Mediagazer: Gore says tough U.S. network competition forced sale of Current TV (Susan Heavey/Reuters)

11:30 AM ET, January 29, 2013

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

ABC's Chris Cuomo Is Said to Jump to CNN — Chris Cuomo, a former news anchor on ABC's “Good Morning America,” is on his way back to the morning shift, this time for CNN. — CNN is preparing to announce that it has hired Mr. Cuomo from ABC, according to people at both networks …

Discussion: TMZ.com, New York Post, TVNewser, Broadcasting & Cable, Politico, The Wrap, Poynter, FishbowlDC, @brianstelter, @thomaskaplan, @antderosa, The Daily Beast and Mediaite

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Mark Whitaker out at CNN — CNN executive vice president and managing editor Mark Whitaker has announced that he is stepping down in order to give Jeff Zucker, the new president, room to “communicate one clear vision” for the network's future. — “[W]ith Jeff Zucker's arrival …

Discussion: TVNewser and The Maynard Institute …

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Chris Cuomo Moving To CNN To Host Morning Show

Discussion: TVNewser

Anshel Pfeffer / Haaretz:

Four reasons why U.K. cartoon of Netanyahu isn't anti-Semitic in any way — A cartoon that appeared in this London's Sunday Times this week depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall with blood-red colored cement, trapping in between the bricks Palestinian-looking figures …

Discussion: New York Times and Pressing Issues

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Sunday Times acting editor to meet Jewish leaders over Netanyahu cartoon — Martin Ivens expected to apologise to Board of the Deputies of British Jews over Gerald Scarfe cartoon — The acting editor of the Sunday Times is expected to apologise personally to the Board of the Deputies …

Discussion: BBC and Digital Spy

William Turvill / Press Gazette:
Scarfe: Cartoon ‘not anti-semitic’ but sorry for ‘very unfortunate timing’

Discussion: Gerald Scarfe and pressgazette.co.uk

Ian Burrell / The Independent:
Murdoch apologises for ‘offensive’ Scarfe cartoon in Sunday Times denounced as anti-Semitic

Discussion: @michaelwolffnyc, Deadline.com, Telegraph, The Atlantic Wire, Politico, Associated Press and Yahoo! Movies

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

After Staff Reductions, New Appointments at The Times — 9:06 p.m. | Updated The New York Times announced on Monday a restructured masthead and some significant newsroom appointments, while also saying that the staff reductions the company was seeking had been accomplished primarily through voluntary buyouts.

Discussion: The Wrap, Politico and Talking Biz News

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Jill Abramson to staff: ‘We had to layoff far fewer people than we anticipated’ — New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson tells staffers the paper's most recent round of buyouts limited layoffs: “In the end, we had to layoff far fewer people than we anticipated, having achieved …

Discussion: @rajunarisetti

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

YouTube Set to Introduce Paid Subscriptions This Spring — A New Revenue Model For TV Networks and Video Producers — A new chapter in online video is about to begin. YouTube is prepping to launch paid subscriptions for individual channels on its video platform in its latest attempt …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, The Verge and Gizmodo

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Sir Harold Evans: Murdoch should sell The Times rather than merge it with the Sunday — Sir Harold Evans suggested that Rupert Murdoch should sell The Times rather than merge it with its Sunday stablemate. — In December Times editor James Harding resigned saying: “It has been clear …

Discussion: Guardian

Josh Halliday / Guardian: Sir Harold Evans accuses press of cynicism over Leveson report

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Netflix Raises More Money for Originals Like “House of Cards” — Fresh off a gangbusters earnings report, Netflix is asking investors to bet on it again: The streaming video company is raising money that it may use to invest in its own TV shows. — Netflix says it intends to raise $400 million in debt …

Discussion: The Wrap and Home Media Magazine

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Nick Denton Is Resurrecting Valleywag — Valleywag, a Silicon Valley gossip blog Gawker killed off in 2009, is making a comeback. — Nick Denton, Gawker's CEO and founder, says he'll be bringing the site back to life, and he's currently hunting for an editor or two to run it.

Discussion: @mattbuchanan, @grobertson, @brooke, @stevekovach, PandoDaily and @megan

Connor Simpson / The Atlantic Wire: What Old Valleywags Think About the New Valleywag

Susan Heavey / Reuters:

Gore says tough U.S. network competition forced sale of Current TV — WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Al Gore said on Tuesday that tough competition from major U.S. television networks forced him to sell Current TV, a struggling progressive cable channel, to Al Jazeera, and he praised …

Discussion: TVNewser, Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post, Politico and TODAY.com Blogs

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Starting salary for j-school grads rises to $41K, on average — NACE's annual report on college grads has good news for 2012 communications majors: Their starting salaries were up 4 percent on average over 2011 grads'. Reached by email, NACE Employment Information Manager Andrea Koncz …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Hitler Alive and Well, Owning Liberal Magazine — The Washington Free Beacon has a report, sourced to “Washington Free Beacon Staff,” that Chris Hughes is purging Jews from The New Republic. (Occasionally the Free Beacon publishes stories too embarrassing for any staffers to be associated with by name.)

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:

Rdio opens up free music streaming to the U.K., Canada, Australia, & 11 other countries — Streaming music service Rdio has finally launched its free-streaming option in countries outside of the United States, a sign it is serious about fishing for new users around the world.

Discussion: TMTI Group, CNET, Media Decoder, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Wall Street Journal:

Media Firms Probed on Data Release — Investigators Examined if Economic Figures Were Given Early to Clients; No Criminal Charges Seen — WASHINGTON—Law-enforcement authorities have conducted a wide-ranging investigation into whether media companies facilitated insider trading on Wall Street …

Discussion: @psmith, @spenchey and @daschles

Martin Belam / GigaOM:

How Facebook comments affect trolling for news websites — Whether news sites should or shouldn't use the Facebook comment plug-in or Facebook identity seems to have been a recurring theme in the last few days. — The Nieman Journalism Lab called it a “movement”, which seems quite …

Discussion: Poynter and Journalism.co.uk

David Carr / New York Times:

“South Park” Creators Fortify Their Content Empire — When it comes to success stories in the entertainment world, it doesn't get much better than the one about a pair of regular guys from Colorado, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who took cutout paper dolls, animated them and triumphed on cable television …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The New York Observer, Splitsider and The Corsair

Press Gazette:

Met makes 20th arrest in computer hacking probe — A 52-year-old man has been arrested by detectives investigating computer hacking linked to business espionage, Scotland Yard said today. — The man was held at around 7am at his home in Oxfordshire on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act.

Discussion: ITV News

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

German rights holders sue YouTube in escalating royalty fight — German music rights group GEMA has filed a lawsuit against YouTube, alleging that the video site is misleading users about the details of an ongoing licensing dispute between the two parties. The lawsuit is the latest escalation …