corporate Intelligence:

Inside BuzzFeed's Old Media Business Model — After BuzzFeed's announcement of a new $19 million round of venture funding yesterday, we had a chat with Jonah Peretti, the company's co-founder. He was pretty tight-lipped about the numbers - what the company is worth, or how much revenue it's pulling in …

Discussion: Guardian, Digiday and Business Insider

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

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Bloomberg, Corporate Intelligence, eMedia Vitals and AdAge

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Andrew Sullivan on Going Back to Future as an Indie Blogger — On Wednesday, Andrew Sullivan, one of the pioneers of the blogging Web, decided to end his relationship with The Daily Beast, and by the way, with advertising as well. His decision made quite a splash, in part because others wonder whether …

Discussion: Pressthink, Mashable!, The Daily Dish, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, The Atlantic Online and 24/7 Wall St.

Ann Friedman:
Journalism Is Personal — You probably read this post at Gawker …

Discussion: The Buttry Diary

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

Discussion: GigaOM, The Daily Dish, The New York Observer, VentureBeat, The Next Web and PSFK

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.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and New York Times

Associated Press: Journalists confront China censors over editorial

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

Discussion: TechCrunch and Hillicon Valley

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Washington Times lays off staff — The Washington Times has just laid off newsroom staffers in a move that's been in the works for weeks. New top editor David Jackson and new Times CEO Larry Beasley broke the news at a meeting of approximately 20 employees, according to one person who attended.

Discussion: @d1scourse

Adrienne LaFrance / Washington Post:

Library of Congress has archive of tweets, but no plan for its public display — In the few minutes it will take you to read this story, some 3 million new tweets will have flitted across the publishing platform Twitter and ricocheted across the Internet. The Library of Congress is busy archiving …

Discussion: Library of Congress Blog, SocialTimes and BuzzFeed