Mediagazer: Al Jazeera America Will Be ‘Envy of the Industry,’ Chief Says (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)

7:00 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, OUPblog, Times Higher Education, @johnston_press and Boing Boing

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish:

The Dish ends 2013 with $851k in subscription revenue, 34,000 subscribers — The Dish Subscription Surge — One last note before the New Year begins. When I was asked a little less than a year ago what our ambition was for revenue in 2013, I grabbed a number out of the air.

Discussion: @mathewi and @jayrosen_nyu

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Al Jazeera America Will Be ‘Envy of the Industry,’ Chief Says — Deep pockets make fledgling cabler a journalistic unicorn amid cost-cutting elsewhere — Al Jazeera America president Kate O'Brian has told staffers that the fledgling cabler is on its way to being “the envy of the industry” as it heads into 2014 with ambitious plans.

Discussion: TVNewser

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: @nadabakos, @tilojung, @jayrosen_nyu, @evanasmith, @jaketapper, @doctrine_man, @mikeorren, @jackshafer, @abumuqawama, @noltenc, @rachelsb and @davidfolkenflik

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: @erikvance, @david_dobbs, @betheleri and Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media

Sam Marsden / Telegraph:

Increase in BBC middle-managers as director-general vows to cut executives — There was a 14 per cent rise in the number of the Corporation's staff at the level just below senior management over a three-year period — The number of the BBC's middle-managers has increased despite …

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

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

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

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 …

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

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