Top News:

Sports Editor Joe Sexton Leaving The New York Times? — New York Times sports editor Joe Sexton is expected to leave the paper for ProPublica as a voluntary buyout deadline approaches Thursday afternoon, sources tell The Huffington Post. Sexton did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
Discussion:
New York Times and The Huffington Post
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New York Times Buyout Deadline Hours Away, Joe Sexton Leaves — The next few days are going to be rough at the New York Times. Not only is the deadline for editors to accept buyouts today at 5 pm, Jill Abramson said in a memo that staffers will have to wait “a day or two after that” to know if there are going to be layoffs.

New York Times Classical Music Critic James Oestreich Takes Buyout
Discussion:
JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post, Politico, The New York Observer and Slipped Disc


Julian Assange attacks new WikiLeaks movie — Speaking during an Oxford Union debate, the WikiLeaks founder described The Fifth Estate as a ‘massive propaganda attack’ — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has described a forthcoming Hollywood film about him as a “massive propaganda attack” …
Discussion:
Media Decoder, Guardian, Sky News, The Independent, Telegraph, Mirror Online, Australian Times and Huffington Post UK
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Netflix Shares Jump 30% After Hours, As It Beats The Street With Revenues Of $945M And 2M New Subscribers — Netflix had a stellar fourth quarter, posting revenues and subscriber numbers well above analyst estimates. That has got investors excited again, driving the stock up 25 percent in after hours trading.
Discussion:
New York Times, Forbes, GigaOM, Home Media Magazine, Quartz, The Verge, Broadcasting & Cable and Fortune
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Netflix Talks a Little Trash About the Competition
Discussion:
Media Decoder, The Verge and Home Media Magazine


McGraw-Hill Acquires 20% Stake In Area9, The Adaptive Learning Company Behind Its New Smart eBooks — As a 95-year-old publishing company primarily known for its textbooks, McGraw-Hill is not usually the type of exhibitor one finds at the Consumer Electronics Show, let alone one to make a splash.

Rolling Stone Lays Off Two Noted Staff Members — 6:02 p.m. | Updated Rolling Stone, amid a variety of magazines responding to a troubled advertising environment by trimming staff, laid off two of its bigger names this month. — Eric Bates, the magazine's executive editor who had worked …


Robin Roberts Returns To ‘GMA’ Studios For First Time Since Bone Marrow Transplant — Robin Roberts returned to the “Good Morning America” studios on Thursday for the first time since her bone marrow transplant in September. Roberts is undergoing a delicate process of re-entry into her normal routine …


More than 70 newspapers respond to reality series casting call — More than 70 editors and publishers have responded to NBC Peacock Production's casting call for a reality series about a small-town newspaper. Producer Cara Biega “noted that she was impressed with how amazing their stories are …
Discussion:
10,000 Words and The Newspaper Guild


Journalists and activists report having their Skype calls tapped — EFF and others call out the service for lack of transparency and collaborating with Chinese censors — In an open letter this morning, a group including EFF, Greatfire.org and Reporters Without Borders called out Skype for …


Quora gets into the publishing business with new blogging platform — Newspapers might be dying, but there is no shortage of companies who want to get into the publishing business. Or the blogging business, at least. Quora plans to announce Wednesday that it's rolling out a new blogging platform …
Discussion:
Columbia Journalism Review, CNET, The Next Web, SocialTimes, VentureBeat, Fast Company, AllThingsD, The Verge, TechCrunch and WebProNews


Global TV platform Viki widens its reach with Amazon Instant partnership — Somewhere in Turkey, someone is working on a hit TV show right now — a show that viewers in the U.S. could fall in love with, if they only had the chance to see it. That's the core belief behind Viki …


Gawker Expects at Least 10% of Revenue From E-Commerce This Year, Says Denton Memo — Seeking ‘Commerce Specialists’ for Gawker Sites — Apparently, Gawker Media is serious about its e-commerce business. In a memo to his employees today outlining some business-side promotions and departures …
Discussion:
eMedia Vitals

Phone-hack saga: Cops cuff ex-health worker in pre-dawn swoop — A 59-year-old ex-healthcare worker was arrested today by cops probing allegations of bribes paid to public officials and police alongside an investigation into phone-hacking by journalists. The Met said its officers cuffed …


Battling Kobo, Amazon launches Kindle e-readers and store in Canada — Toronto-based Kobo is Canada's leading e-reading company, but Amazon hopes that won't be the case for long as it ramps up its Canadian presence. Canadians have long been able to buy the most basic Kindle from across the border …
Discussion:
Amazon.com, CNET, Softpedia News, Melville House Books and The Next Web


X-Surface: Don't believe everything you read. — I am a gamer. I don't work for Microsoft. — I, like most other gamers, am sick of seeing endless rumours and speculation citing “anonymous sources” or “insiders” with no evidence, no proof, no guarantee that they've been fact-checked or can be relied on.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo UK and VG247
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iPads replace newspapers in Boston Globe's school donation program — Many newspapers let readers donate the proceeds of their subscriptions to an education fund when they go on vacation. These funds have gone to provide newspapers and digital subscriptions to local classrooms …

Guardian-owner ends talks on Auto Trader sale-FT — The publisher of Britain's Guardian and Observer newspapers has ended talks on selling its stake in Trader Media Group because the price offered fell short of expectations, the Financial Times said on Thursday.
Discussion:
pressgazette.co.uk and Financial Times


E-Commerce Platform Gumroad Adds New Publishing Features, Says Some Authors Have Made $100K+ — Gumroad, the Kleiner Perkins-backed startup that allows you to sell anything through a simple link, is announcing some additions to its publishing program today, while also sharing some of its early success stories.
Discussion:
The Next Web