Mediagazer: Police visit Chinese blogger who exposed sex scandal (William Wan/Washington Post)

7:45 AM ET, January 28, 2013

Top News:

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.

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 …

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.

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, @yappelbaum, Pressing Issues, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

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: College Media Matters and Pressing Issues

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

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: Softpedia News, @trevortimm, @mikko and Guardian

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Truth, Money, Right, Wrong — Yesterday I wrote about the ongoing CNET editorial independence issue. I said that the editors and journalists at CNET were part of the problem, and suggested that they either publish their (assumed) dissent, or resign, or both.

Discussion: @brianstelter, @arrington and @tcarmody

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
“We Are Supposed To Be Truth Tellers”

Discussion: Forbes, Talking Biz News, parislemon, @joshuatopolsky, Beyond Search, The Verge, @bendreyfuss, The Uptake, Boing Boing, Techi.com and @jbrodkin

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

Matt Smith / Reuters:

Twitter launches advertising services in Middle East — Twitter Inc launched advertising services in the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday as the social media firm seeks to exploit a tripling of its regional subscriber base following its widespread use during the Arab Spring protests.

Discussion: TechCrunch

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

How Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger negotiated release of imprisoned journalist — In an excerpt from his new autobiography, Guardian Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger recounts “three of the more surreal days in my life” — when he went to Libya to negotiate the release of an imprisoned journalist …

Lewis DVorkin / Forbes:

Inside Forbes: A New Wave of Digital Journalist Is Showing a Profession the Way Forward — A few weeks back I attended an affair I can't stop thinking about. I was proud to be there, but left on the early side feeling somewhat out of place. It was a reunion of old Newsweek hands …

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Lessons from The New York Times' app graveyard: When an app has an expiration date — The election is over. Even the inauguration is over. So it makes sense, perhaps, that The New York Times this week discontinued its Elections 2012 mobile app. — The Times launched the app some 13 months ago …