Mediagazer: New York Times to Unveil Redesigned Website Next Week (Leslie Kaufman/New York Times)

6:50 PM ET, January 2, 2014

Top News:

NYT editorial board calls for clemency or a plea bargain for Snowden — Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower — Seven months ago, the world began to learn the vast scope of the National Security Agency's reach into the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the globe …

Discussion: Mediaite, CNET, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Online, Guardian, Taking Note, Talking Points Memo, @aclu, Politico, RT, USA Today, The Daily Caller, Q13 FOX News, The Switch, Latest News & Headlines, @jasonukman, The Corsair, @ryan, VentureBeat, @davidsirota, Techdirt, Gawker, @miafarrow, The FJP, Washington Post, @astepanovich, @billmon1, @jbarro, @charlie_simpson, @gregmitch, @gregmitch, Daily Dot, @ggreenwald, thenation.com/blogs/180, @azmatzahra, The Huffington Post, @emilybell, Post Politics, TheHill, The Raw Story, Kirk LaPointe's …, @sarahkendzior, @mattyglesias, @arusbridger, Mashable, @cassandrarules, New York Magazine, @lpolgreen, @wikileaks, @mlcalderone, @martindelius, @zeitonline, Business Insider, @oliverburkeman, @barryeisler, @brewster_kahle, @glennf, @profkeithdevlin, @guardianjessica, @jasonleopold, @moniguzman, @jesselynradack, @harper, @stevebuttry, @astepanovich and @fmanjoo

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Weeks in the Making, an Editorial on Snowden May Go ‘Beyond What Is Realistic’ — Most newspaper editorials don't generate a great deal of heat. Even fewer can be considered newsworthy. — The exception was one in The Times on Thursday, calling for Edward J. Snowden to be offered clemency or a plea bargain.

Discussion: Mediaite, @jayrosen_nyu, Talking Points Memo, VentureBeat, @sulliview, @froomkin, Latest News & Headlines, @ggreenwald, The Daily Caller, TheHill and Pressing Issues

Guardian:

Snowden affair: the case for a pardon — Snowden gave classified information to journalists, even though he knew the likely consequences. That was an act of courage — In an interview with the Washington Post just before Christmas, Edward Snowden declared his mission accomplished.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Hit & Run, @alexqgb, Latest News & Headlines, @maryagneskrell, @timkarr, @doughill25, The Week and Fox News

Re/code:

Happy Re/new Year! — We are thrilled to announce that we are forming our own new and independent media company, Revere Digital, with a pair of respected investors and partners — the NBCUniversal News Group and Terry Semel's Windsor Media. Revere will be operating news sites and apps, as well as a series of conferences.

John Paczkowski / Re/code: Mossberg and Swisher of Re/code discuss competition and “old” vs. “new” journalism

Dan Primack / Fortune:
NBC and Terry Semel back new Swisher/Mossberg site

Discussion: CNNMoney.com, Capital New York, TVNewser, @vivianschiller, @sdkstl, The Verge, Variety and Talking Biz News

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

How Netflix uses the 76,897 micro-genres it assigns to videos — How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood — If you use Netflix, you've probably wondered about the specific genres that it suggests to you. Some of them just seem so specific that it's absurd. Emotional Fight-the-System Documentaries?

Discussion: /Film, Deadline.com, WebProNews, The Verge, @alexismadrigal, @alexismadrigal, @alexismadrigal, Gizmodo and @harrisj

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

New York Times to Unveil Redesigned Website Next Week — The New York Times said Thursday that it would launch its redesigned website on Jan. 8. — The new platform, which will allow for better integration of video and photography with text, among other features, had been previously announced.

Discussion: Poynter, NetNewsCheck Latest, investors.nytco.com, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, @joshsternberg, @raju, Mashable, @sunny_hundal and @juddlegum

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Hearst's Swartz Eyes B2B Media, Entertainment, for Growth — Hearst Corp. had record revenue and profits in 2013, when it marked the fourth year in a row of growth on both fronts since the 2008 recession, Steven Swartz said in a New Year's letter to employees recapping the year he took over as chief executive.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and @lmoses

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

FBI Denies Requests For ‘60 Minutes’ Benghazi Source's Interview Records — NEW YORK — The FBI has denied Freedom of Information Act requests for records related to federal officials' interviews with Dylan Davies, a security officer who claimed to have witnessed the Benghazi, Libya, attack in a now-discredited “60 Minutes” report.

Discussion: Erik Wemple

Michael Meyer / Columbia Journalism Review:

Evgeny vs. the internet — Evgeny Morozov wants to convince us that digital technology can't save the world, and he's willing to burn every bridge from Cambridge to Silicon Valley to do it — Depending on whom you ask, Evgeny Morozov is either the most astute, feared, loathed …

Discussion: @antderosa, @emilybell, @jbenton, @gilbert_makore, @quods and @gabriel_anaya

Anupreeta Das / Wall Street Journal:

At Newspapers, Berkshire Rewrites Its Investing Script … Shortly after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper in 2012, things began to change. — Eight-year-old newsroom computers were replaced. A malfunctioning sound system …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, @preetatweets, @robcurley, @jayrosen_nyu and @raju

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Bloomberg's Susan Goldberg Leaving For National Geographic — Bloomberg News executive editor Susan Goldberg told staff Thursday in an email that she is leaving the company to become executive editor at National Geographic. — Goldberg had previously overseen coverage of federal, state and local government out of Washington.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Capital New York

Shahan Mufti / Columbia Journalism Review:

Malala Yousafzai's long and delicate dance with the press — In 2009, The New York Times posted a two-part documentary on its website about Pakistan's battle against Taliban militants. At the center of the documentary was an 11-year-old girl from the Swat region in northern Pakistan named Malala Yousafzai, and her father, Ziauddin.

Agence France-Presse:

Saudi sentenced to jail, lashes over Twitter libel — A Saudi court has sentenced a man convicted of defaming a Kuwaiti singer by accusing her on Twitter of adultery to three months in jail and 80 lashes, a news website reported Thursday. — The Saudi national, apparently a fan of a rival pop star …

Discussion: Arab News and Middle East and North Africa

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

No books for you: U.S. starves public domain for another year — A new year means a new batch of copyrights expire, and works like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Bell Jar become as free to use as Charles Dickens or Shakespeare. Unless you happen to live in the United States, that is.

Discussion: The Verge