Mediagazer: Newspapers Vie for Reality Show (Christine Haughney/Media Decoder)

10:05 AM ET, January 28, 2013

Top News:

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

The New Republic Reimagines Its Future — WASHINGTON — There are not many firsts for a politically savvy, 98-year-old publication like The New Republic. But Franklin Foer, its 38-year-old editor, experienced one recently when he passed a Hudson News store at Union Station here and saw …

Discussion: Poynter and Media Nation

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Reading the new New Republic — Last week, I attended a panel in New York City on “the unexpected future of media” hosted by The New Republic. Chris Hughes, the 29-year-old owner, publisher, and editor-in-chief of the magazine, said a few introductory words.

Discussion: @morning_joe and Daily Download

Chris Hughes / The New Republic:

Welcome to Our Redesign - A letter from The New Republic's publisher and editor-in-chief — This is the age of endless facts. Every question is now seemingly answerable; just swipe your finger over the device in your pocket. Want to know every important opinion about the question of the moment?

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Time Inc. Braces for Layoffs This Week — Here comes the news that Time Inc. employees have been dreading for months: Sources say the world's largest magazine publisher is expected to begin a significant round of layoffs this week. — I don't have more details about the coming cuts.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

Newspapers Vie for Reality Show — Who knew that ink-stained newsmen and newswomen would be so eager to break into show business? — In the 10 days after NBC put out a casting call for small-town newspapers to participate in a reality television show, the network received more than 150 responses from newspapers across the nation.

Discussion: Poynter, College Media Matters and Pressing Issues

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

B&N Aims To Whittle Its Stores For Years — Barnes & Noble Inc. expects to close as many as a third of its retail stores over the next decade, the bookseller's top store executive said, offering the most detailed picture yet of the company's plans for the outlets.

Discussion: TechCrunch, paidContent, Fast Company and Bookseller news

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Obama: ‘One of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes debates’ — In an interview with The New Republic's Franklin Foer and Chris Hughes, President Obama “asked us in granular detail about the health of the media business.” Specifically, he “wanted to know if The New Yorker …

Discussion: New Republic, Politico, The Huffington Post, @yappelbaum, Pressing Issues and Mediaite

Peter Finn / Washington Post:

FBI is increasing pressure on suspects in Stuxnet inquiry — Federal investigators looking into disclosures of classified information about a cyberoperation that targeted Iran's nuclear program have increased pressure on current and former senior government officials suspected of involvement …

Discussion: New York Times, ZDNet, Softpedia News, @trevortimm, @mikko and Guardian

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Rupert Murdoch endorses Piers Morgan … Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, pro-Piers Morgan. — News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has issued an endorsement of Piers Morgan, the CNN host who has spent the last six weeks advocating for increased gun control, a cause Murdoch supports.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @piersmorgan, Mediaite and @rupertmurdoch

William Wan / Washington Post:

Police visit Chinese blogger who exposed sex scandal — BEIJING — Two months after exposing a scandal involving sex tapes, blackmail and lucrative government contracts, which resulted in 11 officials losing their jobs, blogger Zhu Ruifeng received a surprise visit from Chinese security officials Sunday night.

Discussion: Associated Press, Reuters and Shanghaiist

Yeganeh Torbati / Reuters:

Iran cracks down on media before election — (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have arrested more than a dozen journalists in the past two days over their links to “anti-revolutionary” media, Iranian media reported, in what appeared to be a coordinated crackdown on the press.

Discussion: Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNN and Alarabiya.net English

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

HuffPo's new ‘Conversations’ will improve comments — and make money for AOL — I'm not a regular reader of the Huffington Post but when I go there, I'm astounded how many people leave comments on a given story. Last week, for instance, more than 20,000 readers offered their two cents …