Mediagazer: Sinclair Closes On Barrington Acquisition (TVNewsCheck.com)

4:50 PM ET, November 25, 2013

Top News:

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:

Paul Carr's news site NSFW Corp joins with Silicon Valley-backed PandoDaily — After NSFW's financial failure, the tech journalist joins the tech site PandoDaily - ‘the site of record for Silicon Valley’ — Tech journalist and entrepreneur Paul Carr's last venture was surprisingly old-school.

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

PandoDaily acquires NSFWCORP to double down on investigative reporting — There are three people who have long been on my dream team to help me build PandoDaily. One of them I've still gotta work on. The second is Mike Tatum, who keeps saying no and then keeps doing work for us for free anyway.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Folio, Poynter, @markgurman, @om, @jayrosen_nyu, @felixsalmon, @hcheadle, @firetomfriedman, @mathewi, @sarahcuda, @mcarney, @eringriffith and @paulcarr

Paul Carr / NSFWCORP:

NSFWCORP Sells Out — A few minutes ago, the Guardian broke some news that, by legal necessity, I've been sitting on for the past few weeks. NSFWCORP has agreed to be acquired by Pando Media. — Pando founder Sarah Lacy has written a post over on PandoDaily, explaining the deal …

Discussion: @paulcarr and @ggreenwald

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

At ‘Business Insider,’ it's time to sell — The digital traffic world is not a sound long-term play. — CONNECT — Henry Blodget is a savvy operator who took brilliant advantage of the dot-com bubble and who then, after having taken too much advantage and getting banned …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Talking Biz News, @mccarthyryanj, @mathewi, @hblodget, @bobbymacreports, @felixsalmon and @raju

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:
Henry Blodget responds to Michael Wolff's claim that Business Insider is for sale

Discussion: @jyarow, Talking Biz News and @pkafka

Felix Salmon:
Michael Wolff can't do arithmetic

Discussion: @thestalwart and @jyarow

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Mayer Confirms Hire of News Star Couric as “Global Anchor,” Calling Her the “Face of Yahoo News” — As AllThingsD had reported it would today, Yahoo said it has hired well-known TV news star Katie Couric for a high-profile job to do interviews and more on its homepage, with the decidedly lofty title of “global anchor.”

Discussion: Betabeat, Media & Entertainment, Gigaom, New York Times, Poynter, The Wrap, Pocket-lint, CNET, Reuters, Hollywood Life, The Verge, @marissamayer, @phkeane, @sfiegerman, The Next Web, @breakingnews, VideoInk, Online NewsHour, AdAge, Mashable, WebProNews and Inside TV

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Katie Couric on Yahoo deal: ‘We are going to try things’ — David Shankbone — Last night, on the eve of a big official career announcement, Katie Couric was on the phone describing what she's going to be doing next. — “I don't think it is going to be a half-hour evening news broadcast …

Discussion: Yahoo, Mediaite, TVNewser, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, VatorNews, @howardkurtz, CNNMoney.com, @brianstelter and @alexweprin

New York Times:

Signs of Change in News Mission at Bloomberg — Champagne flowed last Monday night as Hong Kong's business elite gathered with top Bloomberg L.P. executives at a dinner for 100 guests at a cultural center in a former British colonial military complex. — Multimedia

New York Times:

Drones Offer Journalists a Wider View — The best way to film the destruction wrought by Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, the Philippines, said Lewis Whyld, a British photographer, was from the air. — But Mr. Whyld did not want to beg for a ride on a military helicopter, taking the space of much-needed aid.

Discussion: @dgelles, @lukew, @nxthompson, Quartz, Press Gazette, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, New York Magazine and @suerobinsonuw, Thanks:@steverubel

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It — The TV business is having its worst year ever. — Audience ratings have collapsed: Aside from a brief respite during the Olympics, there has been only negative ratings growth on broadcast and cable TV since September 2011, according to Citi Research.

Discussion: @willsmith, @hugeinc and @hblodget

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The New York Times moves away from its dual-reporting structure for video — The Times' own Christine Haughney has the news: … Headlam will be familiar to anyone who saw Page One, and his departure adds to the recent turnover on the Times' media desk, with Brian Stelter having just left for CNN and Ravi Somaiya joining the team.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
‘Times’ media desk shuffle: editor Bruce Headlam moving over to video side, replaced by Peter Lattman

Discussion: New York Times, FishbowlNY, @joepompeo and @brianstelter

Jeff Elder / Wall Street Journal:

Inside a Twitter Robot Factory — Fake Activity, Often Bought for Publicity Purposes, Influences Trending Topics — One day earlier this month, Jim Vidmar bought 1,000 fake Twitter accounts for $58 from an online vendor in Pakistan. — He then programmed the accounts to “follow” …

Discussion: USA Today, @hunterschwarz, Reuters, Business Insider, @eholmeswsj, @allisonwsj, @elanazak, @pkedrosky, @infoarbitrage, @fjorgensen, @wsj, Digits, @ethanz, @nickconfessore and Social News Daily

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Time Inc.'s Closed-Wallet Strategy — Time Inc. made its initial public filing on Friday afternoon, as it prepares to jettison from Time Warner. Nothing surprising in there: As we already knew, the publishing giant has been watching its revenue flatline — or worse - for years …

Discussion: @niemanlab

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

News Outlets Held Off On Reporting Secret Iran Talks — Multiple news outlets held off on reporting the news of secret talks between the United States and Iran, it was revealed on Sunday. — After news broke of a nuclear deal between Iran and the West on Saturday night …

Discussion: New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, The Week, @nirajc and Politico

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

USA Today won't publish handout photos from White House — In a memo to staff Sunday, USA Today Deputy Director of Multimedia Andrew P. Scott said the news organization will not use “handout photos originating from the White House Press Office, except in very extraordinary circumstances.”