Mediagazer: What's The Real Story Behind The New York Times Buyouts? (Doree Shafrir/BuzzFeed)

10:50 PM ET, February 4, 2013

Top News:

Doree Shafrir / BuzzFeed:

What's The Real Story Behind The New York Times Buyouts? — No one outside the building really knows — but maybe because no one really cares anymore. — Late Friday afternoon, inside The New York Times building at 40th Street and 8th Avenue, around 100 staffers gathered on the second floor …

Discussion: @edmundlee, @mlcalderone, @pkafka, @hamiltonnolan, @poniewozik, @mathewi, @learmonth, @megan, @alexckaufman, @joshsternberg, @moorehn and @brianstelter

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

A goodbye to teary newsroom scenes? Why Friday's wake at the ‘Times’ was undercovered — The New York Times building. wallyg via flickr — My former colleague Doree Shafrir has a smart post on BuzzFeed about The Way The New York Times is Covered Now. — Case in point …

Discussion: @poniewozik

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Media reporters are missing the story of NYT buyouts, BuzzFeed editor argues — “There's been no real glimpse inside the newsroom, no sense of what the rank and file are feeling, no temperature-taking,” Doree Shafrir writes in a critique of coverage of the New York Times buyouts.

Discussion: New York Times and @omar_quraishi

Dylan Byers / Politico: Boring old media

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Circulation revenue up at Gannett, which credits paywalls — Gannett's fourth quarter earning report contains a sentence that will thrill paywall apostles: … That's attributed to CEO Gracia Martore, who also notes circulation revenue increased for the third quarter in a row.

Discussion: Thomson IR, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Radio & Television …, NetNewsCheck Latest, USA Today, Broadcasting & Cable and Gannett Blog

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

Digital First Media is working on paywalls, even though it really doesn't want to — Plenty of newspapers have been jumping headlong into the paywall business recently, and many of them claim that the introduction of subscription plans has been the best thing that ever happened to them.

John Paxton / Digital First:

The Subscription Project - Or A Paywall By Any Other Name — Paywall. — Even the name is debated so contentious is this subject in the news industry. — The Pros and Cons of some form of online paid access for newspaper websites have been argued in such extremes that nuance and accuracy have been the first victims of the debate.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
Gannett Profit Tops Analysts' Estimates on Election Advertising

Discussion: Gannett Blog

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Super Bowl Gets Highest-Ever Ratings, Plus 24 Million Tweets — A historic sibling rivalry, an iconic player's retirement, a Destiny's Child reunion, a momentum-changing blackout and a dramatic finish: Add up all the storylines from Super Bowl XLVII and you get one of the most-watched championship games ever …

Will Leitch / SportsonEarth:
Power Failure

Discussion: NY Daily News, TVNewser, Deadspin, Adweek and WNYC

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
The Super Bowl Gave the Web the Night Off

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Next Web and CNET

Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman:

Why Aaron died — Last week, I awoke to find Aaron with me. He was sitting next to my bed, grinning his cheeekist grin, holding my hand. — For a few minutes, I savored a sweet uncertainty: Were the last few weeks all a nightmare, and Aaron was still with me?

Discussion: @nickbilton, @stevenlevy, TechCrunch, @dangillmor and @jayrosen_nyu

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Twitter Makes Big Acquisition, Buys Social TV Analytics Company Bluefin Labs — Twitter has acquired Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics company that was founded in 2008, sources say. — Although we don't know the exact acquisition price, we were told this is Twitter's biggest acquisition to date.

Discussion: VentureBeat, GigaOM, Betabeat, Bluefin Labs, Marketing Land, Lost Remote, CNET, ReadWrite, The Verge, the Econsultancy blog and Marketing Pilgrim

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Why Twitter Is Buying Bluefin — And Why Bluefin Is Selling

Discussion: Business Insider and ReadWrite

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Fox News Monitors Geraldo as He Mulls Political Office — Geraldo Rivera's stated interest in running for a Senate seat in New Jersey has been derided as a joke and a publicity stunt. But his employers are taking it seriously. — He'd have to leave his weekend Fox News Channel show …

Discussion: Forbes, CNN, The Huffington Post and TheBlaze.com

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Andrew Sullivan's New Site Has a Super Friendly Paywall — Today is the day uber-blogger Andrew Sullivan declares independence, moving his Daily Dish blog from The Daily Beast to a new home at dish.andrewsullivan.com. — In case you haven't heard, Sullivan's foray into entrepreneurship …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and NetNewsCheck Latest

Jeff Blagdon / The Verge:
Andrew Sullivan's grand experiment in reader-supported online journalism is now live

Discussion: The Dish, New York Magazine and PandoDaily

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

The Google Fund for the French Press — At the last minute, ending three months of tense negotiations, Google and the French Press hammered a deal. More than yet another form of subsidy, this could mark the beginning of a genuine cooperation. — Thursday night, at 11:00pm Paris time …

Discussion: Guardian

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Google's settlement with French publishers is bad for the web

Discussion: Top Digital Journal News

Erik Maza / WWD:

Evan Hansen Exits Wired — HANSEN EXITS WIRED: A little over a month into his tenure as editor in chief, Scott Dadich's Wired is already very different than his predecessor Chris Anderson's as he has been overseeing an overhaul of the magazine's masthead that has resulted in new titles …

Discussion: VentureBeat

Alexander C. Kaufman / The Wrap:

Washington Post Names Kevin Merida Managing Editor (Updated) — The Washington Post has named Kevin Merida its managing editor in charge of news and features, effective immediately. — He joins managing editor John Temple, who oversees digital and newsroom operations.

Discussion: Poynter, Politico, Washington Post, @davidfolkenflik, NetNewsCheck Latest and The Huffington Post

Darryl Fears / @bydarrylfears: Kevin Merida is now the Washington Post's managing editor, breaking a barrier as the first African American to hold the job. @meridak

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

AOL In Talks To Buy Gdgt, The Consumer Electronics Review Site Started By Former Engadget Founders — I'm hearing that gdgt (pronounced 'gadget'), the consumer electronics review site founded by Engadget co-founder Peter Rojas and former Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block, is in late-stage acquisition talks with AOL.

Bloomberg:

News Corp. Sells IGN Websites to J2 Global's Ziff Davis — News Corp. (NWSA) sold its IGN Entertainment websites to J2 Global Inc. (JCOM)'s Ziff Davis for an undisclosed amount. — The transaction will add to J2 Global's 2013 earnings, excluding transition costs, the company said today in a statement.

Discussion: Ziff Davis, The Next Web, VentureBeat, FishbowlNY, Joystiq and The Wrap

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

London gets first dedicated digital terrestrial TV channel as ESTV launches London Live — London is to have its first dedicated digital terrestrial television channel, offering a service to 4 million homes, the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom announced today. — The new London Live channel …