Mediagazer: Dodgers, Time Warner Cable announce new channel: SportsNet LA (Bill Shaikin/Los Angeles Times)

11:55 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, Capital New York and Adweek

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?

Discussion: AllThingsD

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

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:
TNR's new owner crosses a line with Obama interview

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Forbes and Latest Reports

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: Gawker, paidContent, PublishersWeekly.com, TechCrunch, Fast Company, CNET, InvestorPlace, The Consumerist, The Loop and Bookseller news

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

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 and InvestorPlace

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Hardcore porn briefly climbs to the top of Vine's 'Editor's Picks,' Twitter blames it on ‘human error’ — The launch of Twitter's video-sharing service Vine has brought with it another look at pornography on Apple's tightly-controlled iOS platform, and that scrutiny may be about to increase …

Discussion: CNET, Forbes, VentureBeat, Gawker and Business Insider

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Gina Chon, WSJ reporter who resigned after McGurk affair, lands at Quartz — Gina Chon, the Wall Street Journal reporter who resigned after details emerged of her intimate relationship with former-NSC staffer Brett McGurk, has landed a job as corporate reporter at Quartz, the Atlantic's global business news site.

Discussion: Talking Biz News and FishbowlNY

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

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: Reuters and Shanghaiist

Bill Shaikin / Los Angeles Times:

Dodgers, Time Warner Cable announce new channel: SportsNet LA — The name for the Dodgers' new television channel: SportsNet LA. The Dodgers and Time Warner Cable officially announced their television contract on Monday, with the team-owned channel starting in 2014.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, LA Biz Observed, Media Decoder, Associated Press, Reuters, ESPN and Bleacher Report

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Barack Obama: Media Critic — President Obama has granted a pair of interviews to media outlets to kick off his second term. The first, as we noted, was to CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The second was to liberal magazine The New Republic …

Discussion: FishbowlDC and Mother Jones

Julie Moos / Poynter:
Obama: ‘One of the biggest factors is going to be how the media shapes debates’

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

Guido Fawkes:

Exclusive: Mark Thompson's Letter to CMS Select Committee — Ex-BBC chief, turned boss of the New York Times, Mark Thompson, has written to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee once again claiming that during his last nine months at the Beeb he “never heard any allegations” about Jimmy Savile.