Mediagazer: Are annotations the new comments? (Felix Salmon)

3:20 PM ET, January 21, 2013

Top News:

Lionel Barber's email to FT staff outlining digital-first strategy — Editor's email to staff outlines detailed proposals for reshaping the paper for the digital age — In my New Year message, I said 2013 would test our resolve to move further and faster to support top quality journalism in a rapidly changing media landscape.

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Financial Times editor announces digital-first strategy — Lionel Barber to cut 35 jobs in ‘big cultural shift’ for business daily — The Financial Times editor, Lionel Barber, has announced plans to move the title to a digital-first strategy in a move he described as a “big cultural shift” for the business daily, and cut 35 jobs.

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

The Financial Times to axe staff in digital shift — The Financial Times is to axe 35 jobs as part of plans to make “a big cultural shift” from a traditional print news organisation to a digitally focused “networked business” in a bid to compete with social networks and information-gathering services like Google.

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
Hail the independent directors of The Times for living up to their remit

Discussion: Media News and Media Week

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: NI chief to hold meeting with Times directors over new editors

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Inauguration front pages combine Obama's second term, Martin Luther King Jr. legacy — President Obama's inauguration on Monday, January 21, 2013 coincides with the federal holiday celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Many inauguration front pages combined the two.

Discussion: Capital New York, New Yorker, The Daily Beast and The New Yorker Blog

Danny Yadron / Wall Street Journal:

Meet Ethan Sattler, 13 Years Old, White House Reporter — Perhaps no reporter faced more scrutiny from guards at the White House gate Monday morning than Ethan Sattler. — Mr. Sattler, 13 years old, does not have a driver's license. His Virginia child ID card lists his height at 4 feet 3 inches …

Noam Cohen / New York Times:

How M.I.T. Ensnared a Hacker, Bucking a Freewheeling Culture — In the early days of 2011, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology learned that it had an intruder. Worse, it believed the intruder had been there before. — Months earlier, the mysterious visitor had used …

Discussion: Media Nation and emptywheel

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:
Why the Prosecution of Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Matters to You, Personally

Discussion: Betabeat

Jim Romenesko:

Sinclair Broadcasting ‘owns’ social media accounts of its on-air talent — WHAM-TV (Rochester, NY) reporter Rachel Barnhart tells her followers that Sinclair Broadcasting, which recently acquired WHAM, has a policy of “owning” the social media accounts of its on-air talent.

Leslie Kaufman / Media Decoder:

An App to Sift Through Books — How do you find out what books friends and family are reading and loving? — One answer is a conversation face to face — but that is so old-fashioned. Another is to join social media sites devoted to books, like Goodreads.com or Shelfari.com — but that takes time and commitment.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent: Random House's new Facebook app: If you liked Evelyn Waugh, you'll love the Berenstain Bears

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Washington Post launches social trending feature — The Post Pulse feature gives 15 minute updates on the latest stories receiving ‘the most traction’ on social media — Copyright: dionhinchcliffe on Flickr. Some rights reserved. — The Washington Post has launched a new social trending feature …

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

A Downsized Boston Globe Opens Its Space for Community Uses — BOSTON — Among the many changes that Christopher M. Mayer wanted to make when he became publisher of the Boston Globe in 2010 was to transform a particularly unattractive section of the newsroom.

Discussion: Media Nation, @zimbalist, @pottsmark and @counternotions

Shalini Ramachandran / Digits:

Despite Media Companies' Best Efforts, ‘TV Everywhere’ Is Nowhere — People are streaming online video more than ever before but only 17% of pay TV subscribers have watched cable programming online using so-called “TV Everywhere” services, according to a new study.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Beet.TV

Felix Salmon:

Are annotations the new comments? — I'm in Munich, for the DLD conference, where Ben Horowitz took the opportunity to introduce the Rap Genius guys to the European digital-media crowd. But it's actually Horowitz's partner, Marc Andreessen, who has the best explanation of what the investment is all about:

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

TMZ video backlash gathers strength — Advertising pulled and online petition reaches 200,000 after gossip website refused to take down video of man being shot — US gossip website TMZ is facing fresh criticism for refusing to take down a video of a man being shot dead in a brawl outside a Hollywood nightclub.

Discussion: RumorFix