Mediagazer: Pirate Bay documentary to debut next month (Vincent Chang/CNET)

9:00 AM ET, January 25, 2013

Top News:

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

New York Times editor to take 75,000 Twitter followers out the door with him — Jim Roberts, the assistant managing editor of the New York Times who has overseen many of the paper's digital initiatives, confirmed on Thursday that he would accept a buyout and leave the paper.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, @michaelroston and @antderosa

Dylan Byers / Politico:

NYT's Jim Roberts takes buyout — New York Times assistant managing editor Jim Roberts is leaving after 26 years with the paper, making him the ninth staffer on record to leave the Times as it seeks to cut 30 positions from the newsroom. — “After 26 years at the New York Times …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @jeffsonderman, @nytjim, @jackshafer, @dylanbyers, @lisatozzi, @rajunarisetti, @jayrosen_nyu, @rgabrielsoncir, @dangillmor, @nytjim, @buzzfeedben and The Huffington Post

Michael Calderone / Huffington Post:

New York Times Buyouts Push Veteran Journalists To The Exits — NEW YORK — Jim Roberts, Joe Sexton and Jon Landman have several things in common. They each joined The New York Times in 1987, held some of the highest positions at the paper and are among the group of newsroom veterans leaving …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, The New York Observer and FishbowlNY

CNN:

Rachel Nichols Joins CNN and Turner Sports — Nichols Will Anchor New Weekend CNN Sports Program and Report for Turner Sports — Across Television and Digital Platforms — CNN and Turner Sports have hired veteran ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols, it was announced today by Jeff Zucker …

Discussion: From Inside the Box

Dylan Byers / Politico:
CNN to launch weekend sports program

Discussion: TVNewser

Nikki Finke / Deadline.com:

Variety Editorial Firings To Come In March — EXCLUSIVE: Variety Media's Chairman/CEO Jay Penske is planning editorial firings at the top-heavy trade in March. He also is overseeing a redesign of Variety's website for March. Penske laid off between 20 and 25 employees last November 15th …

Discussion: @lucas_shaw and FishbowlLA

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Why Does Google Still Reward Content Scraping? — How a copied-and-pasted excerpt of a story can still outrank an 8,000-word original. And why publishers aren't the ones to blame. — On January 16th, The Verge published a story about the past and current state of the American arcade industry.

Discussion: Techdirt

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

For interested buyers looking at the numbers of Tribune newspapers, one bright spot will stand out: the price. — Soon, the next act of the Tribune newspaper agonies will play out. That's agonies, as in a Biblical passion play. The Tribune papers have endured a special kind of agony …

Discussion: LA Observed

Vincent Chang / CNET:

Pirate Bay documentary to debut next month — A documentary about the founders of the popular file-sharing site will debut on February 8 and be released online for free. — Fredik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, and Peter Sunde, founders of popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, are about to hit the big screen.

Jim Romenesko:

Cox Media Group's new website dubbed a ‘conservative Huffington Post’ — Cox Media Group — publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Austin American-Statesman and many other media properties, is launching a conservative website called Rare. ("Red is the center," is the tagline.)

Discussion: News & Views …

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Sweet: Hola lets you use Hulu, Pandora, Netflix, CBS, Fox, BBC iPlayer TV, and iTV from any country — Hola is a new service that claims it can let you access videos on Hulu, Pandora, Netflix, CBS, Fox, BBC iPlayer TV, and iTV from any country. To try it out, download the extension for Google Chrome or the add-on for Mozilla Firefox.

Discussion: World Internet TV on PC and Lifehacker

Jason Kottke / kottke.org:

The challenges of conversational journalism — The most visible journalism these days — aka the loudest journalism, namely cable news, pop culture blogs, tabloid magazines, TMZ, Buzzfeed, HuffPo, talk radio, etc. — mostly takes the form of opinionated conversation: professional media people …

Discussion: Forbes, L.A. NOW, The Daily Beast and Gawker

Erik Wemple:

Hillary Clinton at the Benghazi hearings: Why we need journalists — CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson used her Twitter feed to raise a raft of unanswered questions about Benghazi. There was some great stuff in there, including: — “What time was Ambassador's Stevens' body recovered …

Gerry Shih / Reuters:

Twitter's new service suggests its future may lie in video — (Reuters) - Twitter Inc, the social network known for its 140-character messages, hinted at the direction of its evolution on Thursday with the launch of a new streaming video service for smartphones.