Mediagazer: Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the ‘pathetic’ American media (Lisa O'Carroll/Guardian)

3:10 PM ET, September 27, 2013

Top News:

Tribune prepares for cost-cutting, says no targets for expense reduction have been issued — Tribune newspapers, including L.A. Times, prepare for cost-cutting — Tribune newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, may be due for another round of cost-cuting. Above, at the Tribune Tower in Chicago.

Discussion: Robert Feder, Politico, Radio & Television …, Talking New Media, Chicago Sun Times, Strange Attractor and @megjameslat

Robert Feder:

Tribune boss orders $100 million in cuts — It's not clear how they're supposed to do it, but Tribune Co. executives have been ordered to come up with $100 million in budget cuts, sources said, as the company prepares to spin off the publishing side of the business.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Wrap, @carr2n, Los Angeles Times, Chicagoist, bizjournals, @logandobson and Change of Subject

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the ‘pathetic’ American media — Pulitzer Prize winner explains how to fix journalism, saying press should 'fire 90% of editors and promote ones you can't control' — Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism - close down the news bureaus …

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Attention v. relationship economy — Oddly, Google chief economist Hal Varian analyzes newspapers' problems and prescribes solutions strictly from an old-media perspective — based on attention to marketing messages — rather than an internet (namely, Google) perspective of relevance and relationships.

Discussion: Inside, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @jayrosen_nyu, @digiphile and @mathewi

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

Google's chief economist understands media better than some industry executives do — Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, talked about the challenges facing the newspaper business in a recent presentation in Italy, and showed that he understands those challenges better than most media executives.

Discussion: International Journalism … and Kirk LaPointe's …

Jim Romenesko:

GateHouse Media: Our bankruptcy filing ‘is not a reflection of any operational problem’ — GateHouse Media has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy. CEO Michael Reed says in a memo that “with the challenges facing our industry and the impending maturity of our secured debt next year …

Discussion: Poynter

Bloomberg:
GateHouse Files for Bankruptcy as Part of Fortress Plan

Discussion: PR Newswire, Wall Street Journal and The Beacon-Villager News RSS

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Reuters cuts raise questions about company's consumer strategy — Today, the Newspaper Guild, a union that represents approximately 400 employees of the global information provider Thomson Reuters, announced that management is seeking “to eliminate five Guild positions from the recently …

Discussion: BuzzFeed

The Newspaper Guild of New York: Next, Reuters targets five jobs in demise of website project

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Top NBCU Digital Exec Lauren Zalaznick to Depart Company — Well-known NBCUniversal exec Lauren Zalaznick, who has recently been working on the media giant's growth into new digital arenas, is leaving the company, according to an internal memo. — A longtime veteran of NBCU …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, Deadline.com, AdAge, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, @jbflint and @awallenstein

GNM press office:

Alex Koppelman joins the Guardian as US News Editor — The Guardian announced today that it has hired Alex Koppelman as US news editor. The announcement was made by the Guardian's US editor in chief Janine Gibson. — Koppelman will be a senior member of the editing team and will help set …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and @nxthompson

William Launder / Wall Street Journal:

New York Times Forecasts Further Drop in Ad Revenue — Overall Revenue to Rise, Though, Thanks to Stronger Circulation — New York Times Co. expects to report around a 3% decline in print and digital advertising revenue for the third quarter, Chief Executive Mark Thompson said Thursday …

Discussion: Reuters and MoneyBeat

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Conflicts of Interest: CNN adjusts ethics policy around Crossfire — Yesterday we reported that Crossfire host Newt Gingrich may have broken ethical rules for conflicts of interest set forth by CNN's EVP of standards and practices Rick Davis. — Today, those rules appear to have changed.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, @kairyssdal, @dylanbyers, @lizzieohreally, TheBlaze.com, Mother Jones, @politicokevin, Mediaite and Vanity Fair

Angela Washeck / 10,000 Words:

Plagiarism and Attribution Tests for Journalists: A Must or Not? — If there's anything journalists know, it's how not to plagiarize in our writing. Right? Right?! Wrong, apparently. — Wednesday Jim Romenesko broke the news on his blog that Digital First Media (DFM) …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Sara Morrison / The Wrap:

BuzzFeed Dominates on Facebook, BBC Tops Twitter, Study Says — BuzzFeed, “the media company for the social age,” has mastered at least one social network. — A NewsWhip study released on Thursday showed that the social sharing-focused site had far and away the most engagement on Facebook …

Discussion: Poynter, Journalism.co.uk, The Whip and @tomgara