Mediagazer: For newspaper stocks, 2013 was a surprisingly good year (Rick Edmonds/Poynter)

3:35 PM ET, January 1, 2014

Top News:

Defamation Act comes into force today with ‘serious harm’ now needed for claims to succeed — The long-awaited Defamation Act 2013 comes into force today bring sweeping changing to the law of libel. — The act introduces a “new serious harm threshold” designed to help people understand …

Discussion: Guardian, BBC, Financial Times, @johnston_press, OUPblog, Times Higher Education and Boing Boing

Reuters:

Egypt's top prosecutor detains Al Jazeera journalists for 15 days — Egypt's general prosecutor on Tuesday detained several journalists for 15 days for broadcasting graphics on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel that damaged the country's reputation. — Al Jazeera's Cairo offices …

Discussion: Business Standard, Globe and Mail, ABC and National Updates

Samer Al-Atrush / Agence France Presse:
Egypt holds Jazeera crew on ‘terror’ accusations

Discussion: New York Times, @sameralatrush, @sameralatrush, @sameralatrush, BBC and Sydney Morning Herald

Hugh Miles / BBC:
Why is Egypt's government targeting Al-Jazeera?

Discussion: @ambassadorpower and @mlcalderone

Erik Wemple:

Are the U.S. media as transparent as the U.S. government? — Bob Schieffer of CBS News gave one of the great media quotes of 2013. He was asked by Leonard Downie Jr., the former executive editor of The Post, about how the Obama administration ranked in terms of openness toward the media.

Discussion: @tilojung, @jayrosen_nyu, @evanasmith, @jaketapper, @jackshafer, @abumuqawama, @noltenc, @rachelsb and @davidfolkenflik

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

For newspaper stocks, 2013 was a surprisingly good year — Despite yet another year of falling revenues, publicly traded newspaper companies saw their share prices rise sharply during 2013. — Yes, the overall market was strong — with the S&P index up 29.5 percent and the Dow Jones up 26.5 percent.

Discussion: @mariannmartin

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish:

Time Inc.'s move to make newsrooms report to business execs is the surrender of journalism — Journalism's Surrender … I should end the year on an upbeat note, shouldn't I? But Time Inc. ruined it. The surrender of journalism to advertizing and public relations - not alliance with …

Discussion: @betheleri and Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Could the N.Y. Times have saved ‘60 Minutes’? — The New York Times was partly responsible for taking down “60 Minutes” in November after its botched Benghazi segment, but it also could have saved the program had the Times run its exhaustive new report on the attacks in Benghazi when it was first ready this summer.

Discussion: Politico, BBC, National Review, The Colorado Independent, USA Today, Fox News, San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post, The Week and Talking Points Memo

Sarah Hartley / Contributoria:

Contributoria, a journalism platform and funding project for individual stories launches — Introducing Contributoria — The effect of new technologies on the media industry is often characterised by the word ‘disruption’, but there are also moments when technology becomes an enabler …

Discussion: @djbentley, @digidave, @digidave and @jayrosen_nyu

Gary Levin / USA Today:

Cable is holding its own, and then some — Viewers spent more time watching cable than broadcast in 2013, but the gains are uneven. — TV fans aren't ready to cut their cord to cable. — Viewers spent a record 17.2 hours per week watching ad-supported cable networks in 2013 …

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

AOL Sells Winamp And Shoutcast Music Services To Online Radio Aggregator Radionomy — Some more detail on the fate of Winamp and Shoutcast, the legacy digital music services that owner AOL (which also owns TechCrunch) originally planned to shut down but then halted pending a sale.

Discussion: Gigaom, BetaNews, The Next Web, gHacks Technology News and Techie News

Capital:

Mossberg and Swisher relaunch as Re/Code — It's styled as and in a message to the anxiously awaiting crowds who wanted to see what Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher did with AllThingsD when they migrated the franchise from The Wall Street Journal to NBC, they tell us: “While we think tech news is important …

Discussion: Poynter, @recode, Bloomberg, Gigaom, @karaswisher, @waltmossberg, @joshelman, @mikeisaac, @hunterwalk, @kenli729, @karaswisher, @karaswisher, @hunterwalk, @waltmossberg and @allthingsd

AllThingsD:
Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher reflect on AllThingsD, tease new company launching January 2

Discussion: Recode, @startupljackson, @jsnell, @karaswisher, @ryan, @chernowa, @allthingsd, @jeffjohnroberts, @rosenthal, @waltmossberg, @engadget, @delrey, @scottcowley, @caseynewton and @benparr

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Key metrics show Time.com lags behind competitors, despite significant traffic growth in 2013 — Will Time.com be Able to Catch up to Rivals? Ahead of redesign, a look at how the site stacks up By Lucia Moses — With its long-delayed redesign expected to go live in the next six weeks …

Discussion: @huffpostpartner

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Will DirecTV keep its Sunday Ticket football package or punt? — The satellite broadcaster's two-decade-long arrangement with the NFL has fueled its growth, but it's facing a hefty rate increase. — DirecTV pays $1 billion a season for the rights to all Sunday afternoon NFL games under …

Discussion: @jbflint

John Borland / Wired:

GlobaLeaks project powers key web sites underpinning the growing whistleblowing movement — Whistleblowing Rippling into New Corners — HAMBURG - Edward Snowden is on the run. Chelsea Manning is in prison. Julian Assange is in limbo, otherwise known as the Ecuadorian embassy in London

Discussion: @abditum and @wbpress