Mediagazer: Part one: Zell's big gamble (Chicago Tribune)

7:15 AM ET, January 15, 2013

Top News:

Lindsey Turrentine / CNET:

The 2013 Best of CES Awards: CNET's story — The true story of what happened before last week's Best of CES Awards unveiling — Last week, about 40 members of the CNET editorial staff met in the CNET trailer in the parking lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center to vote on our official Best of CES winner.

Discussion: The Verge, Hillicon Valley, Wall Street Journal, PandoDaily, Home Media Magazine, @megan, TVNewser and NetNewsCheck Latest

Joshua Topolsky / The Verge:
Exclusive: CBS forced CNET staff to recast vote after Hopper won ‘Best in Show’ at CES

Discussion: Ars Technica, Media Decoder, New York Magazine, Poynter, The Atlantic Wire, Electronista, BetaNews, @alexweprin, @brianstelter, Deadline.com, Techdirt, Adweek, AdAge, Betabeat, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @sandocnet and Digits

John Herman / BuzzFeed:
Star CNET Reporter Resigns Over CBS Controversy

Discussion: @sandocnet, @sandocnet, Talking Biz News, @alexweprin, @ryanlawler, @ryan and @sandocnet

John Biggs / TechCrunch:
What's Next For CNET After The Dish Debacle?

Discussion: The Verge and Talking Biz News

Brendan Sasso / Hillicon Valley:

Justice drops charges against Swartz after activist kills himself — The Justice Department dropped its charges against Internet activist Aaron Swartz on Monday, citing his death. — Swartz, who was facing computer hacking charges, hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment on Friday. He was 26.

Discussion: Electronic Frontier Foundation, ReadWrite, Crikey, Associated Press, WebProNews, AllThingsD, Softpedia News, The Wrap, Betabeat and TechCrunch

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed: Iranian Government Promotes Aaron Swartz Conspiracy Theories

Wall Street Journal:
Legal Case Strained Troubled Web Activist

Discussion: Gawker, Science Citizen, Techdirt and The Volokh Conspiracy

Chicago Tribune:

Part two: Warning signs — As pressure built to make a deal, an army of bankers and Tribune Co.'s top executives saw red flags but forged ahead — with huge fees and other payments as incentives — When Bank of America credit officer Dan Petrik and his team sat down in early 2007 …

Chicago Tribune:

Part one: Zell's big gamble — In the summer of 2007, a complicated deal to buy Tribune Co. and take it private reflected all the dangers of an easy-money era when caution was pushed aside — Aside from the business suit he was wearing, which he joked was rented for the occasion …

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

The Atlantic backtracks and removes controversial Scientology advertorial — The Atlantic has U-turned on its controversial paid-for feature article from the Church of Scientology. The publication had sparked a debate on media ethics and business models after allowing the advertorial …

Taylor Berman / Gawker:
The Atlantic Is Now Publishing Bizarre, Blatant Scientology Propaganda as ‘Sponsored Content’ (UPDATE)

Discussion: @alexismadrigal, @jaredbkeller, Business Insider and Pressing Issues

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Lance Armstrong Interview Could Be Worth Millions to Oprah Winfrey Network — Considerable as it may be, Oprah Winfrey's personal celebrity isn't enough to build a cable network on, as the early struggles of OWN showed. Her unmatched ability to get other celebrities to open up to her?

Discussion: The Daily Beast

David Carr / Media Decoder:
Armstrong and Winfrey: Familiar Names in a Time-Honored Ritual

Discussion: Yahoo! News and New York Times

Buzz Bissinger / The Daily Beast:
I Was Deluded to Believe Lance Armstrong When He Denied Doping

Discussion: Globe and Mail, Yahoo! News, Guardian and Deadspin

Dylan Byers / Politico:

N.Y. Times shakeup: Rick Berke to leave masthead, head new video effort — New York Times assistant managing editor Rick Berke will be leaving the masthead to take on a leadership role in video content, POLITICO has learned. — Berke, a former Washington editor, will join video …

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:
Joyce Wadler Takes NY Times Buyout

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, FishbowlNY and Politico

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

54% of U.S. kids have never read an ebook: New report — Scholastic, the world's largest children's publisher, released its biannual report on children and reading Monday morning. The study, conducted in partnership with the Harrison Group in fall 2012, surveyed 1,048 U.S. children ages 6 …

Discussion: Scholastic Media Room

Leslie Kaufman / Media Decoder:
Digital Reading on the Rise for Children (With a Qualifier)

Discussion: PublishersWeekly.com

Los Angeles Times:

Rupert Murdoch says Los Angeles Times purchase not a sure thing — Now that Rupert Murdoch is spinning off News Corp.'s publishing properties into a separate company, media observers have identified the Los Angeles Times as a likely target for acquisition. Murdoch isn't one of them.

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: John Witherow could be confirmed as Times editor this week

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

‘No pattern’ of crime related to Journal News maps, says police official — David Chong, the White Plains (N.Y.) public safety commissioner, tells the Erik Wemple Blog that there is “no pattern” of crime linked to the gun-permit-holder maps published last month by the Journal News.

David Carr / New York Times:
Guns, Maps and Data That Disturbs

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, CBS New York, Poynter, The Huffington Post and Capital New York

Newsday:
Journal News gun permit map used by burglars to target White Plains home?

Discussion: lohud.com, The Verge, New York Magazine, Gannett Blog, The Daily Caller, National Review and Fox News

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

The problem with BuzzFeed's sponsored posts — BuzzFeed is not just upending conventional wisdom on how Internet publishers can make money with its innovative digital ads; the lists, quizzes and posts it creates with advertisers show brands they can “actually create something people will engage with …

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Al Jazeera America: Will they watch? — In a matter of weeks, a new television channel called Al Jazeera America will launch with the hopes of achieving the impossible: convincing Americans that they should break from their regularly scheduled programming to watch a 24-hour, global news network owned by a Middle Eastern government.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

In battle for listeners, Audiobooks.com switches to Audible's pay-by-the-book model — When Audiobooks.com launched last January, the company had high hopes for a cloud-based streaming service that would let users listen to unlimited audiobooks for a monthly charge of $24.95.

Discussion: CNET