Mediagazer: E-Commerce Platform Gumroad Adds New Publishing Features, Says Some Authors Have Made $100K+ (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)

10:40 PM ET, January 23, 2013

Top News:

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Inside Netflix's Project Griffin: The Forgotten History Of Roku Under Reed Hastings — They codenamed the top-secret project “Griffin,” after Tim Robbins' character from the film “The Player.” After all, that's what the team was building: The Netflix Player, a black and boxy device …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Broadcasting & Cable, AdAge, GigaOM, paidContent, Forbes, VentureBeat, Engadget, The Next Web, TechCrunch and Gizmodo

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

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: Forbes, Home Media Magazine, GigaOM, Broadcasting & Cable, The Verge and Quartz

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Netflix Talks a Little Trash About the Competition — Netflix turned in a Q4 that beat Wall Street's expectations, and it's basking in the results as investors bid up its shares by more than 25 percent. That's a much better story for Reed Hastings and company than some of its recent quarters …

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Verge and Home Media Magazine

Jesse Hicks / The Verge:

Tweeting the news: Andy Carvin test-pilots Twitter journalism — NPR's “one-man Twitter news bureau” on his process, the Arab Spring, and online literacy — Andy Carvin's official title is Senior Strategist, Social Media Desk at National Public Radio, but that bureaucratic fog undercuts the scale of his work.

David Holmes / PandoDaily:

How Twitter's new embeds will make social media's copyright issues even weirder — “What is a Tweet anymore?” That's the question posed by Buzzfeed's Matt Buchanan today in response to Twitter's latest update to its embedded Tweets. While text and uploaded photos have for some time been included …

Discussion: CNET, Softpedia News, BuzzFeed, paidContent, Marketing Pilgrim, Twitter Blog and The Next Web

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Vine, Twitter's Instagram for Video, Launching Soon — At Apple's App Store

Discussion: afr.com, TechCrunch, GigaOM, The Verge and The Next Web

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

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

Untitled:

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, VG247 and Gizmodo UK

Dave Thier / Forbes: Random Gamer Punks Major Blogs on Xbox Rumors

Eliza Kern / paidContent:

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: CNET, Columbia Journalism Review, VentureBeat, Fast Company, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, SocialTimes, The Verge and The Next Web

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

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 …

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

CBS' Hopper Award Knock Could Set Back Media Ownership Rules — When CBS torpedoed CNET's planned “best of show” award for Dish's Hopper, it may have also blown to bits broadcasters' best chance for looser media ownership rules at the Federal Communications Commission.

Discussion: CNET, Techdirt, Variety, Reuters, SlashGear and Radio & Television …

Jeff Blagdon / The Verge:
CBS claims Dish hid commercial-skipping Auto Hop feature during contract negotiations

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com

John Koblin / Deadspin:

Report: ESPN Suspends Two Producers For Cutting Away From Notre Dame AD's Te'o Presser Last Week — Just about four hours after we broke the Manti Te'o story, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick held that extremely weird presser. He got choked up.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Columbia Journalism Review and New York Times

Barbara Goldberg / Reuters:
Te'o tells Katie Couric he lied to maintain hoax

Discussion: Fast Company, Deadspin, Bloomberg, ABCNEWS, NPR, The Huffington Post, Inside TV and Associated Press

Jim Romenesko:

No insurance for you, investigative reporter! … Lee van der Voo tells Romenesko readers: I was just informed by State Farm here in Oregon, where I'm an independent investigative journalist, that they are dumping my office rental policy because of the kind of journalism I do.

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

New York Times Classical Music Critic James Oestreich Takes Buyout — Classical musical critic for The New York Times James Oestreich has accepted the paper's buyout and will retire at the end of the month from the New York Times. The departure, which was reported by Slipped Disc …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Wrap, Politico and The New York Observer

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Through The Wire: Reuters Layoffs — Last week was a bleak one at Thomson Reuters, the financial news and wire service giant. According to sources, as many as 3,000 people were let go, out of approximately 50,000 employees around the globe. Most of the layoffs came from the financial sector …

Discussion: Forbes

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News: Many Reuters editors, reporters won't recive raises in 2013

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Emily Bell and Alex Graham appointed Scott Trust non-executive directors — Guardian News & Media's former digital director and TV producer join the 12-strong board of Scott Trust directors — Emily Bell, Guardian News & Media's former digital director, and Alex Graham …

R. U. Sirius / The Verge:

Information wants to be free, but the world isn't ready — Jaron Lanier, Aaron Swartz, and the complexities of ‘free’ digital stuff — Every few years, one of my friends from the early days of digital enthusiasm turns up on the media's radar as a “defector.” Huzzah!

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

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

Maria Bustillos / The Awl:

“Disagree And Still Be Friends”: A Conversation With Andrew Sullivan — My leftist friends are mainly baffled by how much I like Andrew Sullivan. His blog, the Daily Dish, presents a libertarian-inflected center-right political stance. He supported the Iraq War; he is gay and a practicing Catholic.

Discussion: One Man & His Blog

Betsy Isaacson / The Huffington Post:

Music Pirates Buy 30 Percent More Songs Than Non-Filesharers: Study — Digital pirates have long been the bane of the music business, those in the music business say. No longer interested in buying songs when they can get them for free, pirates are the reason behind the recording industry's falling revenue, the argument goes.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

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 and The Next Web