Mediagazer: Former ‘Observer’ editor Aaron Gell to leave the paper, after a demotion (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

1:45 PM ET, January 24, 2013

Top News:

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

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. (Update: It's official.) Sexton did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

Discussion: ProPublica, JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Times, @mlcalderone, @a_l and The Huffington Post

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

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.

Discussion: The New York Observer and Poynter

Jim Roberts / @nytjim:

After 26 years at the New York Times, it's time for @nytjim to move on and find a new handle. 1/4

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:
New York Times Classical Music Critic James Oestreich Takes Buyout

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, The New York Observer, Politico and Slipped Disc

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Former ‘Observer’ editor Aaron Gell to leave the paper, after a demotion — Earlier this month, after Jared Kushner appointed a new editor, Ken Kurson, to run his New York Observer, interim editor Aaron Gell told us he wasn't sure whether he'd stick around in the diminished title of executive editor.

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, FishbowlNY and New York Magazine

Guardian:

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: Deadline.com, Media Decoder, Guardian, Mirror Online, Sky News, Australian Times, The Independent, Telegraph and Huffington Post UK

Marlow Stern / The Daily Beast: Alex Gibney On His WikiLeaks Documentary: Julian Assange Got Corrupted

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Twitter's 6-Second Video Sharing App, Vine, Goes Live In The App Store — Twitter has officially launched its Vine video sharing app in the App Store, as announced on the company blog. — With Instagram taking the world by storm, and subsequently selling to Facebook for $1 billion …

Discussion: Twitter Blog, Adweek, Guardian, The Wrap, GigaOM, Fast Company, TechCrunch, BetaNews, afr.com, Softpedia News, BBC, The Wall Blog, the Econsultancy blog, Pocket-lint, SlashGear, AllThingsD, The Next Web, mUmBRELLA, CNET, Mashable!, Gizmodo, Engadget, The Verge and GigaOM

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Robot news curator NewsCred launches human editorial team — NewsCred, a tech-intensive news aggregator, is an up-and-coming player in the media industry thanks to licensing agreements with elite publishers like the Economist and Bloomberg. The company relies on these partnership deals …

Jim Romenesko:

Jonathan Eig's ChicagoSide sports site partners with Sun-Times — ChicagoSide, a sports site launched last spring by former Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Eig, has signed a partnership deal with the Chicago Sun-Times. — Eig tells me that the Sun-Times on Mondays will run two pages of ChicagoSide content.

Discussion: ChicagoSide

Rip Empson / TechCrunch:

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.

Jim Romenesko:

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

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

With Today's Update, Tumblr Starts To Look More Like A Fully Featured Twitter Than Blogging Platform — In an effort to make its Dashboard a “smaller and more streamlined experience,” the social blogging platform Tumblr is today overhauling the way users create posts on its website.

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

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 …

Kelly Fiveash / The Register:

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 …

Discussion: Telegraph, BBC, Sky News and Guardian

Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:

Here's how much in content sales turn Kindle Fire into a money maker — How much in content sales does it take for Amazon to earn a 20 percent profit margin on its Kindle Fire hardware? About $10 per month, which generates $3 once Amazon takes its 30 percent cut.

Discussion: CNET and PublishersWeekly.com

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 …

Discussion: Folio and FishbowlNY

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

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 …

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wrap, Politico and TMZ.com

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, New York Times, GigaOM, Quartz, The Verge, The Next Web, Broadcasting & Cable, AdAge, Home Media Magazine, paidContent, Fortune, VentureBeat and Fast Company

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Netflix Talks a Little Trash About the Competition

Discussion: The Verge, NetNewsCheck Latest, Media Decoder, Home Media Magazine and Engadget

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, VG247 and Gizmodo UK